Moore Days (redirected from Billy Moore Days)

Moore (Billy) Days

Third weekend in October

Billy Moore Days celebrate the pioneer who established a stage stop, general store, and saloon in what became Avondale, Ariz. Avondale and the other Tri-City towns of Goodyear and Litchfield Park commemorate Billy Moore with a carnival, arts and crafts fair, golf tournament, burro races, car show, a street dance, and a 100-unit parade in which assorted politicians and the Arizona Maid of Cotton take part. The celebration has been held since 1954.
Billy Moore's story is surrounded by legend. He is supposed to have belonged to the gang of guerrillas led by William Clarke Quantrill, but historians think he was a young blacksmith with the gang, not one of the pillagers. Whatever he was, he was exiled by the governor of Missouri for his part in the Quantrill gang, and he headed out for Arizona Territory in 1867. Before setting up business, he either had a run-in with an outlaw or was attacked by Apaches; in any event, he was seriously injured, and a Yaqui Indian woman who later became his wife nursed him back to health.
In the late 1880s Moore bought 280 acres of land at the stage stop known as Coldwater for 25 cents an acre under the Desert Lands Act of 1877. He became a justice of the peace and was postmaster at the Coldwater station until 1905, when the post office was moved to a different location because liquor and the mail were being distributed from the same station in violation of the law. Billy Moore died in 1934 at the age of 92.

CONTACTS:
Southwest Valley Chamber of Commerce
289 N. Litchfield Rd.
Goodyear, AZ 85338
623-932-2260; fax: 623-932-9057
www.southwestvalleychamber.org

Celebration days:
2011: Oct 15; Oct 16
2012: Oct 20; Oct 21
2013: Oct 19; Oct 20
2014: Oct 18; Oct 19
2015: Oct 17; Oct 18