Waddell is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Maricopa County Maricopa County () is a county in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census the population was 4,420,568, or about 62% of the state's total, making it the fourth-most populous county in the United States and ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, United States, northwest of the city of Phoenix. Waddell is named after Donald Ware Waddell, a native of

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, who was a partner in the

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

investment firm of Brandon, Gordon and Waddell. It was this firm that organized the private financing for construction of the dam for the water reclamation project that creates Lake Pleasant. The intended Waddell town site was laid out by Donald W. Waddell in 1935, on property he owned on the northeast corner of Waddell Road and Cotton Lane (Section 12, T3N, R2W, G&SRB&M). Waddell moved to the area to oversee the firm's interests in the project. He served on the board of the Maricopa Water District and invested in land through his interests in the Arizona Citrus Land Company and the Waddell Ranch Company. In 1937, the Waddell Post Office was established inside the store on the original town site. Later, the post office moved across the street and shared space with the cotton gin office. The current Waddell Post Office was built in 1992 and is located on Glendale Avenue and Cotton Lane, four miles south of the original site. The town never did develop, but remained a post office and place name for the area. The dam on the

Agua Fria River The Agua Fria River (Spanish for "cold water") is a long intermittent stream which flows generally south from east-northeast of Prescott in the U.S. state of Arizona. Prescott draws much of its municipal water supply from the upper Agua Fria ...

that creates Lake Pleasant (once called Frog Tanks Dam then, Pleasant Dam) was renamed for Donald W. Waddell in 1963, shortly after his death, in recognition of his contributions to the Maricopa Water District. Barry M. Goldwater spoke at the dedication ceremony. Glendale practiced strip annexation on roads around Waddell in the 1970s. With the expansion of the cities of Surprise and Glendale, use of the name Waddell to describe the location is rapidly falling into disuse. Influence of the name can still be seen in the name of Waddell Road, an arterial street running through Surprise, as well as the New Waddell Dam at Lake Pleasant. In November 2010 the White Tank Regional Library opened. The community contains the Wat Promkunaram

Buddhist Temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhism, Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat, khurul and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in B ...

. This facility was the site of a mass shooting in 1991 which left nine people dead, among them monks and temple helpers. It remains the deadliest homicide incident in Arizona history since statehood. Sixteen-year-old Alessandro Garcia and 17-year-old Jonathan Doody were charged with the crime, convicted, and sentenced. Doody was tried three times and sentenced to 281 years of prison in 2014.

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{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Maricopa County, Arizona Unincorporated communities in Arizona Populated places established in 1935 1925 establishments in Arizona

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