The State of Arizona is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States of America.
The capital and largest city is Phoenix.
The three next largest cities are Tucson, Mesa and Glendale. Arizona was the 48th and last of the contiguous states admitted to the Union on February 14, 1912.
Arizona is noted for its desert climate, exceptionally hot summers and mild winters, but the high country in the north features pine forests and mountain ranges with cooler weather than the lower deserts.
New population figures for the year ending July 1, 2006, indicate that Arizona is the fastest growing state in the United States, exceeding the growth of the previous leader, Nevada.
Arizona is one of the Four Corners states.
It borders New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California, touches Colorado, and has a 389 mi (626 km) international border with the states of Sonora and Baja California in Mexico.
In addition to the Grand Canyon, many other National Forests, Parks, Monuments, and Indian reservations are located in the state.
Geography
Arizona is located in the Western United States as one of the Four Corners states. Arizona is the sixth largest state in area, after New Mexico and before Nevada. Of the state's 118,000 square miles (306,000 km²), approximately 15% is privately owned.
The remaining area is public forest and park land, recreation areas and Native American reservations.
Arizona is best known for its desert landscape, which is rich in xerophyte plants such as cactus.
It is also known for its climate, which presents exceptionally hot summers and mild winters.
Less well known is the pine-covered high country of the Colorado Plateau in the north-central portion of the state, which contrasts with the desert Basin and Range region in the southern portions of the state.
Like other states of the Southwest, Arizona has an abundance of topographical characteristics in addition to its desert climate. More than half of the state features mountains and plateaus and contains the largest stand of Ponderosa pine in the world.
The Mogollon Rim, a 2000-foot (600 m) escarpment, cuts across the central section of the state and marks the southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau, where the state experienced its worst forest fire ever in 2002. Arizona belongs firmly within the Basin and Range region of North America.
The region was shaped by prehistoric volcanism, followed by a cooling-off and related subsidence. The entire region is slowly sinking.
The Grand Canyon is a colorful, steep-sided gorge, carved by the Colorado River, in northern Arizona.
The canyon is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and is largely contained in the Grand Canyon National Park—one of the first national parks in the United States. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of designating the Grand Canyon area, visiting on numerous occasions to hunt mountain lion and enjoy the scenery.
The Canyon was created by the Colorado River cutting a channel over millions of years, and is about 277 miles (446 km) long, ranges in width from 4 to 18 miles (6 to 29 kilometers) and attains a depth of more than 1 mile (1.6 km).
Nearly 2 billion years of the Earth's history has been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut through layer after layer of sediment as the Colorado Plateaus have uplifted.
Arizona is home to one of the largest and most well-preserved meteorite impact sites in the world.
The Barringer Meteorite Crater (better known simply as "Meteor Crater") is a gigantic hole in the middle of the high plains of the Colorado Plateau, about 25 miles (40 km) west of Winslow.
A rim of smashed and jumbled boulders, some of them the size of small houses, rises 150 feet (46 m) above the level of the surrounding plain. The crater itself is nearly a mile wide, and 570 feet (174 m) deep.
Arizona does not observe Daylight Saving Time, except in the Navajo Nation, located in the northeastern region of the state.
Climate
Due to its large area and variations in elevation, the state has a wide variety of localized climate conditions. In the lower elevations, the climate is primarily desert, with mild winters and hot summers.
Typically, from late fall to early spring, the weather is mild, averaging a minimum of 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15 °C). November through February are the coldest months with temperatures typically ranging from 40–75 °F (4–24 °C), although occasional frosts are not uncommon.
About midway through February, the temperatures start to rise again with warm days, and cool breezy nights.
The summer months of May through August bring a dry heat ranging from 90–120 °F (32–48 °C), with occasional high temperatures exceeding 125 °F (52 °C) having been observed in the desert area.
Due to the primarily dry climate, large temperature swings often occur between day and night, with some as large as 50 °F (28 °C) in the summer months.
However, the northern third of Arizona is a plateau at significantly higher altitudes than the lower desert, and has an appreciably cooler climate, with cold winters and mild summers.
Extreme cold temperatures are not unknown; cold air systems from the northern states and Canada occasionally push into the state, bringing temperatures below 0 °F (–18 °C) to the higher parts of the state.
Arizona has an average annual rainfall of 12.7 inches (322 mm), which comes during two rainy seasons, with cold fronts coming from the Pacific Ocean during the winter and a monsoon in the summer.
The monsoon season occurs from the middle of July through August and brings lightning, thunderstorms, wind, and torrential, if usually brief, downpours.
It is rare for tornadoes and hurricanes to occur in Arizona, but there are records of both occurring.
Indicative of the variation in climate, Arizona is the state which has both the metropolitan area with the most days over 100 °F (37.8 °C) (Phoenix), and the metropolitan area in the lower 48 states with nearly the most days with a low temperature below freezing (Flagstaff).
History
There is some disagreement over the proper etymology of the name "Arizona." The two most likely explanations are that it derives from a Basque phrase aritz onak, "good oaks," or that it comes from an O'odham phrase alĭonak, "small spring".
The former etymology is the one preferred by Arizona state historian Marshall Trimble, among other specialists. The name Arizonac was initially applied to the silver mining camp, and later (shortened to Arizona) to the entire territory.
Meeting its original native inhabitants, probably the Sobaipuri, Marcos de Niza, a Spanish Franciscan, explored the area in 1539.
The expedition of Spanish explorer Coronado entered the area in 1540–42 during its search for Cíbola.
Father Kino developed a chain of missions and taught the Indians Christianity in Pimería Alta (now southern Arizona and northern Sonora) in the 1690s and early 1700s. Spain founded fortified towns (presidios) at Tubac in 1752 and Tucson in 1775.
When Mexico achieved its independence from Spain in 1821, what is now Arizona became part of the Mexican State Nueva California, also known as Alta California.
In the Mexican–American War (1847), the U.S. occupied Mexico City and forced the newly founded Mexican Republic to give up its northern territories, including the later Arizona. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) specified that the U.S. pay Mexico the sum of $15 Million US in compensation.
In 1853 the land below the Gila River was acquired from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase. Arizona was administered as part of the Territory of New Mexico until southern New Mexico seceded from the Union as the Confederate Territory of Arizona on March 16, 1861.
Arizona was recognized as a Confederate Territory by presidential proclimation by Jefferson Davis on February 12, 1862.
This is the first official use of the name.
A new Arizona Territory, consisting of the western half of New Mexico Territory was declared in Washington, D.C. on February 24, 1863.
The new boundaries would later form the basis of the state.
Other names including "Gadsonia", "Pimeria", "Montezuma", "Arizuma", and "Arizonia" had been considered for the territory, however when President Lincoln signed the final bill, it read "Arizona", and the name became permanent. (Montezuma was not the Mexican Emperor, but the sacred name of a divine hero to the Pueblo people of the Gila valley, and was probably considered — and rejected — for its sentimental value, before the name "Arizona" was settled upon.)
Brigham Young sent Mormons to Arizona in the mid-to-late 19th century.
They founded Mesa, Snowflake, Heber, Safford and other towns. They also settled in the Phoenix Valley (or "Valley of the Sun"), Tempe, Prescott, among other areas. The Mormons settled what became known as Northern Arizona and northern New Mexico, but these areas were located in a part of the former New Mexico Territory.
The largest ancestry of these settlers is German American.
Arizona became a U.S. state on February 14, 1912, the 50th anniversary of its recognization as a Confederate Territory.
Arizona was the 48th state admitted into the U.S. and the last of the contiguous states admitted.
Cotton farming and copper mining, two of Arizona's most important statewide industries, suffered heavily during the Great Depression, but it was during the 1920s and 1930s that tourism began to be the important Arizona industry it is today. Dude ranches such as the K L Bar and Remuda in Wickenburg, along with the Flying V and Tanque Verde in Tucson, gave tourists the chance to experience the flavor and life of the "old West."
Several upscale hotels and resorts opened during this period, some of which are still top tourist draws to this day; they include the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in central Phoenix (opened 1929) and the Wigwam Resort on the west side of the Phoenix area (opened 1936).
Arizona was the site of German and Italian POW camps during World War II and Japanese US-resident internment camps (for national security during the time of martial law). The Phoenix area site was purchased after the war by the Maytag family (of major home appliance fame), and is currently utilized as the Phoenix Zoo.
A Japanese American internment camp was located on Mount Lemmon, just outside of the state's southeastern city of Tucson. Another POW camp was located near the Gila River in eastern Yuma County.
Because of California's proximity to Japan, a line was drawn somewhat parallel to the California border, and all Japanese residents west of that line were required to reside in the war camps.
Grand Avenue, (perhaps because of its similarity to the California border) was chosen as part of that boundary, which resulted in many extended Japanese families being separated; some interned, some free--and some free families, in an odd bid for family values, requested to be interrned to stay with their families at a camp built by the original Del Webb Co., a modern manufacturer of large housing developments).
Arizona's population grew tremendously after World War II, in part because of the development of air conditioning, which made the intense summers more comfortable.
According to the Arizona Blue Book (published by the Secretary of State's office each year), the state population in 1910 was 294,353. By 1970, it was 1,752,122.
The percentage growth each decade averaged about 20% in the earlier decades and about 60% each decade thereafter.
The 1960s saw the establishment of retirement communities, special age-restricted subdivisions catering exclusively to the needs of senior citizens who wanted to escape the harsh winters of the Midwest and the Northeast.
Sun City, established by developer Del Webb and opened in 1960 was one of the first such communities.
Green Valley, south of Tucson, was another such community designed to be a retirement subdivision for Arizona's teachers.
(Many of these senior citizens arrive in Arizona each winter and stay only during the winter months; they are referred to as snowbirds.)
Three ships named USS Arizona have been named in honor of the state, although only USS Arizona (BB-39) was so named after statehood was achieved.
