Imagine the surprise for someone when you’re leisurely cruising down the road and you come to a town, a bridge, a building, a shop or whatever with your surname ‘up in lights’.

It’s happened only a few times to myself in the course of covering the European and PGA Tour’s.

There’s Maguires Castle at Enniskillen and just to the south of the town is the small village of Maguire’s Bridge both in Co, Fermanagh in Northern Ireland and a destination I’ve been to on a few occasions.

As my late, dear explained in the McGuire family history that I typed-up many years ago, the surname McGuire is a variant of the Irish: Maguidhir. Udhir is the genetive case of odhar meaning ‘dun or dark coloured’; mag is a form of mac, meaning ‘son of’.

So, McGuire is the son of Guire.

Visiting Maguire’s Castle, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh in May, 2019

The McGuire/Maguire/Maguidhir Royal Family (Maguidhirs) lived in the McGuire (Maguidhir) castle in Enniskillen. The origins of the island town of Enniskillen go back to prehistory when this short nexus was the main highway between Ulster and Connaught. Enniskillen Castle was the medieval seat of the McGuire (Maguidhir), chieftains of Fermanagh, who policed the lough with a private navy of 1,500 boats.

McGuire (in the form of Maguidhir) first appears in the Irish Annals in the year 956, but the clan did not come into dominance in the region of Fermanagh in the 13th century and then up to the 17th century, the Maguires were kings of Fermanagh.

Visiting McGuireville during the 2018 Phoenix Open

It was the Irish potato famine of the mid-1840s that brought the McGuire’s I am related to Australia while many others headed to the US and it probably explains why there is over 52,000 people with the last name “McGuire” in the United States.  It is understood the name McGuire is the 450th most popular name in America.

McGuire is often used in movies to connotate characters who are from “Northern Ireland” or characters who are “very Irish” though if you are looking for a McGuire in the movies how about Tom Cruise playing the part of  ‘Jerry McGuire’ and there was the TV series ‘Lizzie McGuire’ starring Hilary Duff.

So,back to McGuireville, Arizona.

He we were taking a day off from the 2018 Phoenix Open and heading north along I-17 and there’s this sign listing four towns and a national monument, and top of the list is ‘McGuireville’.

“McGuireville?  We’ve got to stop here”, I said.

We took the exit ramp off Interstate 17 and pulled-up, and as you always do, beside the sign saying:  ‘McGuireville’.

Sadly, McGuireville is one of those towns that if you blinked you’d miss it and it’s set down from the raised-up Interstate and boasts a handful of shops, a few houses and a lot of temporary-looking structures.

McGuireville was originally known as Beaver Creek as ranchers and farmers settled along the banks of the creek named for the prolific numbers of beavers found there. The area of the community known as McGuireville started in 1910 when Eugene McGuire settled near the confluence of Dry Beaver Creek and Wet Beaver Creek.

McGuireville, AZ …. Blink and you will miss it.

Being in Arizona, we’re already pretty high up and with McGuireville 3,323 feet above mean sea level.

Since McGuireville is located within the Lake Montezuma CDP, all of the census and demographic data for residents of McGuireville are included as part of the information reported for Lake Montezuma CDP in the “Profile” tab above.

So how many people live in McGuireville?

Well the towns of McGuireville and Rimrock form part of the Lake Montezuma census-designated place in Yavapai County in Arizona. The recent census listed 5,458 combined in the two communities but then I would say 5,400 live in Rimrock.

So, now you know all about McGuireville, AZ.