In 1885, three men led by Malie Monroe Jackson, an Ohioan transplanted to Arizona, built a canal in the desert west of Phoenix. The canal was named the Buckeye Canal after Jackson's home state of Ohio, "The Buckeye State."

In 1887, shortly after the canal was in operation, Thomas Newton Clanton, a homesteader from Creston, Iowa, applied to the United Postal Service for a post office. The Postal Service granted the request and named the new post office Buckeye, after the canal which was next to Clanton's homestead.

Clanton also had big plans for the area. Once he had the post office established, he teamed with Phoenix surgeon, Oscar L. Mahoney, to subdivide 120 acres of Mahoney's land. In September, Clanton named the new town Sidney, which was Jackson's hometown in Ohio. Since the local post office was named Buckeye, most people called the new town by that name. In 1910, the town was formally renamed Buckeye.

Throughout the years, inhabitants have endured floods and droughts. These people were able to transform the land from a barren desert into a fertile valley for farming. Cotton, feed grains, vegetables, and many other crops flourished in Buckeye's warm climate and irrigation water supplied by canals and pumps.

Today, Buckeye continues to hold on to its farming roots and small town charm. This once sleepy agricultural town is at the dawn of a new era. By May 2005 the population was estimated to be 35,000. It is now Arizona's biggest "small town".