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Arizona Trivia Arizona Trivia
A Haven for Sports
The Magnificent Seven
Killer Cacti
"But it's a dry heat!"
So many colors, so much land!
The State of the State
Stats & Facts
People
Places
Other Trivia
A Haven for Sports
In 1998, the Diamondbacks began play in the National League West Division at the brand new Bank One Ballpark (nicknamed "BOB".) BOB features a swimming pool next to right field and a retractable dome.
In 1995, the new America West Arena hosted the NBA All-Star Game. Major League Baseball awarded a franchise to the Arizona Diamondbacks, owned in part by Phoenix Suns majority owner, Jerry Colangelo.
On January 18, 1996, Arizona State University's Sun Devil Stadium and the City of Tempe hosted Super Bowl XXX. The game between Pittsburgh and Dallas lived up to its pre-game hype, as it was too close to call until the final four minutes, when Dallas finally scored and won the game, 27-17.
The Phoenix Suns started playing here in Arizona in 1968. The Arizona Cardinals arrived 20 years later, and the Arizona Diamondbacks came here in 1995. Anybody know when the Phoenix Coyotes came here, and what they play?
Sports programs at Arizona State University (ASU) welcomed African-American student-athletes in the 1930's, long before they were accepted at many other colleges in the nation. Word got around, and some of the country's greatest black athletes came to ASU. This went a long way towards making ASU a national power in college sports.
Tombstone fielded a baseball team during the time when the Earp brothers were feuding with the Clantons and McLaury's.
One of Geronimo's raids interrupted a baseball game.
The Magnificent Seven
A favorite trip starting in Tucson leads you down into Santa Cruz County, across Cochise County, and back to Interstate 10 at Willcox. Be sure to visit the Mission San Xavier del Bac, the most beautiful mission in the Southwest. Next, stop at Tubac, the earliest Spanish settlement in Arizona, dating back to 1752. Don't forget to stop by the Tumacacori National Historical Park, which contains the mission that dates back to the days of Father Eusebio Kino, the legendary Jesuit "Padre on Horseback." Then stop off at Nogales, where you can visit the Pimeria Alta Historical Museum on your way to a shopping spree south of the Border.
After Nogales, head east on State Route 82 along picturesque Sonoita Creek to Patagonia. Be sure to visit the local sanctuary wildlife preserve. South of the town are the ghost towns of Mowry, Harshaw, Washington Camp, and Duquesne. Visit the Arizona wine country at Elgin, where such films as "Oklahoma," "Monte Walsh," and "Tom Horn" were shot.
Go through the Huachuca Mountains and visit historic Fort Huachuca. The Arizona Nature Conservancy has a sanctuary for some 15 species of hummingbirds in Ramsey Canyon. The highway will eventually take you to Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die.
Downtown Tucson has a rich historical past that includes the Samaniego House, built in 1879, and La Casa de Gobernador, a museum that was the residence of Territorial Governor John C. Fremont.
La Fiesta de los Vaqueros rodeo each February claims the world's longest non-mechanized parade. Tucson also has such cultural events as the Arizona Theater Company, the Arizona Opera Company, the Tucson Symphony, and Ballet Arizona.
A few miles east of Tucson is Colossal Cave (not of XYZZY fame), said to be the world's largest dry cavern. Parts of it are still unexplored. The cave served as a hiding place for train robbers, complete with the mandatory legend of lost treasure buried somewhere inside.
Kartchner Caverns also opened to visitors in late 1999. It's worth the effort to get on the waiting lists for one of the walking tours!
Sabino Canyon, a riparian paradise, lures hikers, sightseers, photographers, and creek-waders. Mount Lemmon, rising more than 9000 feet in the Santa Catalina Mountains, offers great skiing in the winter and a cool escape from the desert heat in the summer. The 30-mile drive from Tucson up to Mount Lemmon takes only about an hour, yet you will travel through enough of Merriam's Life Zones to equate to a 2000-mile drive to Canada. At 1:00 in the afternoon, you could be sweltering at the desert heat - and an hour later, you could be shivering among the Douglas firs and aspens at 8,200 feet. A skyride can take you up another 900 feet.
Mount Lemmon, incidentally, is named for Sara Plummer Lemmon, who climbed it back in 1881 while on her honeymoon.
Tucson's attractions include the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Old Tucson, the Saguaro National Monument, the Arizona State Museum on the University of Arizona campus, the San Xavier del Bac Mission, the Pima Air Museum, Sabino Canyon, Mount Lemmon, and Biosphere.
If you don't want to plan your tour around one of the Magnificent Seven, try basing your visit to Arizona in Tucson or Phoenix. But remember, one-day side trips can often turn into week-long excursions if you're not careful. Arizona is full of hidden treasures, ghost towns, and remote landscapes filled with wildlife.
The Old West Country includes historic Tubac, Tumacacori National Monument, Tombstone, and Bisbee. Also included are Organ Pipe National Monument, numerous ghost towns, and lofty mountains.
The Golden Corridor includes Tucson and the greater Phoenix area, where more than 80% of the state's population resides. Also included is the Pinal Parkway between Florence and Tucson, Picacho Peak, the Superstition Mountains, Casa Grande National Monument, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, San Xavier del Bac Mission, and the beautiful Saguaro National Monument.
The River Country includes a string of lakes and rivers, London Bridge, Yuma, the new gambling mecca across the river from Bullhead City at Laughlin, the ghost town of Oatman, and the entire western border of the state.
The High Country includes the White Mountains, the Mogollon Rim, Pleasant Valley, Alpine, the Blue River country, the Coronado Trail, and the Apache Reservations.
The Central Territory includes Prescott, the Verde Valley, the little railroad to Perkinsville, Jerome, the Bradshaw Mountains, and Wickenburg.
Indian Country includes Canyon de Chelly, the Navajo and Hopi Reservations, Monument Valley, Navajo National Monument, Lake Powell, the Petrified Forest, and the Painted Desert.
The Canyon Country includes the Grand Canyon, Kaibab Plateau, Vermilion Cliffs, Marble Canyon, Flagstaff, Williams, the Grand Canyon Railway, Oak Creek, Sedona, Wupatki, and Walnut Canyon.
The Arizona Department of Tourism and Arizona Highways magazine divided the state into seven regions. These are Canyon Country, Indian Country, the Central Territory, the High Country, the River Country, the Golden Corridor, and the Old West Country. Each region offers great opportunities for tourism. More on these regions in the coming weeks.
Killer Cacti
The ocotillo (ah-co-TI-yah) is sometimes referred to as the Monkey's Tail or the Devil's Coachwhip. In fact, "ocotillo" is Spanish for "coachwhip." It is kin to neither the cacti nor the Lily family, but related to the even stranger-looking Mexican Boojum tree. Most of the year, the ocotillo appears to be dead, with its sharp, grey thorns punctuating its long, thin luimbs. But following a rain, it comes to life, sprouting thousands of tiny green leaves. As the weather dries once atain, the leaves evolve into sharp thorns, protecting the plant from hungry animals. In the spring, the ocotillo adorns its limbs with a beautiful orange-red torch-like blossom. Today, as in the past, Southwestern gardeners use ocotillo limbs woven into mesh wire to keep out pesky rabbits. Many of the limbs will take root, creating a living fence.
(When you go to buy an ocotillo at the garden center, you buy a bundle of 5-7' tall sticks with a dead-looking root ball. Believe it or not, those ocotillo, once planted, will spring back to life. The more fantastic ocotillo in well-tended soil develop dozens of stalks and a forest of beautiful blossoms each spring. --Ed.)
Another member of the Lily family, the Joshua Tree grows mostly in the high desert above Wickenburg. The Joshuas have a unique appearance, their living leaves appearing dagger-like on the ends of numerous twisting arms. The arms and body, covered with dead leaves, give the tree the look of a huge, hairy, abominable desert creature.
Contrary to popular belief, the Century Plant does not live to be a hundred, but has a lifespan of ten to seventy-five years. It blooms only once in its lifetime, sending up a stalk that might grow as much as one foot per day, reaching a height of fifteen to thirty feet. After blooming briefly, the Century Plant usually shrivels up and dies, its life's work done.
The Agaves (ah-GAH-ves), which include the Mescal or Century plant, the Amole, the Sotol, and the Desert Agave, aqll resemble the Yucca, and the two are often confused. However, the agave rosette grows close to the ground and looks like the bud of a giant artichoke. Pulque, tequila, and mescal are fermented or distilled from the agave plant.
Incidentally, thorns on a desert plant are nature's way of preventing it from being fed upon by the many animals looking for food and moisture. Many thorny plants in the desert, such as the Joshua Tree, Ocotillo, Agave, and Yucca aren't cacti at all. The above-mentioned are all members of the Lily family.
The yucca is more closely related to the garlic plant than to a cactus. The Native Americans had many uses for the long-pointed stems of the yucca plant, such as making sandals, twine, needles, and thread. A shampoo is made from the roots.
The most notorious of the cacti are the chollas (CHOY-ahs). Species include the Buckhorn, Cane, Staghorn, Teddy Bear, and, of course, the notorious Jumping cholla. The barbed spines embed themselves deep in the skin and are difficult to remove. It's wise to carry a large comb when venturing into the desert to remove cholla from people, dogs, and horses.
The Echinocereus makes up the group commonly known as hedgehogs. They are relatively short-stemmed, usually no more than twenty inches high, and grow in clusters. They include the Claret Cup, Leding's, Fendler's, Robust, Strawberry, and Arizona Rainbow cacti.
The Coryphantha are better known as pincushions, which they resemble. This group includes the Giant, Golden, Biscuit, and Foxtail pincushions.
Prickly-pear cacti are found throughout the world. They are from the Opuntia group, the name coming from the pear-shape of the flat pads attached to the stem. The large spines and tiny, almost invisible splinters can be singed off by fire. Then you can eat the pads, quenching thirst and satisfying hunger at the same time. The dark red fruit of the prickly pear is also edible.
In southern Arizona, near Ajo, you can find another unique cactus called the Organ Pipe. It's called this because of the way its arms branch out, similar to the pipes of an organ. It's largely confined to this one region, and it provides a fruit that the Native Americans harvest.
In the Spring, flowers grow from the top of barrel cacti stems for just a brief period of time. The barrel cactus is sometimes called the "compass cactus" because it grows with a slight lean in a southwesterly direction.
Don't believe everything you hear. Legend has it that the barrel cactus is a good source of water in the desert. Well, you can try it, but you won't like it. The pulp can be crushed to create a liquid, but the juice would peel the hide off a Gila Monster.
A 4000 pound saguaro can absorb as much as 250 gallons of water, expanding its girth to make room. This stored water helps the saguaro survive through the dry season. But too much rainfall can cause the arms to crack, inflicting serious damage, and a prolonged freeze of more than 24 hours can kill it.
At nine years old, the saguaro cactus stands only about six inches high. Around twenty, it undergoes an adolescent surge and grows maybe two inches a year. Saguaro don't begin blooming until they're somewhere between age 30 and 50.
Birds also need the saguaro to live. Woodpeckers drill holes, excavate chambers, raise a family, then abandon their condos when the youngsters are ready to leave the nest. Then elf owls, cactus wrens, and other small birds take up residence.
Native Americans have harvested the reddish fig-like fruit of the saguaro since prehistoric times. The juice can be fermented and is used traditionally by the Tohono O'odham Indians, who celebrate their New Year at the harvest in the summer months. In addition to eating the fruit, they historically used the ribs of the saguaro skeleton for building homes, traps, and storage containers.
The plant that most often comes to mind when one visualizes Arizona is the saguaro. This stately lord of the desert is one of the largest of the cactus family and grows almost exclusively in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico.
Cereus aren't united by plates or cylinders. Examples of cereus cacti include the saguaro, barrel, and organ pipe cacti.
The opuntia is a jointed plant, with its sections linked as if forming a chain. Some examples are the sausage-like links of the cholla, or the jointed sections of the prickly pear.
There are two principle groups of cacti: cereus and opuntia.
Earthquake Update!
Saturday, October 16th, 1999, 2:47 AM Arizona time.
For those of you who haven't heard yet, the Joshua Tree area in California was struck by an earthquake of at least 7.0 on the Richter scale. An earthquake in California isn't exactly unexpected, but this quake was special. We felt it all the way out here, in the Valley of the Sun!
The motion of the quake was described as a side-to-side motion, on a horizontal plane, as though houses and apartment buildings were sliding around on a plate. Some pools sloshed over, as if fifty people were splashing through them all at once, but nothing in this reporter's household was damaged or overturned.
Reports also say that the lights on the highway were moving, though it has yet to be confirmed if this was caused by the earthquake or an unrelated UFO encounter, also a popular event here in Arizona.
"But it's a dry heat!"
Monsoon Report - Monday, September 20, 1999:
It's not at all trivia, but it is of interest. The Monsoon of 1999 is proving to be a dynamic, active weather phenomenon that just keeps surprising locals with its ferocity.
Yesterday, a monsoon storm ripped through the East Valley and destroyed 200 homes, including 50 mobile homes, in Mesa. The scenes shown on the news looked like shots from the hurricane Floyd on the east coast. Hail pounded certain spots while severe winds tore through neighborhoods, downing 1 1/2 miles of electric lines and tearing off roofs.
The Mesa police department had to increase patrols to prevent looting. They also patrolled neighborhoods in a truck supplied with plywood and plastic to help anyone whose house was damaged or destroyed.
This year's monsoon has lasted more than 85 days. The average is somewhere around 59 days, while the record is 99 days.
Tucson's record monsoon has already been beat this year.
It snowed 400.9 inches during the winter of 1972-1973 at Sunrise Mountain.
Lake Havasu City has been known to reach 128 degrees on hot days in June, while Phoenix got up to 122 degrees on June 26, 1990. On average, Phoenix enjoys (or endures) eight days each year of 110+ degree temperatures, though in 1983, those eight days shot up to twenty-three!
The sun shines in southern Arizona 85% of the time, which is considerably more sunshine than Florida or Hawaii. Arizona also frequently has the hottest and coldest temperatures on the same day. The mean temperature is 75 degrees average in the desert to 45 degrees in the high country, but it usually gets a lot meaner in the summer!
We've got our own El Niņo problems here, maybe. In January and February of 1993, Phoenix had more rain than Seattle, Washington. Then, the rains suddenly quit. It rained once in March, but didn't rain again until August. That July, for the first time in recorded history (1895), no measurable rain fell. After a relatively dry rainy season, the clouds finally opened up in October - usually a dry month - and dropped record rains on the Phoenix area. But while it started out to be a wet winter, it didn't end up that way. The winter of 1993-94 was one of the driest on record. Blame it on El Niņo? Well, natives say that's how it's always been in the desert - a conundrum. And natives never lose faith in that old cowboy axiom: "It always rains after a dry spell."
Want to be a weather forecaster in Arizona with an 85% accuracy record? Predict sunny weather every day! Of course, if you want a higher rate, watch out for Arizona's two rainy seasons - December through February, and the "monsoon" of July through early September. But still, it doesn't rain that much, so try flipping a coin for help.
Arizonans have all sorts of fun when new weather forecasters come to town. Try pronouncing some of these words yourself!
Ajo: (AH-ho)
Gila: (HEE-lah)
Saguaro: (sah-WAR-oh)
Tsegi Canyon: (sig-ee)
Mazatzal Mountains: (mah-sat-sail) also known locally as (mat-a-zell)
Mogollon Rim: (muggy-on)
So many colors, so much land!
Arizona's mountains are an extension of the great western mountain ranges - the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada, and the Sierra Madre.
The Desert Zone (or Basin and Range) covers the western edge and the entire southern one-third of the state. It also extends from New Mexico in the east, south into Mexico, West to the Sierra Nevada, and northward into Oregon and Idaho.
The Plateau Zone also boasts the world's largest stand of ponderosa pine. It is best described as high, wide, and handsome - a geographic collection of spectacular scenery and diversity that can't be matched anywhere else in the world.
The contrasts within the Plateau Zone are startling. Near the wind-sculpted spires and buttes, mesas and steep-sided sandstone canyons of the Colorado Plateau are found lush forests with cool mountain streams in the Chuska Mountains.
The Plateau is a giant, uplifted land mass that extends into Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It makes up the northern third and includes the White Mountains, Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, Arizona Strip, Kaibab Plateau, San Francisco Mountains, Black Mesa, and the high country that borders on the Mogollon Rim. It ranges from 4000 feet all the way to the top of Humphreys Peak in the San Francisco Mountains, which is the highest point in the state, at 12,633 feet above sea level.
The Plateau Zone features spectacular wind-eroded, reddish-hued sandstone cliffs, buttes, and spires. But you can also find lush forests and cool mountain streams here, high in the Chuska Mountains above Canyon de Chelly. The high and wide Arizona Strip contrasts sharply with the lofty green-forested Kaibab Plateau, both of which are flanked by the awesome North Rim of the mighty Grand Canyon.
Arizona can be divided into three physiographic zones, each roughly equal to the others in size. The Plateau Zone is the largest, covering 42% of the state. The Desert (or Basin and Range) Zone covers 30% of the state. The remaining 28% is the Mountain Zone.
The State of the State
In an effort to encourage companies to move to Arizona, the Salt River Economic Report of 1990 listed Arizona's positive factors in this order:
1. Climate
2. Open spaces
3. Job opportunities
4. Lower living costs
5. Natural beauty
6. Friendliness of people
7. Abundance of natural resources
8. Minimum danger of physical hazards such as earthquakes or floods.
In the early 1900s, the Theodore Roosevelt Dam was built on the Salt River, a 13,000 square mile watershed in the central mountains, whose runoff is harnessed by several dams on the Salt and Verde Rivers, ensuring water supplies for the residents of the Salt River Valley - Phoenix.
U. S. Senator Earnest W. McFarland, Arizona, is known as the "Father of the GI Bill."
The water project known as CAP (Central Arizona Project) brings water to central Arizona from the Colorado River.
Arizona Highways has an approximately 85% circulation rate outside of the state of Arizona.
Phoenix is named for the mythical Egyptian bird that rose from the ashes of its own funeral pyre, reborn to a new life. Modern Phoenix was built over the ruins of an advanced prehistoric civilization that we call the Hohokam. The Hohokam flourished here in the inhospitable desert for centuries, then mysteriously vanished.
Stopping by Phoenix? You can view some of our rich history at the Heard Museum right in the heart of downtown. The Heard Museum is world renowned for its collection of Indian cultural facts and artifacts. Call ahead to find out about their fascinating interactive demonstrations, and don't forget to take their audio tour.
Historically, Arizona's strongest economic support came from the Four C's - cotton, copper, cattle, and citrus. In recent years, a fifth - climate - has been added.
Dolan Ellis is the state's official balladeer. He's a long-time resident and an original member of the New Christy Minstrels.
Arizona's official neckwear is the bola tie, invented by Vic Cedarstaff of Wickenburg in 1949. He marketed the tie around the world, and it was soon made famous by long-time television anchor, Bill Close.
The official state song is the Arizona March Song, though the alternate state song, I Love You Arizona, by Rex Allen Jr., is easier to sing and more popular.
The state flag is red, blue, and gold, with a copper star. The red and gold represent the colors carried by the first Spanish conquistadors. The bottom half is the same blue as is on the national flag. The thirteen red and gold rays mirror the thirteen stripes on the national flag, and they represent the rays of a beautiful Arizona sunset. The copper star represents what was historically the state's most important industry.
In an interesting footnote, there was some protest over the design of the flag back on February 27, 1917, when it was adopted. People complained that it too-closely resembled the "rising sun" flag of Japan.
The state seal, adopted in 1911, shows a sunrise (perhaps it's a sunset) over mountain peaks, a reminder of the beautiful sunsets seen in our desert. There's also a miner, complete with pick and shovel, representing Arizona's rich mines. An irrigated field with grazing cattle represents our agriculture. And perhaps most important, a dam and reservoir is a reminder that without careful water conservation and water management, we'd all have to move elsewhere.
What's the state motto of Arizona? Well, appropriate as it may be, it's not "But it's a dry heat!" The state motto is, in fact, "Ditat Deus," or "God Enriches."
State Flower:
Saguaro blossom
State Colors: Blue & gold
State Tree:* Palo Verde
State Bird: Cactus wren
State Reptile: Ridge-nosed rattlesnake
State Fossil: Petrified wood
State Mammal: Ring-tail cat
* Yes, there really are trees in Arizona
Stats & Facts
In 1940's census, Arizona's population was less than 500,000 people. The population of Phoenix was only 65,000.
The world's deepest dam (over 320 feet deep) is Parker Dam on the Colorado River.
Are you planning to visit Arizona State University (or ASU, as we know it here)? You'd better know where you're going. ASU West is in Glendale, which is northwest of central Phoenix, while ASU East is right by world-famous Mill Avenue in the heart of Tempe. (Bonus points: Tempe is pronounced "tem-PEE" with a very slight emphasis on the second syllable. For those of you who are curious, Mesa is pronounced "MAY-suh" and Phoenix is pronounced "FEE-nix." Ajo is not, however, pronounced "AH-joh.")
Indian reservations make up approximately 27% of Arizona's land.
Arizona's rainy season is known as the monsoon, and encompasses July, August, and September. It's a spectacular sight, though it varies in intensity from year to year. Monsoon storms tend to sweep through the state, seemingly unleashing devastating winds, dust storms, and lashing rain in minutes, leaving the sun to shine through rain-cleaned air on the downed palm trees and power lines, while tourists say, "I didn't know it ever rained here!"
The Colorado River winds 277 miles through the Grand Canyon. Over the ages, this majestic river has sliced a full mile down into the earth, showing a layer-by-layer record of the area's past. Deep down in the gorge, you can even see the worn-down remains of mountains that towered majestically over the land more than two billion years ago.
Tonto National Bridge is the world's largest travertine bridge, measuring more than 500 feet. This limestone arch near Pine, Arizona, is a state park.
The Grand Canyon, nature's grandest architectural masterpiece, is 227 miles long, one mile deep, and has an average width of ten miles.
On June 6, 1936, the first barrel of tequila produced in the United States rolled off the production line in Nogales.
The last volcanic eruption in Arizona occurred at Sunset Crater, near Flagstaff, in 1064 C.E.
In 1995, the population of Arizona topped four million. If you'd like to meet all four million of them, drive on any freeway or downtown street around 5:00 p.m.
Because of our vast, open spaces, a few years ago, Arizona averaged about 25 people per square mile. (To quote an anonymous commuter: "Of course, that leaves 113,000 empty square miles left to the coyotes, roadrunners, and rattlesnakes, and the other 909 square miles are packed with commuters." See above for more information.)
The geographic center of Arizona is in Bloody Basin; the nearest large city is Bumble Bee. (Friendly warning to tourists: If the locals offer you a bet to tell them "What's in the middle of Arizona?" take the bet! Then tell them that "Z" is in the middle of Ari-Z-ona!)
Arizona is roughly the size of Italy.
Almost square in shape, the maximum north-south distance is 393 miles, while the maximum east-west distance is 338 miles.
The total area of Arizona is 113,909 square miles, with about 492 square miles of surface water. (Editor's note: Where's the water?!?)
The highest point in Arizona is Mt. Humphreys, at 12,633 feet, in the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff.
The lowest point is somewhere near sea level, by Yuma.
People
Lorna Lockwood of Douglas, AZ, was the first woman to sit as Chief Justice of a State Supreme Court (AZ).
The state has not one but two mountain peaks named for General Edward O. C. Ord, who had a less-than-distinguished career in the territory during the Apache Wars. Among his limited number of supporters were some surveyors and map-makers.
Joan Ganz Cooney is a winner of the 1995 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. She's a former Phoenix resident (she went to North Phoenix High School) and she later founded the Children's Television Workshop. Her claim to fame? The famous children's television show, Sesame Street, is her brainchild.
Cartoonist Bill Maudlin graduated from Phoenix Union High School just prior to World War II. In Europe, while writing for Stars and Stripes, he created the grungy combat characters "Willie and Joe." The series, "Up Front," was later made into a movie by the same name. He won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work.
The largest Indian tribe in the United States is the Navajo Nation.
Tex Earnhardt is something of a local celebrity. This car dealer magnate has made his indelible mark on history with commercials showing him sitting atop a Brahma steer, declaring, "This ain't no bull!"
Nellie Cashman, prospector and restaurateur, was known affectionately throughout the West as "the angel of the mining camps." A pretty woman, she never married. Instead she preferred the free life of a prospector and adventurer. Her travels took her from Mexico to the Arctic Circle.
Ethnic diversity - Wing Ong of Phoenix was the first Chinese-American in the U.S. elected to a state legislature, in 1966. That same year, Clovis Campbell became the first African-American elected to the Arizona legislature. Raul Castro, born in Cananea, Sonora, was the first Hispanic governor of Arizona, elected in 1974. Willie Wong, elected in 1992, was the first Asian-American mayor of an Arizona City - Mesa - and Coy Payne of Chandler, elected in 1990, was the first African-American mayor in the state.
You're probably familiar with the work of Phoenix artist Jeanne Boylan and don't even know it. She did the famous sketch of the suspect in the FBI's largest manhunt ever - the Unabomber himself.
Prescott was named for the historian, William Hickling Prescott, beating out Gimletville as the people's choice.
Pearl Hart was the last stagecoach robber in America (not counting the entertaining robberies at places like Old Tucson and Rawhide.) In 1899, near today's site of Kearney on the Gila River, Pearl was arrested and imprisoned for her robbery. She served time at the Yuma Territorial Prison, then used her notoriety to launch an unsuccessful stage career.
Tombstone's notorious Allen Street was named for John "Pie" Allen. When the town hit paydirt, the entrepreneur made his fortune not in mining but in selling homemade dried-apple pies to the hungry miners for a dollar apiece. (Footnote: Allen made the trivia list again by being the first person to file for a homestead in the new Arizona Territory back in 1863.)
Carl Hayden was the sheriff of Maricopa County way back when. He then served in the U.S. Congress for 57 continuous years - longer than any other politician in history.
Nancy Hayden, Carl's wife, is known as the "Betsy Ross of Arizona." She's the one who sewed the first Arizona state flag. (The flag was designed in 1910 by Captain Charles W. Harris.)
Arizona ranks 25th in population among the 50 states, with around 4 million people. (This population elevates dangerously in the winter months, or what natives call "Snowbird Season", when visitors from the frigid north migrate in to enjoy the weather.)
The Arizona Strip, bounded on the north by Utah, the east by the Kaibab Plateau, the west by Nevada, and the south by the Grand Canyon, is 14,000 square miles in size but has a population of only 3000 - and they reside in just a few communities. Apply the same ratio of people-to-land to New York City and the Big Apple would be reduced to only 16 residents.
Although they've only been here since 1988, the Arizona Cardinals are the nation's oldest continuous professional football franchise, dating back to 1898.
Billy The Kid gunned down his first victim, Frank "Windy" Cahill, at Fort Grant, Arizona, on August 17, 1877, after Windy called The Kid a dirty name.
Places
An automobile trip from Tucson to the top of the nearby Santa Catalina Mountains takes less than an hour, yet the life zones traversed are equal to a trip from the southern border of the United States to Canada. Want proof? Check out Arizona Highways magazine. The December 1983 issue of Arizona Highways took its readers on a photo tour of the nation illustrating the scenic wonders one might see while visiting each of the fifty states. Why would our magazine promote the beauty of other states? Because every one of the photographs in that article was shot within the boundaries of Arizona! The issue was appropriately titled "Fifty in One."
At the Four Corners, the states of Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona come together. You can sprawl out on the monument and be in four states at the same time!
According to Ripley's Believe it or Not, the tallest three-story building in the world is the Elks Club Building in Globe. (It has high ceilings.)
Boot Hill, in Tombstone, is the place where men "who died with their boots on" were frequently buried.
Phoenix is the largest capital city in the entire United States.
The S.H. Mountains in the Kofa range can't really be discussed in polite company. Areas of the mountains resembled houses with little outhouses in back. Because of this unusual feature, the local miners named them for the obvious. But when women arrived, the name was shortened to "S.H." and that's how it's seen on most maps today.
Arizona has fifteen counties. Coconino county is the largest, at 18,540 square miles, and is larger than New Hampshire, Delaware, and Maryland combined. Maricopa County, at 9000 square miles, is larger than Massachusetts.
Cowboys and pioneers gave whimsical names to many places in Arizona. Cowboys named Wet Bottom Creek because you couldn't drive cattle across it without getting wet up to, er, there.
Total Wreck (yes, that really is a town!) owes its name to an ugly outcropping of rocks that hung above the town.
Hell Street, the main (and only) street in Canyon Diablo, stretched for a mile along the Santa Fe tracks. Among its tourist attractions were fourteen saloons, ten gambling dens, four bordellos, and two dance halls.
The best-preserved meteor crater in America is located near Winslow. Nearly 50,000 years ago, the huge nickel-iron meteor, weighing a few hundred thousand tons and traveling at a speed of upwards of five to ten miles per second, slammed into the earth with such force that it destroyed all life for a hundred-mile radius. The crater measures 4150 feet rim-to-rim and is 570 feet deep.
The well-named Canyon Diablo is a deep abyss between Flagstaff and Winslow. The devilish town that's its namesake, located just east of the 220-foot-deep chasm, was so bad that old timers claimed you could walk a block in any direction and never leave the scene of a crime. In just one year in Canyon Diablo (1881-1882) more men were killed in gun fights, murders, and robberies than in Dodge City, Abilene, and Tombstone combined.
Arizona is the 6th largest state in the Union, if ranked by land size. All of New England - plus Pennsylvania and Delaware - would fit inside our borders! In fact, the entire state of Massachusetts would fit inside Maricopa County.
There are at least 91 nations in the world smaller than Arizona in land size.
Arizona has the largest stand of ponderosa pines in the world. We also have more parks and national monuments than any other state, more mountains than Switzerland, and more golf courses than Scotland.
A resident of Moccasin, in Mojave County (up in the Arizona Strip) has to drive nearly 360 miles and cross three states just to get to the Mojave County seat at Kingman. As the crow flies (over the Grand Canyon) it's only about 140 miles.
Oraibi, a Hopi Indian village on Third Mesa, dates to before 1200 and is believed to be the longest continuously inhabited community in the nation.
Trivia
Approximately two million foreigners (not counting snowbirds) visit Arizona each year. Combined with the 16 million domestic tourists, the tourism industry exceeds $6 billion annually.
"Tucson" was the Spanish corruption of the Indian words Chuk-Shon, which described the "dark base at the foot of a nearby mountain."
Ever wonder how we in the Southwest can eat such hot (spicy, that is) food without blinking? Try having a sopapilla after enjoying a fire-hot burrito. Sopapillas are deep-fried dough smothered in honey - yes, honey. That puts the fire right out.
Arizona doesn't celebrate Ground Hog Day. Instead we have "Agua Fria Freddie Day."
Mesquite is a common desert tree here in Arizona, currently in vogue for grilling steaks.
Students from all over the world flock to the University of Arizona to study dendrochronology - the study of tree ring dating, made famous right here at the U. of A.
The town of Why sits out in the lonesome desert near Ajo. It was named by weary residents responding to tourists continually asking, "Why would anybody want to live here?"
Indians once used shaped stone bowls to grind corn. These bowls are called metate (ma-tah-tay) and can be seen in ruins all across the Southwest.
The hottest recorded day in Phoenix was June 26, 1990, when the temperature hit 122 degrees. In celebration, the mayors of the outlying communities around Phoenix had a contest to see who had the hottest temperature. Kent Wick of Paradise Valley won third place, claiming it was so hot that his patio furniture was standing on one leg. For his efforts, he won a three-week, all-expense paid trip in July to Gila Bend.
Second place went to Herb Drinkwater, mayor of Scottsdale, who insisted he saw a jumping cactus in his yard leap into the swimming pool. He got sentenced - er, he won an all-expense-paid two-week trip to Gila Bend. In July.
First place went to Tempe mayor and native Arizonan, Harry Mitchell. He swore he saw a saguaro cactus pull itself up by the roots, walk over, and hunker down in the shade of a mesquite tree. He got a one-week, all-expense-paid trip to Gila Bend in July.
Bethany Home Road got its name from the Bethany Home, an early-day tuberculosis sanitarium and goat farm at 16th Street and - you guessed it - Bethany Home Road.
Round Valley High School (Springerville-Eagar) has the nation's first domed high school athletic facility. The J. Lawrench Walkup Sky Dome at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, where the Lumberjacks play their home football games, boasts the world's largest wood-dome structure.
In 1944, a group of German prisoners of war plotted an escape from a compound situated not far from the Salt River. Three of them built a small boat and made plans to float down the Salt to the Gila River, then on out to the Colorado River and Mexico. They tunneled out and carried their boat to the river, where they were captured, sitting there in that dry riverbed, waiting for the tide to come in. To this day, those three men are known in Germany as the "Crazy Boatmen of Arizona."
Confused contrasts and amazing anomalies: We have dehydrated rivers, trees made of stone, cactus that blooms only at night, a bird that can run faster than it can fly, the only poisonous species of lizard in the nation, a river named Colorado that spends most of its time in Arizona, a retirement community named Youngtown, a Maricopa County (with the town of Maricopa in Pinal County), and Fort Apache in Navajo County and the city of Navajo in Apache County.
Arizona frequently enjoys both the hottest and the coldest national temperatures on the same day. We get more sunshine than Florida. Mt. Lemmon, near Tucson, is the nation's southernmost ski resort.
The state's average rainfall ranges from 3 whole inches in the desert near Yuma, to 30 inches in the high country.
The name Arizona has been traced to a small Tohono O'odham village about 25 miles southwest of Nogales. The original name, Ali-Shonak, described a small spring. In 1736, silver was discovered in the mountains north of Ali-Shonak. The Spanish settlers changed the pronunciation to Arissona. In 1850, when it became part of the Territory of New Mexico, Americans flooded Arissona to look for silver in the mountains south of Tucson; while they were at it, they further corrupted the name, this time to Arizona.
Some state nicknames include:
The Valentine State (Arizona became a state on February 14, 1912)
The Copper State (Arizona produces most of the nation's copper)
The Grand Canyon State (for obvious reasons)
The Baby State (Before Alaska and Hawaii joined the Union, that is)
The State of Confusion (Just ask our local politicians . . .)
Arizona has 60% of all types of wildlife species found in North America. Big game species include javelina, bear, elk, antelope, big horn sheep, bison, mule deer, white tail deer, mountain lion, and turkey.
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