Surprise was little more than a gas station and few small houses in 1937 when founder, Homer C. Ludden, a Glendale real estate developer and state legislator, subdivided the rural square mile parcel into low-cost home sites for the area's agricultural workers, naming it after his Nebraska hometown.

Signs posted at Surprise's borders these days tell a different story: “Population Increasing Daily.” Since Del Webb's Sun City Grand opened in 1996, Surprise's growth has been, well, surprising.

The population more than quadrupled from 10,187 to an estimated 57,000, earning Surprise the title of Arizona's fastest growing city four years out of the past five. With a new home completed every three hours, projections are that Surprise's population will reach 58,000 by year's end.