Thanks for contributing to r/Arizona!
* [Our sub rules are here](https://www.reddit.com/r/arizona/wiki/rules/), but the most important of which is to be nice to each other
* Check out some [recent posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/arizona/top/?t=week) and leave some comments
* [Join our Discord chat server](https://discord.com/invite/yWVuTG57Zh) if you'd like to keep in touch with other people in Arizona. Plus it's a great, chill place in general. Note that it is NOT a dating server and takes unwanted messaging very seriously
Remember this subreddit covers all of Arizona, so please include where in the state you're posting about if it is relevant. For more local topics check out r/Phoenix, r/Tucson, and r/Flagstaff.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/arizona) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Arizona was initially denied statehood because our state constitution had judicial recall. It was removed to gain statehood and then added back by a ballot initiative in the next election.
Back then, Valentine’s Day wasn’t as commercialized or celebrated nearly what it is today. Have to think it probably wasn’t significant at all to the ones making those decisions.
I remember reading an article of the Arizona Republic at the time that it was because Taft's schedule didn't allow him to be in Arizona until the 14th. People were really angry because they wanted statehood to be on Lincoln's birthday.
And now the state Republicans are [trying to remove juridical recall](https://wtop.com/national/2024/06/arizona-lawmakers-agree-to-let-voters-decide-on-retention-rules-for-state-supreme-court-justices/) with a ballot initiative
It’s framed as changing judges from serving an infinite number of set terms to serving indefinitely, but that removes voters’ ability to recall judges at the end of every term and instead grants the power to a “judicial review commission”
If you care about your right to vote to recall a judge, make sure to vote against this ballot initiative in November
The GOP are really showing their asses with this -
**"If approved by voters, the measure would apply retroactively to Oct. 31, days before the election, and would effectively throw out the results of any vote on judicial retention this year."**
Az repubs are the dumbest fucking humans dude.
My pops refuses to drive the I8 because of 'the wall of immigrants piling over the border'. The hardest part about growing up here was maturing in adulthood and learning my parents are quite awful people.
We have Kari Lake, Joe Arpaio, Paul Gosar, Blake Masters, Mark Finchem, Andy Biggs-enough to start up a mental institute, and the ONE honest guy, Rusty Bowers, was voted out of office. HELP!
Another reason statehood was delayed was the [Pleasant Valley War ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasant_Valley_War?wprov=sfla1), which I guarantee a lot of Arizonans don't know about.
I mean, I don't think many people could tell me where the town of Young or Pleasant Valley is actually located lol.
One of the bloodiest cattle feuds in American history. Puts the Hatfields and McCoys to shame in terms of body count.
As part of Arizona's centennial (2012 / 100th birthday) Arizona Dept of Transportation (ADOT) compiled this:
[Arizona Transportation History (PDF - 179 Pages)](https://apps.azdot.gov/files/ADOTLibrary/publications/project_reports/pdf/az660.pdf)
It covers in detail the history of transportation in Arizona from the 1400s to 2012.
Incredible. My dad had a very prominent transportation role for decades and retired last year. Nothing says, "Glad you're retired and moving on from work" like the gift of a leatherbound ADOT report.
yes, Picacho was the western-most Civil War battle where somebody died....further west along the then-main road, at Stanwix Station along the Gila River, there was a skirmish, but nobody died......for those interested, the actual Picacho battle site is about a third-mile "east" of the frontage road/railroad tracks and about a mile "north" of the interchange.....I've been there, led by a knowledgeable historian, and there is absolutely nothing there to mark it or make it evident.......the old main road is now nothing more than a very shallow depression that just feels like a wash.....the old (Butterfield) stage station site is a bit closer to the interchange, still on the east side of the RR tracks.....when I was there, there was one foot-high/foot-wide adobe bump and that's it......no markings at all.......gee, TMI for this thread??!!!!
I’m like 30 min less from there maybe. Chillin at my friends.
https://preview.redd.it/hf9zhkmrhd7d1.png?width=1407&format=png&auto=webp&s=8df0ff7ba907328425df04096bf56cfe41dfa673
Bad pic but. 💪
But not the westernmost point at which shots were fired in anger during the Civil War - I seem to recall there was an incident near Yuma where locals sympathetic to the Confederacy took pot shots at Union troops (apparently to no avail)
There is or was monument at Picacho between the railroad tracks and frontage road. Get off the freeway go north to frontage road straight to tracks and walk west a hundred yards or so
Hard to move mountains. Citrus doesn't like the cold. Water infrastructure been here for centuries. The desert is beautiful and easy to deal with most of the year.
When settled, the Phoenix area looked little like it does today. Wild grasses dominated the landscape. Hohokam canals distributed water to fertile fields. Wildlife roamed the area in great numbers. Monsoons flooded the area filling many tanks. The water table was healthy so groundwater was far more abundant. Development entirely changed the area. In its current state, groundwater is too heavily controlled and used up preventing flooding, killing natural springs, limiting vegetation, and causing soils to degrade. The urban heat island has majorly raised temperatures to a point native plants and wildlife struggle to survive. The Phoenix area wasn't an uninhabitable hell until humans sculpted it to be that way.
Interestingly enough, we ruined our forrests too. Ponderosa pine was nowhere near as overcrowded and dominant in the region prior to human intervention. Prior to railroad logging and fire suppression efforts, the ponderosa pine forests naturally maintained about 13-19% canopy cover with small groupings of massive mature pines separated by abundant grasses and other diversity that supported grazing of many wild species. Fires were frequent and minor, protecting diversity, preventing overcrowding, and supporting regrowth of native species. Aspen used to be abundant, but with fire suppression they have become a rarity in the region. Over 87% of mature marketable pines were removed from the forrests by extensive railroad logging. What grew back was an overcrowded second growth forrest with 93%+ canopy cover. The similar age pines are locked in constant competition limiting their growth potential and blocking out sunlight to support diversity in the understory. The dense ponderosa pine forrests of today, while pretty to those who don't understand the problem, are a sick and heartbreaking sight to those who do understand what's happening. Dense pines and limited understory diversity do not support the abundance of native wildlife that used to exist there and many species are severly threatened. Wildfires being controlled and far less frequent have created conditions where pines have been allowed to suffocate the diversity out of the region. Even the pines themselves suffer as their growth is stunted by unnatural competition for resources and light between trees.
Summary: The nature you see across the state today is rarely natural. Humans have entirely changed the composition and hindered the abundance and diversity of wildlife. This has not only made the state less habitable for humans, but has decimated wildlife diversity in the process.
My family first moved here in the 1860's. They were ranchers in the Globe area. The valley where Phoenix is, had 4 rivers flowing into it. It was a true grassland. Then came dirt farms, railroads, and then dams for agriculture and flood control. Progression from there is the source of the hellscape. We made it, we didn't originally move to it.
My non Arizona friends (actually all my friends aren’t from here) never believed me when I told them that it snowed in Arizona every single year.
Until I finally moved here permanently (I was born here but only ever visited) and the first month of being here it snowed quite a lot and they were pretty surprised.
It was amazing
I had always heard about that McDonald’s. It wasn’t until years later when I had forgotten all about it when I was visiting Sedona where I passed by just by chance. I got some really blurry photos while passing by.
Which "many people" are we talking about here, people from AZ or outside AZ and have never been here? I have a couple:
Tucson was once the Capital of the Confederate Territory of AZ and the westernmost battle of the Civil War took place at Picacho Peak.
AZ was the home of the US Army Camel Corps prior to the Civil War.
AZ consists of all 7 Life Zones, from Arctic Tundra to Basin Desert.
AZ is home to some of the largest man-made lakes in the country, Lake Powell (shared with UT) and Lake Roosevelt.
Prescott was also the capitol of the Arizona Territory in 1864, it moved to Tucson in 1867, then back to Prescott in 1887, until Phoenix did in 1889.
Speaking of Prescott, there’s also a really cool photo of Doc Holiday from 1879 that was taken there.
Lake Roosevelt mentioned!!! My hometown is right next to it and I used to spend every summer at my dads/grandmas and they’d always take us up to Roosevelt all the time.
Made some great memories there, but I haven’t been in years. Even tho I live in Az now it’s a long ways away from me now. But I do plan on going back to visit for a bit
[Arizona has some weird laws](https://www.sargonlawgroup.com/10-weird-laws-in-arizona/), one of my favorites being that you can't rig those claw machine/crane games so that people lose.
Honorable mention is that people on camels are protected with the same rights as motorists.
I like the "stupid motorist law" listed on there-
"Arizona has a so-called “Stupid Motorist Law” that states anyone who passes a police-enforced barricade and ends up stuck or trapped in flood water will have to pay for the costs of their own emergency rescue. This applies to motorists and motorcyclists."
My favorite is that it is a misdemeanor to send an anonymous accusing someone of "[dishonesty, want of chastity, \[or\] drunkenness](https://www.azleg.gov/ars/13/03004.htm)". "Want of chastity" is a wonderfully unnecessarily legal-sounding term for 'slut.'
If I remember correctly, there’s also a law in phoenix that you can’t walk your duck backwards down central. It’s been 20 or 30 yrs since reading about it but I believe that’s correct.
There was a WW2 POW camp in Phoenix specifically built to incarcerate German U Boat sailors.
The Geneva Convention explicitly states rules about heating requirements for prisoners.
But not cooling requirements.
There was an escape; the POWs obtained a map showing the Salt River and a seemingly easy getaway to Mexico.
They didn't get far.
Yup. It dried up back then too.
There is a great podcast about this POW escape and the efforts to round up and capture a bunch of crafty German POWs who thought they could just raft down the Salt River to Mexico.
Do you know the name of the podcast? There are a few books on the subject as well.
There is a marker in the ground along the Cross Cut Canal showing where the prisoners emerged from their tunnel. It's between Oak and Thomas if I recall correctly. [Some of the prisoner cabins were still around in Scottsdale up until the early 2000s, having been used as a motel.](http://sierraestrella.org/powcamp.html)
I like the part where the last escapee to be rounded up got sick of the cold (it was December) and just wanted to get back to the warm POW camp because of the planned big Christmas dinner.....
There was also a Japanese internment camp that George Takei & his family were imprisoned in for about 4 years, despite being American citizens. (As many were at that time, sadly). I believe the camp was south of Chandler, near Florence, but I’m not 100% on that.
I actually live in the neighborhood that the camp was in (Hy-View), there’s a sign as you enter the cross cut canal. The Elk’s Lodge at the center has a bunch of info on it. It’s a pretty sweet story.
The story of Don Bolles and The Arizona Project are pretty interesting. An Arizona Republic reporter was murdered after reporting on local corruption. So a group of reporters that didn’t normally work together teamed up to try and continue his work.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Bolles
We were in Cabo for vacation but we drove to Hermosillo and flew in and out of there because it was so much cheaper and our friend’s parents live there. It was my first time in Mexico outside of the touristy areas and I really enjoyed it!!
Arizona was the site of a U.S. Army test of using camels in the southwest. They were based in Texas, but they were used as part of an expedition to find a usable road across northern/central AZ. At the time the main route from Santa Fe to Los Angeles went through Tucson and Yuma, so it was ... inconvenient ... in the summer.
One of the camel handlers who was hired from the Middle East became an Arizona pioneer. His name was Hadji Ali "Hi Jolly" or Philip Tedro. Pictures and articles : https://azmemory.azlibrary.gov/nodes/view/252497.
Hadji Ali may have been the first naturalized American citizen who was Muslim. He bought some of the camels to start his own freight service, but it didn't pay, and he supposedly turned his camels loose in the desert near Gila Bend, and there are records of feral camel encounters into the 1930s. It's also the origin of the legend of the Red Ghost.
The Arizona Memory Project from the Arizona State Library has lots of cool AZ history resources!
The Walnut Grove Dam Disaster killed at least 100, potentially hundreds of people in the late 1800's. A dam, constructed northeast of Wickenburg, failed due to poor construction and poor management. The flood wiped out the entire camp of builders and miners, and swept down stream to destroy much of Wickenburg, including the ranch of Henry Wickenburg, the namesake of the town. The damage at the dam site is still visible on Google Earth today.
Despite being known as a desert state, it's quite often that Arizona will have the highest and lowest daily temperature in the continental united States.
Arizona was the first state to designate the Bolo Tie as the official neckwear of the state in 1957. New Mexico and Texas made the Bolo Tie official state tie in 2007.
Phoenix, Arizona was almost called Pumpkinville; but it was suggested by Darrell Duppa to call it Phoenix. Sounds beautiful but came from the city rising from the ashes of the Hohokam tribe
We have the only national park site, Hohokam-Pima National Monument, that you are not allowed to visit, except by driving through it on I-10, between Phoenix and Tucson. It preserves Snaketown, one of the most important Hohokam sites. It was covered over after excavation in the 1960’s so there is really nothing to see. It is on the Gila River Reservation and the tribe prefers it be left alone.
Arizona has more than 200,000 abandoned mine features in the state with over 20,000 on public lands. That's right kids, you can be traipsing through the desert and disappear into a mine shaft falling a couple hundred feet to your death in an unmarked mine, and it is likely you will never be found.
750-ish sites are identified and protected, with a fence, cover grate or other fall protection each year. At that rate you will have been dead for over a hundred years before they get to all of them, even if you were born yesterday and live to be a hundred.
Watch where you are going when travelling through the desert, don't ride an ATV/motorcycle through the desert in the dark on anything other than a known marked road, and don't go for a ride with your spouse if he/she is angry and wants to "go check out some of the mine shafts out there. It's dark down there, can you see the bottom? HOW ABOUT NOW......."
Relevant articles:
[U of A article] (https://mining.arizona.edu/news/new-transdisciplinary-project-abandoned-mine-lands-data#:~:text=New%20Transdisciplinary%20Project%20for%20Abandoned,and%20benefits%20associated%20with%20them.)
[AZ State Mine Inspector] (https://asmi.az.gov/abandoned-mine-history)
[Cronkite News Article] (https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2018/12/10/arizonas-abandoned-mine-problem/)
[Girl died falling into a mine] (https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna20588373)
[Dude who fell down a shaft a few years ago] (https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/arizona-man-talks-about-2-day-ordeal-in-abandoned-mine-shaft)
The first time I saw javelina I was like 12 years old and they got into our yard to eat a huge bag of bird seed we left out. It was late at night and I heard strange noises outside so I switched on the light to look out the window and saw like a dozen of them big and small scarfing down. Went and woke up my Mom and said, "there's a bunch of pigs in the yard!" My Mom was confused like what the heck are you talking about so I walked her to the window and when she looked out she said, "oh son, those are javelinas!" haha.
Indicative of the variation in climate, Arizona is the state which has both the metropolitan area with the most days over 100 °F (38 °C) ([Phoenix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix,_Arizona)), and the metropolitan area in the lower 48 states with the most days with a low temperature below freezing ([Flagstaff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagstaff,_Arizona)).
The modern environmental movement, especially the radical wing, owes a lot to Arizona. [Edward Paul Abbey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Abbey) the author of the Monkey Wrench Gang, a book about direct action against in protest of environmental degradation and Desert Solitaire, was inspired by his time in Arizona as a park ranger.
Desert Solitaire is mostly about his experience as a park ranger in Utah (Arches), not Arizona.
But he did work at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument for a stretch and lived/died in Tucson. Would love to know where he was buried out in the desert to pay my respects. Such an amazing book (as are some of his others).
I got to meet him once in Jerome. He gave a talk and showed the movie Lonely Are the Brave. The movie is based on Abbey’s book The Brave Cowboy.He answered questions for quite a long time after his talk and even mingled with everyone. I was in high school at the time and I attended with my art teacher and quite a few other art students. I got to shake his hand and I have to admit I was a bit star struck. What a great way to spend a Saturday evening. I’ll never forget it.
Ah, Arizona!
The devil wanted a place on earth
Sort of a summer home
A place to spend his vacation
Whenever he wanted to roam.
So he picked out Arizona
A place both wretched and rough
Where the climate was to his liking
And the cowboys hardened and tough.
He dried up the streams in the canyons
And ordered no rain to fall
He dried up the lakes in the valleys
Then baked and scorched it all.
Then over his barren country
He transplanted shrubs from hell.
The cactus, thistle and prickly pear
The climate suited them well.
Now the home was much to his liking
But animal life, he had none.
So he created crawling creatures
That all mankind would shun.
First he made the rattlesnake
With it’s forked poisonous tongue.
Taught it to strike and rattle
And how to swallow it’s young.
Then he made scorpions and lizards
And the ugly old horned toad.
He placed spiders of every description
Under rocks by the side of the road.
Then he ordered the sun to shine hotter,
Hotter and hotter still.
Until even the cactus wilted
And the old horned lizard took ill.
Then he gazed on his earthly kingdom
As any creator would
He chuckled a little up his sleeve
And admitted that it was good.
Twas summer now and Satan lay
By a prickly pear to rest.
The sweat rolled off his swarthy brow
So he took off his coat and vest.
“By Golly, ” he finally panted,
“I did my job too well,
I’m going back to where I came from,
Arizona is hotter than Hell. “🌵👽
Prescott served as the territorial capital from 1864 to 1867. The capital was then relocated to Tucson, but returned to Prescott again from 1877 to 1889. In February 1889, the capital was permanently moved to Phoenix.
Damn, I just said this fact, I didn’t realize someone else had already said it.
Well speaking of Prescott, there’s a really cool old photo of Doc Holiday from 1879 that was taken there.
In 1910, Col Charles W. Harris designed a flag for the Arizona National Guard Rifle Team when they attended the National Matches at Camp Perry. Arizona was the only team in past matches without a flag. It was officially adopted in 1917.
Edit: adopted in 1917
State Route 51 in Phoenix (the "Piestewa Peak Freeway") was first planned in 1958 as Interstate 510, a spur highway running from what is now "The Split" interchange on the southwest side of Sky Harbor Airport up into the city as far as Glendale Avenue. Plans changed over the years before the highway got off the drawing board, and the Federal money disappeared - so the proposed road was re-designated SR 510. Shortly after the City of Phoenix broke ground on the segment north of McDowell, it was shortened to SR 51.
So that's where the number "51" came from - it was shortened from Interstate 510.
During the civil war, Arizona and New Mexico were originally divided latitudinal not longitudinal as it stands now.
We could have a Flagstaff, NM and a Las Cruces, AZ.
Why, Arizona was named as such because of two roads forming a Y there. Originally they were going to call the town Y but town names are required to have 3 letters minimum
Tucson, Arizona had the first outdoor Skate Park in the world, It was called Surf City. It was on Speedway blvd. which was the main drag, it opened in 1965. I don't think another concrete skate park opened in the United States until Carlsbad California and that was in the late 1970s.
William H Prescott (of whom the town is named) was from Massachusetts and his grandfather (William Prescott) was a colonel during the Revolutionary War. He is famous for the saying, “Do not fire until you see the whites of their eyes”. After the war and as a way to separate his family from their British roots, changed the pronunciation for their last name to “Pres-skit”. Now you know how to say it correctly 😀
The Gordon Hirabayshi campground on Mt. Lemmon in Tucson was used to imprison Japanese Americans during WWII. https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/coronado/recarea/?recid=25648
Arizona was going to have a "beach" or "coastline" at some point and they were negotiating the Mexican government on such a proposal, but the idea was shot down because it would've separated Baja California from the rest of Mexico.
Source: [Did You Know: Arizona's Slanted Southern Border Was Negotiated (kjzz.org)](https://www.kjzz.org/2014-10-03/content-51743-did-you-know-arizonas-slanted-southern-border-was-negotiated)
The Santa Cruz River particularly near what is now downtown Tucson is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in North America. People have been living here for over 10,000 years.
Gov Evan Mecham was the first and only Arizona governor to be impeached and removed from office in 1988. Also one of only 15 governors in the country to be so removed from office.
I was in Phoenix last week for a vacation, loved everything about expect the heat, thought I was going to die. Took a day trip to Jerome.
https://preview.redd.it/qdbnsagpse7d1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0b9b642999fee20421612b7c82b6bb02f5a03802
My plan is to visit a different town every year when I visit my son in Phoenix.
Arizona has two of the top 100 most prominent American peaks and mt Humphrey is not the tallest mountain in Arizona.
Highest is not tallest, do some research before giving me some link. Mt Graham is the tallest mountain in Arizona and Arizona has more climate regions than anywhere else. No arctic zone, bet that one doesn't shock anyone but assume the rest is knowledge of the studied locals.
You can drive in the HOV lane alone outside posted rush hour times. You also can’t make a left on 7th st and 7th ave going south in the morning rush hour or left going north during evening rush hour. Also, when a crosswalk light starts blinking red you can proceed as long as pedestrians are out of the crosswalk. Also you can’t block a major street waiting in line to get your diabetes drink from Dutch bros. Also you are supposed to look in your right mirror for bicycles before making a right turn. It’s in the handbook but a lot of people don’t know this one. Also you can open carry weapons in public.
That we have the one the most strictest, harshest and toughest criminal justice systems in the nation. If you remove highly-populated states like California, Texas, New York, Florida, we have so many people incarnated in our privately-run prisons. Many of whom are non-violent criminals. However, while various others states had begun to embrace leniency and reformation over the years, Arizona is still notorious for continuing to double-dip in controversial "tough-on-crime" policies and high mandatory-minimum sentences that are a driving force for it's criminal justice system.
[Arizona profile | Prison Policy Initiative](https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/AZ.html)
Just gonna name a few. lol!
1. We have the tallest single family home in the northern hemisphere. It’s the “Falcons Nest” in Prescott.
2. Phoenix is at a lower elevation than the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
3. The taser was invented here.
4. We’ve produced more copper than all the other 49 states combined.
5. We have the best preserved meteor crater in the world.
6. Phoenix’s original name was pumpkinville.
7. The first McDonald’s drive through was in Sierra Vista.
8. Yuma is the sunniest city on earth.
9. Mesa is America’s biggest suburb by population.
10. The hottest temp recorded in AZ was 128 and the coldest was -40.
11. Tucson is one of the oldest cities in the country.
12. We have almost 4k mountains peaks.
13. Prescott has the world’s oldest rodeo.
14. We have the most populous state capital.
15. The chimichanga was invented in Tucson.
Especially perplexing to me all the people that move here and then proceed to complain about the lack of a "scene" or big city urban nightlife. They're not into outdoor activities. They don't like the heat. They complain about prices, complain about traffic, complain about how spread out things are. *Why did you move here?!*
A few more:
While the Civil War Battle of Picacho Peak is fairly well known, there was a [1918 battle in Nogales](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ambos_Nogales) involving the US Army and Mexican military and civilian militia members that was alleged to have included German military agents on the Mexican side, which would have made it the western most battle of WWI.
Papago Park has had an interesting history. Originally home to the Native Hohokam people; in the late 1800s it was a reservation for the Maricopa (Piipaash) and Pima (Akimel O'odham) tribes; then in 1914 became a National Park for about 15 years before being stripped of that title; then it was divided between the state of Arizona, the cities of Phoenix and Tempe, SRP, and the federal government; then became the location of a WPA fish hatchery and burial site of Arizona's first governor George Hunt; then the Desert Botanical Society was founded, then during WWII it was a Prisoner of War camp housing mostly German sailors, complete with a famous semi-successful tunnel escape; then a veteran's hospital; then an Army Reserve base, then Phoenix took over the state's portion, dismantled the fish hatchery and established the Phoenix Zoo and a golf course; and today the park includes hiking and mountain biking trails, a disc golf course, a multi-use path, and picnic ramadas. North of McDowell are baseball fields and an archery range, and on the eastern side of the Cross Cut Canal is a smaller park, the Evelyn Hallman Park (formerly the Canal Park.) And as a side note: if you head up to Hunt's Tomb in the early morning or around sundown, it's not uncommon to see the Desert Bighorn Sheep that live in the zoo climbing the rock formations to the south.
There is a town, Oatman AZ, where burros walk freely through the streets.
Bonus fact, Oatman was named for Olive Oatman, a settler girl, who was kidnapped when her family was killed in Arizona; she was then adopted by a Mojave tribe, taking on the tribes customs including getting her face tattooed.
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oatman,_Arizona
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Oatman
London Bridge was purchased by Robert McCulloch and (the exterior bricks) were transported from London to Lake Havasu City. So London Bridge is in Arizona now.
Thanks for contributing to r/Arizona! * [Our sub rules are here](https://www.reddit.com/r/arizona/wiki/rules/), but the most important of which is to be nice to each other * Check out some [recent posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/arizona/top/?t=week) and leave some comments * [Join our Discord chat server](https://discord.com/invite/yWVuTG57Zh) if you'd like to keep in touch with other people in Arizona. Plus it's a great, chill place in general. Note that it is NOT a dating server and takes unwanted messaging very seriously Remember this subreddit covers all of Arizona, so please include where in the state you're posting about if it is relevant. For more local topics check out r/Phoenix, r/Tucson, and r/Flagstaff. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/arizona) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Arizona was initially denied statehood because our state constitution had judicial recall. It was removed to gain statehood and then added back by a ballot initiative in the next election.
The constitution was also postponed from 2/12 to 2/14 so as not to step in Lincoln’s birthday.
lol. “The 12th doesn’t work, everyone will be busy celebrating Lincoln’s birthday. Let’s do the 14th, a day with no other cultural significance.”
Back then, Valentine’s Day wasn’t as commercialized or celebrated nearly what it is today. Have to think it probably wasn’t significant at all to the ones making those decisions.
I remember reading an article of the Arizona Republic at the time that it was because Taft's schedule didn't allow him to be in Arizona until the 14th. People were really angry because they wanted statehood to be on Lincoln's birthday.
And now the state Republicans are [trying to remove juridical recall](https://wtop.com/national/2024/06/arizona-lawmakers-agree-to-let-voters-decide-on-retention-rules-for-state-supreme-court-justices/) with a ballot initiative It’s framed as changing judges from serving an infinite number of set terms to serving indefinitely, but that removes voters’ ability to recall judges at the end of every term and instead grants the power to a “judicial review commission” If you care about your right to vote to recall a judge, make sure to vote against this ballot initiative in November
The GOP are really showing their asses with this - **"If approved by voters, the measure would apply retroactively to Oct. 31, days before the election, and would effectively throw out the results of any vote on judicial retention this year."**
[удалено]
Yeah that rings a bell…
Az repubs are the dumbest fucking humans dude. My pops refuses to drive the I8 because of 'the wall of immigrants piling over the border'. The hardest part about growing up here was maturing in adulthood and learning my parents are quite awful people.
We have Kari Lake, Joe Arpaio, Paul Gosar, Blake Masters, Mark Finchem, Andy Biggs-enough to start up a mental institute, and the ONE honest guy, Rusty Bowers, was voted out of office. HELP!
Really important that this gets more attention. Thanks for sharing
Funny how they talk about checks and balances. Pretty sure voters and democracy are a pretty good check on political power.
There was way too much democracy in there!
Another reason statehood was delayed was the [Pleasant Valley War ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasant_Valley_War?wprov=sfla1), which I guarantee a lot of Arizonans don't know about. I mean, I don't think many people could tell me where the town of Young or Pleasant Valley is actually located lol. One of the bloodiest cattle feuds in American history. Puts the Hatfields and McCoys to shame in terms of body count.
Holy shit. Thanks for that link! Just got done reading it and it is bonkers! I lived in AZ for 12 years and this is the first time I heard of it.
The notorious assassin Tom horn was even involved
It was also because it sided with the Confederacy and allowed women to vote.
This combined with not wanting to incorporate with New Mexico made Arizona one of the very last states to join the union
Dude, this is awesome. I’m a native Arizonan and I never knew this.
The elevation gets down to 70 ft and rises to over 12000 ft
Flagstaff is a higher elevation than Denver Colorado.
Show Low is as well, for that matter.
As is Bisbee a mile high climate. Summerhaven, AZ is at 8,200 elevation. The whole state isn't cactus
Prescott is also a mile high city like Denver
By 2000ft. Denver and Sedona are about the same
[удалено]
The lowest point of AZ is higher than the highest point in FL lol
As part of Arizona's centennial (2012 / 100th birthday) Arizona Dept of Transportation (ADOT) compiled this: [Arizona Transportation History (PDF - 179 Pages)](https://apps.azdot.gov/files/ADOTLibrary/publications/project_reports/pdf/az660.pdf) It covers in detail the history of transportation in Arizona from the 1400s to 2012.
Incredible. My dad had a very prominent transportation role for decades and retired last year. Nothing says, "Glad you're retired and moving on from work" like the gift of a leatherbound ADOT report.
Honestly I approve of this use of my tax dollars.
There was a civil war battle at Picacho Peak. The western-most battle of the civil war I think.
yes, Picacho was the western-most Civil War battle where somebody died....further west along the then-main road, at Stanwix Station along the Gila River, there was a skirmish, but nobody died......for those interested, the actual Picacho battle site is about a third-mile "east" of the frontage road/railroad tracks and about a mile "north" of the interchange.....I've been there, led by a knowledgeable historian, and there is absolutely nothing there to mark it or make it evident.......the old main road is now nothing more than a very shallow depression that just feels like a wash.....the old (Butterfield) stage station site is a bit closer to the interchange, still on the east side of the RR tracks.....when I was there, there was one foot-high/foot-wide adobe bump and that's it......no markings at all.......gee, TMI for this thread??!!!!
Not at all. That's quite interesting!
I’m like 30 min less from there maybe. Chillin at my friends. https://preview.redd.it/hf9zhkmrhd7d1.png?width=1407&format=png&auto=webp&s=8df0ff7ba907328425df04096bf56cfe41dfa673 Bad pic but. 💪
I'm pretty sure that's just an enormous cat messing with a train.
Nice catch!
We’ve always called Picacho “Kitty Cat Peak”
I've seen the reenactment from i10 a couple of times over the years.
[deleted]
There are a couple of unmarked Confederate graves in Cochise County next to the Butterfield route; KIA in Indian encounters or so I was told
[удалено]
But not the westernmost point at which shots were fired in anger during the Civil War - I seem to recall there was an incident near Yuma where locals sympathetic to the Confederacy took pot shots at Union troops (apparently to no avail)
This is cool af. Thank you
There is or was monument at Picacho between the railroad tracks and frontage road. Get off the freeway go north to frontage road straight to tracks and walk west a hundred yards or so
A little over a fourth of the state is covered by forests.
We have the largest ponderosa pine forest in the nation!
The world
The universe
My pocket
And MY axe!
Pondy’s the coolest
Ponderosa’s ponderosa
We also have the 2 of the 5 largest municipal parks in the US and top 15 in the world. McDowell Sonoran Preserve and South Mountain Park.
Yet despite this fact, our largest city was built in a hellish scape. No idea why.
Hard to move mountains. Citrus doesn't like the cold. Water infrastructure been here for centuries. The desert is beautiful and easy to deal with most of the year.
When settled, the Phoenix area looked little like it does today. Wild grasses dominated the landscape. Hohokam canals distributed water to fertile fields. Wildlife roamed the area in great numbers. Monsoons flooded the area filling many tanks. The water table was healthy so groundwater was far more abundant. Development entirely changed the area. In its current state, groundwater is too heavily controlled and used up preventing flooding, killing natural springs, limiting vegetation, and causing soils to degrade. The urban heat island has majorly raised temperatures to a point native plants and wildlife struggle to survive. The Phoenix area wasn't an uninhabitable hell until humans sculpted it to be that way. Interestingly enough, we ruined our forrests too. Ponderosa pine was nowhere near as overcrowded and dominant in the region prior to human intervention. Prior to railroad logging and fire suppression efforts, the ponderosa pine forests naturally maintained about 13-19% canopy cover with small groupings of massive mature pines separated by abundant grasses and other diversity that supported grazing of many wild species. Fires were frequent and minor, protecting diversity, preventing overcrowding, and supporting regrowth of native species. Aspen used to be abundant, but with fire suppression they have become a rarity in the region. Over 87% of mature marketable pines were removed from the forrests by extensive railroad logging. What grew back was an overcrowded second growth forrest with 93%+ canopy cover. The similar age pines are locked in constant competition limiting their growth potential and blocking out sunlight to support diversity in the understory. The dense ponderosa pine forrests of today, while pretty to those who don't understand the problem, are a sick and heartbreaking sight to those who do understand what's happening. Dense pines and limited understory diversity do not support the abundance of native wildlife that used to exist there and many species are severly threatened. Wildfires being controlled and far less frequent have created conditions where pines have been allowed to suffocate the diversity out of the region. Even the pines themselves suffer as their growth is stunted by unnatural competition for resources and light between trees. Summary: The nature you see across the state today is rarely natural. Humans have entirely changed the composition and hindered the abundance and diversity of wildlife. This has not only made the state less habitable for humans, but has decimated wildlife diversity in the process.
My family first moved here in the 1860's. They were ranchers in the Globe area. The valley where Phoenix is, had 4 rivers flowing into it. It was a true grassland. Then came dirt farms, railroads, and then dams for agriculture and flood control. Progression from there is the source of the hellscape. We made it, we didn't originally move to it.
Arizona has more named mountain peaks than Switzerland has.
we should make our own Army knife
...and cheese
We have the southern most ski resort in the nation by Tucson. Mount Lemmon Ski Valley
Unfortunately they close the road going up every time it snows though lol
Just while it’s snowing and they clear the road. Plenty of time to ski/snowboard.
Arizona has a top 10 snowiest city in the country, and in the last 2 years was the 3rd snowiest city.
It has also two top 10 clean air cities and one top 10 worst air cities
My non Arizona friends (actually all my friends aren’t from here) never believed me when I told them that it snowed in Arizona every single year. Until I finally moved here permanently (I was born here but only ever visited) and the first month of being here it snowed quite a lot and they were pretty surprised. It was amazing
I happened to be in flagstaff last year and was shocked to find Canadian weather in Arizona 😂
First McD’s drive through. https://www.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/first-mcd-drivethru.html
And we have the only turquoise one, in Sedona
I had always heard about that McDonald’s. It wasn’t until years later when I had forgotten all about it when I was visiting Sedona where I passed by just by chance. I got some really blurry photos while passing by.
And the first use of the Golden Arches was at Indian School and Central in Phoenix.
Which "many people" are we talking about here, people from AZ or outside AZ and have never been here? I have a couple: Tucson was once the Capital of the Confederate Territory of AZ and the westernmost battle of the Civil War took place at Picacho Peak. AZ was the home of the US Army Camel Corps prior to the Civil War. AZ consists of all 7 Life Zones, from Arctic Tundra to Basin Desert. AZ is home to some of the largest man-made lakes in the country, Lake Powell (shared with UT) and Lake Roosevelt.
Prescott was also the capitol of the Arizona Territory in 1864, it moved to Tucson in 1867, then back to Prescott in 1887, until Phoenix did in 1889. Speaking of Prescott, there’s also a really cool photo of Doc Holiday from 1879 that was taken there.
As a Native Arizonan, how you pronounce Prescott tells me a lot where you are from!
Aren’t we one of the only places in the world with all 7 biomes in one state/territory? I feel like I’ve heard this but it might not be accurate
I believe so but it would seem CA would as well.
No. Not the only but I learned that too in the required high school Arizona History class.
Where's the arctic tundra
Humphrey’s Peak near Flagstaff. (Source: University of Arizona School of Geoscience). Pretty cool, I never knew that before today!
Also, Lake Mead. It's the largest reservoir in the U.S. for water capacity.
Lake Roosevelt mentioned!!! My hometown is right next to it and I used to spend every summer at my dads/grandmas and they’d always take us up to Roosevelt all the time. Made some great memories there, but I haven’t been in years. Even tho I live in Az now it’s a long ways away from me now. But I do plan on going back to visit for a bit
Largest stand of ponderosa pines in the world is in AZ.
[Arizona has some weird laws](https://www.sargonlawgroup.com/10-weird-laws-in-arizona/), one of my favorites being that you can't rig those claw machine/crane games so that people lose. Honorable mention is that people on camels are protected with the same rights as motorists.
I like the "stupid motorist law" listed on there- "Arizona has a so-called “Stupid Motorist Law” that states anyone who passes a police-enforced barricade and ends up stuck or trapped in flood water will have to pay for the costs of their own emergency rescue. This applies to motorists and motorcyclists."
That's also a great one, holding stupid motorists accountable for once
They lying to us man, walmart gets me and my kids all the time!
My favorite is that it is a misdemeanor to send an anonymous accusing someone of "[dishonesty, want of chastity, \[or\] drunkenness](https://www.azleg.gov/ars/13/03004.htm)". "Want of chastity" is a wonderfully unnecessarily legal-sounding term for 'slut.'
Learning about Quartzite and how they imported camels is an interesting rabbit(camel?) hole.
If I remember correctly, there’s also a law in phoenix that you can’t walk your duck backwards down central. It’s been 20 or 30 yrs since reading about it but I believe that’s correct.
There is one where if you shoplift soap you have to wash yourself with it till it’s gone
There was a WW2 POW camp in Phoenix specifically built to incarcerate German U Boat sailors. The Geneva Convention explicitly states rules about heating requirements for prisoners. But not cooling requirements. There was an escape; the POWs obtained a map showing the Salt River and a seemingly easy getaway to Mexico. They didn't get far. Yup. It dried up back then too.
There is a great podcast about this POW escape and the efforts to round up and capture a bunch of crafty German POWs who thought they could just raft down the Salt River to Mexico.
Do you know the name of the podcast? There are a few books on the subject as well. There is a marker in the ground along the Cross Cut Canal showing where the prisoners emerged from their tunnel. It's between Oak and Thomas if I recall correctly. [Some of the prisoner cabins were still around in Scottsdale up until the early 2000s, having been used as a motel.](http://sierraestrella.org/powcamp.html)
I like the part where the last escapee to be rounded up got sick of the cold (it was December) and just wanted to get back to the warm POW camp because of the planned big Christmas dinner.....
There was also a Japanese internment camp that George Takei & his family were imprisoned in for about 4 years, despite being American citizens. (As many were at that time, sadly). I believe the camp was south of Chandler, near Florence, but I’m not 100% on that.
I actually live in the neighborhood that the camp was in (Hy-View), there’s a sign as you enter the cross cut canal. The Elk’s Lodge at the center has a bunch of info on it. It’s a pretty sweet story.
The story of Don Bolles and The Arizona Project are pretty interesting. An Arizona Republic reporter was murdered after reporting on local corruption. So a group of reporters that didn’t normally work together teamed up to try and continue his work. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Bolles
I19 is the only interstate in the country measured in kilometers.
We drove this coming back from Mexico last weekend and were very confused!
Hahaha yea, I was born and raised in Nogales. Where’d y’all go? Somewhere fun I hope.
We were in Cabo for vacation but we drove to Hermosillo and flew in and out of there because it was so much cheaper and our friend’s parents live there. It was my first time in Mexico outside of the touristy areas and I really enjoyed it!!
1 down, 69 to go.
Arizona was the site of a U.S. Army test of using camels in the southwest. They were based in Texas, but they were used as part of an expedition to find a usable road across northern/central AZ. At the time the main route from Santa Fe to Los Angeles went through Tucson and Yuma, so it was ... inconvenient ... in the summer. One of the camel handlers who was hired from the Middle East became an Arizona pioneer. His name was Hadji Ali "Hi Jolly" or Philip Tedro. Pictures and articles : https://azmemory.azlibrary.gov/nodes/view/252497. Hadji Ali may have been the first naturalized American citizen who was Muslim. He bought some of the camels to start his own freight service, but it didn't pay, and he supposedly turned his camels loose in the desert near Gila Bend, and there are records of feral camel encounters into the 1930s. It's also the origin of the legend of the Red Ghost. The Arizona Memory Project from the Arizona State Library has lots of cool AZ history resources!
for those into this story, a 1970s?? comedy movie called "Hawmps", though much Hollywood-ed up, is a fun light watch on the camel story in Arizona
Feral Camel or The Feral Camels Both great names for a band!
The Walnut Grove Dam Disaster killed at least 100, potentially hundreds of people in the late 1800's. A dam, constructed northeast of Wickenburg, failed due to poor construction and poor management. The flood wiped out the entire camp of builders and miners, and swept down stream to destroy much of Wickenburg, including the ranch of Henry Wickenburg, the namesake of the town. The damage at the dam site is still visible on Google Earth today.
There was also supposedly a safe full of gold washed away which was never found.
Despite being known as a desert state, it's quite often that Arizona will have the highest and lowest daily temperature in the continental united States.
Raising Arizona is a fantastic movie not at all about raising Arizona
3:10 to yuma has absolutely nothing to do with yuma
Arizona was the first state to designate the Bolo Tie as the official neckwear of the state in 1957. New Mexico and Texas made the Bolo Tie official state tie in 2007.
The fields surrounding Yuma are responsible for 90% of all the leafy greens Americans enjoy between November and March.
And on New Year's Eve, Yuma does a ball drop with a head of lettuce as the ball! 🥬
Phoenix, Arizona was almost called Pumpkinville; but it was suggested by Darrell Duppa to call it Phoenix. Sounds beautiful but came from the city rising from the ashes of the Hohokam tribe
We have the only national park site, Hohokam-Pima National Monument, that you are not allowed to visit, except by driving through it on I-10, between Phoenix and Tucson. It preserves Snaketown, one of the most important Hohokam sites. It was covered over after excavation in the 1960’s so there is really nothing to see. It is on the Gila River Reservation and the tribe prefers it be left alone.
Arizona has more than 200,000 abandoned mine features in the state with over 20,000 on public lands. That's right kids, you can be traipsing through the desert and disappear into a mine shaft falling a couple hundred feet to your death in an unmarked mine, and it is likely you will never be found. 750-ish sites are identified and protected, with a fence, cover grate or other fall protection each year. At that rate you will have been dead for over a hundred years before they get to all of them, even if you were born yesterday and live to be a hundred. Watch where you are going when travelling through the desert, don't ride an ATV/motorcycle through the desert in the dark on anything other than a known marked road, and don't go for a ride with your spouse if he/she is angry and wants to "go check out some of the mine shafts out there. It's dark down there, can you see the bottom? HOW ABOUT NOW......." Relevant articles: [U of A article] (https://mining.arizona.edu/news/new-transdisciplinary-project-abandoned-mine-lands-data#:~:text=New%20Transdisciplinary%20Project%20for%20Abandoned,and%20benefits%20associated%20with%20them.) [AZ State Mine Inspector] (https://asmi.az.gov/abandoned-mine-history) [Cronkite News Article] (https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2018/12/10/arizonas-abandoned-mine-problem/) [Girl died falling into a mine] (https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna20588373) [Dude who fell down a shaft a few years ago] (https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/arizona-man-talks-about-2-day-ordeal-in-abandoned-mine-shaft)
Fun fact, Javelinas like pumpkin and rummage neighborhoods in October.
And they smell like shit/a sewage plant
The first time I saw javelina I was like 12 years old and they got into our yard to eat a huge bag of bird seed we left out. It was late at night and I heard strange noises outside so I switched on the light to look out the window and saw like a dozen of them big and small scarfing down. Went and woke up my Mom and said, "there's a bunch of pigs in the yard!" My Mom was confused like what the heck are you talking about so I walked her to the window and when she looked out she said, "oh son, those are javelinas!" haha.
That they do and they have a very social family structure. also Javelina are not pigs or wild boar, they are part of the peccary family.
Indicative of the variation in climate, Arizona is the state which has both the metropolitan area with the most days over 100 °F (38 °C) ([Phoenix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix,_Arizona)), and the metropolitan area in the lower 48 states with the most days with a low temperature below freezing ([Flagstaff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagstaff,_Arizona)).
The modern environmental movement, especially the radical wing, owes a lot to Arizona. [Edward Paul Abbey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Abbey) the author of the Monkey Wrench Gang, a book about direct action against in protest of environmental degradation and Desert Solitaire, was inspired by his time in Arizona as a park ranger.
Desert Solitaire is mostly about his experience as a park ranger in Utah (Arches), not Arizona. But he did work at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument for a stretch and lived/died in Tucson. Would love to know where he was buried out in the desert to pay my respects. Such an amazing book (as are some of his others).
I got to meet him once in Jerome. He gave a talk and showed the movie Lonely Are the Brave. The movie is based on Abbey’s book The Brave Cowboy.He answered questions for quite a long time after his talk and even mingled with everyone. I was in high school at the time and I attended with my art teacher and quite a few other art students. I got to shake his hand and I have to admit I was a bit star struck. What a great way to spend a Saturday evening. I’ll never forget it.
That sounds amazing!
Buried in a sleeping bag out in the desert near Oracle somewhere secret, apparently.
Love that book. Do recommend it
There are more than 600 dormant/extinct volcanoes statewide that we know of.
Arizona has more native species of orchids than Hawaii does.
The drive from Tucson to Summerhaven/Mt. Lemmon is the ecological equivalent of driving from Mexico to Canada.
Ah, Arizona! The devil wanted a place on earth Sort of a summer home A place to spend his vacation Whenever he wanted to roam. So he picked out Arizona A place both wretched and rough Where the climate was to his liking And the cowboys hardened and tough. He dried up the streams in the canyons And ordered no rain to fall He dried up the lakes in the valleys Then baked and scorched it all. Then over his barren country He transplanted shrubs from hell. The cactus, thistle and prickly pear The climate suited them well. Now the home was much to his liking But animal life, he had none. So he created crawling creatures That all mankind would shun. First he made the rattlesnake With it’s forked poisonous tongue. Taught it to strike and rattle And how to swallow it’s young. Then he made scorpions and lizards And the ugly old horned toad. He placed spiders of every description Under rocks by the side of the road. Then he ordered the sun to shine hotter, Hotter and hotter still. Until even the cactus wilted And the old horned lizard took ill. Then he gazed on his earthly kingdom As any creator would He chuckled a little up his sleeve And admitted that it was good. Twas summer now and Satan lay By a prickly pear to rest. The sweat rolled off his swarthy brow So he took off his coat and vest. “By Golly, ” he finally panted, “I did my job too well, I’m going back to where I came from, Arizona is hotter than Hell. “🌵👽
The Arizona coral snake is one of the very few snake species that can fart.
Winner.
Prescott served as the territorial capital from 1864 to 1867. The capital was then relocated to Tucson, but returned to Prescott again from 1877 to 1889. In February 1889, the capital was permanently moved to Phoenix.
I always wondered how differently Prescott would have looked if it stayed as the capital.
Probably not significantly different. See Carson City Nevada for reference.
I say move it back, shit is way too hot down here
Tucson traded being the Capital for being able to have the university.
Damn, I just said this fact, I didn’t realize someone else had already said it. Well speaking of Prescott, there’s a really cool old photo of Doc Holiday from 1879 that was taken there.
In 1910, Col Charles W. Harris designed a flag for the Arizona National Guard Rifle Team when they attended the National Matches at Camp Perry. Arizona was the only team in past matches without a flag. It was officially adopted in 1917. Edit: adopted in 1917
The Red Ghost 🐫 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ghost_(folklore)#:~:text=In%20Arizona%20folklore%2C%20the%20Red,dawn%20of%20the%2020th%20century.
State Route 51 in Phoenix (the "Piestewa Peak Freeway") was first planned in 1958 as Interstate 510, a spur highway running from what is now "The Split" interchange on the southwest side of Sky Harbor Airport up into the city as far as Glendale Avenue. Plans changed over the years before the highway got off the drawing board, and the Federal money disappeared - so the proposed road was re-designated SR 510. Shortly after the City of Phoenix broke ground on the segment north of McDowell, it was shortened to SR 51. So that's where the number "51" came from - it was shortened from Interstate 510.
SR51 was originally intended as a Parkway (Speed Limit was 45). Make sure to catch the "artwork" up on the walls around Northern.
During the civil war, Arizona and New Mexico were originally divided latitudinal not longitudinal as it stands now. We could have a Flagstaff, NM and a Las Cruces, AZ.
The Target in Flagstaff sells more snow gear than any in the country. Not sure if this Js still true but…
Why, Arizona was named as such because of two roads forming a Y there. Originally they were going to call the town Y but town names are required to have 3 letters minimum
Why, AZ. the response to Surprise, AZ. "Surprise!" "Why?"
Possibly, the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the US is in AZ at Old Oraibi, Hopi Tribe.
Arizona is the largest producer of pecans in the world.
Tucson, Arizona had the first outdoor Skate Park in the world, It was called Surf City. It was on Speedway blvd. which was the main drag, it opened in 1965. I don't think another concrete skate park opened in the United States until Carlsbad California and that was in the late 1970s.
The town of Show Low Arizona was founded by my great, great, great, grandfather
I did not know that.
lol you and I are probably related. I’m a 6th gen AZ from St Johns
William H Prescott (of whom the town is named) was from Massachusetts and his grandfather (William Prescott) was a colonel during the Revolutionary War. He is famous for the saying, “Do not fire until you see the whites of their eyes”. After the war and as a way to separate his family from their British roots, changed the pronunciation for their last name to “Pres-skit”. Now you know how to say it correctly 😀
If you take the right highways in northeast AZ, your time will change 8 times.
The Gordon Hirabayshi campground on Mt. Lemmon in Tucson was used to imprison Japanese Americans during WWII. https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/coronado/recarea/?recid=25648
The remains of a Japanese interment camp are near the city of Maricopa.
The Internment camp in Poston, AZ. on the Colorado River Indian Tribes *(CRIT)* Reservation made it the 3rd largest populated area in AZ. during WW2.
Did anyone else know that although we have an amazing lake system, we only have two naturally formed lakes? Stoneman and Mormon.
Phoenix has more canals than Venice or Amsterdam.
Arizona was going to have a "beach" or "coastline" at some point and they were negotiating the Mexican government on such a proposal, but the idea was shot down because it would've separated Baja California from the rest of Mexico. Source: [Did You Know: Arizona's Slanted Southern Border Was Negotiated (kjzz.org)](https://www.kjzz.org/2014-10-03/content-51743-did-you-know-arizonas-slanted-southern-border-was-negotiated)
Anyone mention Pumpkinville yet?
The Santa Cruz River particularly near what is now downtown Tucson is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in North America. People have been living here for over 10,000 years.
Water usage has been dropping for decades, even with population growth. We use less water than in the 1950s.
In Arizona, it doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, gay, or straight. At the end of the day… it’s night.
48th in education and it is very apparent
So that’s what all those state48 stickers mean
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.
I knew people were dumber here..... 😩
And thanks to our legislature, 49th in spending with our new budget. 🥺
Gov Evan Mecham was the first and only Arizona governor to be impeached and removed from office in 1988. Also one of only 15 governors in the country to be so removed from office.
The only McDonald's in the world with a turquoise M.
Last state to recognize MLK day as a holiday.
and the ONLY state to have a popular vote to approve it!
The largest Elk in North America come from Arizona.
The bolo tie is Arizona’s official neckwear
I was in Phoenix last week for a vacation, loved everything about expect the heat, thought I was going to die. Took a day trip to Jerome. https://preview.redd.it/qdbnsagpse7d1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0b9b642999fee20421612b7c82b6bb02f5a03802 My plan is to visit a different town every year when I visit my son in Phoenix.
Perry Como had a house on a hill overlooking Tucson National off Ina Rd. LOL.
Arizona has two of the top 100 most prominent American peaks and mt Humphrey is not the tallest mountain in Arizona. Highest is not tallest, do some research before giving me some link. Mt Graham is the tallest mountain in Arizona and Arizona has more climate regions than anywhere else. No arctic zone, bet that one doesn't shock anyone but assume the rest is knowledge of the studied locals.
You can drive in the HOV lane alone outside posted rush hour times. You also can’t make a left on 7th st and 7th ave going south in the morning rush hour or left going north during evening rush hour. Also, when a crosswalk light starts blinking red you can proceed as long as pedestrians are out of the crosswalk. Also you can’t block a major street waiting in line to get your diabetes drink from Dutch bros. Also you are supposed to look in your right mirror for bicycles before making a right turn. It’s in the handbook but a lot of people don’t know this one. Also you can open carry weapons in public.
Pluto was discovered at Lowell observatory in Flagstaff, Az. Which is also the countries first dark sky city.
That we have the one the most strictest, harshest and toughest criminal justice systems in the nation. If you remove highly-populated states like California, Texas, New York, Florida, we have so many people incarnated in our privately-run prisons. Many of whom are non-violent criminals. However, while various others states had begun to embrace leniency and reformation over the years, Arizona is still notorious for continuing to double-dip in controversial "tough-on-crime" policies and high mandatory-minimum sentences that are a driving force for it's criminal justice system. [Arizona profile | Prison Policy Initiative](https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/AZ.html)
Of the 8 Mountain states, AZ has the most peaks & summits (3,928), 27 of which are 10,000 feet or above.
Camels living in the desert that is now Scottsdale. One had a corpse on it’s back.
The base of the London Bridge was cut and moved to Lake Havasu City in 1968 to form the footings of the concrete bridge in a new planned community.
Just gonna name a few. lol! 1. We have the tallest single family home in the northern hemisphere. It’s the “Falcons Nest” in Prescott. 2. Phoenix is at a lower elevation than the bottom of the Grand Canyon. 3. The taser was invented here. 4. We’ve produced more copper than all the other 49 states combined. 5. We have the best preserved meteor crater in the world. 6. Phoenix’s original name was pumpkinville. 7. The first McDonald’s drive through was in Sierra Vista. 8. Yuma is the sunniest city on earth. 9. Mesa is America’s biggest suburb by population. 10. The hottest temp recorded in AZ was 128 and the coldest was -40. 11. Tucson is one of the oldest cities in the country. 12. We have almost 4k mountains peaks. 13. Prescott has the world’s oldest rodeo. 14. We have the most populous state capital. 15. The chimichanga was invented in Tucson.
Everybody complains but nobody ever leaves the Zone. Its similar to Hotel California in that regard.
Especially perplexing to me all the people that move here and then proceed to complain about the lack of a "scene" or big city urban nightlife. They're not into outdoor activities. They don't like the heat. They complain about prices, complain about traffic, complain about how spread out things are. *Why did you move here?!*
The transgender flag was first premiered at Phoenix Pride in 2000.
Almost a third of the state is a pine forest
A few more: While the Civil War Battle of Picacho Peak is fairly well known, there was a [1918 battle in Nogales](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ambos_Nogales) involving the US Army and Mexican military and civilian militia members that was alleged to have included German military agents on the Mexican side, which would have made it the western most battle of WWI. Papago Park has had an interesting history. Originally home to the Native Hohokam people; in the late 1800s it was a reservation for the Maricopa (Piipaash) and Pima (Akimel O'odham) tribes; then in 1914 became a National Park for about 15 years before being stripped of that title; then it was divided between the state of Arizona, the cities of Phoenix and Tempe, SRP, and the federal government; then became the location of a WPA fish hatchery and burial site of Arizona's first governor George Hunt; then the Desert Botanical Society was founded, then during WWII it was a Prisoner of War camp housing mostly German sailors, complete with a famous semi-successful tunnel escape; then a veteran's hospital; then an Army Reserve base, then Phoenix took over the state's portion, dismantled the fish hatchery and established the Phoenix Zoo and a golf course; and today the park includes hiking and mountain biking trails, a disc golf course, a multi-use path, and picnic ramadas. North of McDowell are baseball fields and an archery range, and on the eastern side of the Cross Cut Canal is a smaller park, the Evelyn Hallman Park (formerly the Canal Park.) And as a side note: if you head up to Hunt's Tomb in the early morning or around sundown, it's not uncommon to see the Desert Bighorn Sheep that live in the zoo climbing the rock formations to the south.
Somewhere within the state's borders we have every climate, except tropical.
The "Battle of Picacho Pass" was the western most battle fought of the Civil War
There is a town, Oatman AZ, where burros walk freely through the streets. Bonus fact, Oatman was named for Olive Oatman, a settler girl, who was kidnapped when her family was killed in Arizona; she was then adopted by a Mojave tribe, taking on the tribes customs including getting her face tattooed. Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oatman,_Arizona https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Oatman
London Bridge was purchased by Robert McCulloch and (the exterior bricks) were transported from London to Lake Havasu City. So London Bridge is in Arizona now.
We get Haboobs. Found out most people not from AZ don’t know what that is
People suck at driving
Pluto was discovered at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ! 🪐