Now on to the more important stuff. This day marks the 100th year of statehood of my very own home state, Arizona. Like many others today, I will share some interesting facts about Arizona.
Let's start by a flash back 100 years ago to the year 1912:
The US Population was 95,335,000
Unemployment was 4.6%
Average Income/Year $1,033
New Home $2,750
New Car $941
Gas/gallon 7¢
Stamp 2¢
Bacon/pound 24¢
Bread/loaf 5¢
Butter/pound 37¢
Eggs/dozen 34¢
Milk/quart 9¢
Sugar/pound 7¢
Steak/pound 23¢
How about 50 facts?!
1. Arizona is a right-to-work state. The law states no person shall be denied the opportunity to obtain or retain employment because of non-membership in a labor organization.
2. The Arizona trout is found only in the Arizona.
3. The saguaro cactus blossom is the official state flower. The white flower blooms on the tips of the saguaro cactus during May and June. The saguaro is the largest American cactus.
4. Arizona leads the nation in copper production.
5. Petrified wood is the official state fossil. Most petrified wood comes from the Petrified Forest in northeastern Arizona.
6. The bola tie is the official state neckwear.
7. The Palo verde is the official state tree. Its name means green stick and it blooms a brilliant yellow-gold in April or May.
8. The cactus wren is the official state bird. It grows seven to eight inches long and likes to build nests in the protection of thorny desert plants like the arms of the giant saguaro cactus.
9. Turquoise is the official state gemstone. The blue-green stone has a somewhat waxy surface and can be found throughout the state.
10. Arizona is home of the Grand Canyon National Park.
11. The ringtail is the official state mammal. The ringtail is a small fox-like animal about two and one-half feet long and is a shy, nocturnal creature.
12. The amount of copper on the roof of the Capitol building is equivalent to 4,800,000 pennies.
13. Arizona observes Mountain Standard Time on a year round basis. The one exception is the Navajo Nation, located in the northeast corner of the state, which observes the daylight savings time change.
14. Tombstone, Ruby, Gillette, and Gunsight are among the ghost towns scattered throughout the state.
15. The battleship USS Arizona was named in honor of the state. It was commissioned in 1913 and launched in 1915 from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
16. World War II brought many military personnel to train at Luke and Thunderbird fields in Glendale.
17. The Castilian and Burgundian flags of Spain, the Mexican flag, the Confederate flag, and the flag of the United States have all flown over the land area that has become Arizona.
18. In 1926, the Southern Pacific Railroad connected Arizona with the eastern states.
19. The geographic center of Arizona is 55 miles (89 kilometers) southeast of Prescott.
20. Arizona's most abundant mineral is copper.
21. Bisbee, located in Tombstone Canyon, is known as the Queen of the Copper Mines. During its mining history the town was the largest city between Saint Louis and San Francisco.
22. The state's most popular natural wonders include the Grand Canyon, Havasu Canyon, Grand Canyon Caves, Lake Powell/Rainbow Bridge, Petrified Forest/Painted Desert, Monument Valley, Sunset Crater, Meteor Crater, Sedona Oak Creek Canyon, Salt River Canyon, Superstition Mountains, Picacho Peak State Park, Saguaro National Park, Chiricahua National Monument, and the Colorado River.
23. The Arizona tree frog is the state official amphibian. The frog is actually between three-quarter to two inches long.
24. Once a rowdy copper mining town, Jerome's population dwindled to as few as 50 people after the mines closed in 1953.
25. The original London Bridge was shipped stone-by-stone and reconstructed in Lake Havasu City.
26. The capital of the Navajo Reservation is Window Rock.
27. The state's precipitation varies. At Flagstaff the annual average is 18.31 inches; Phoenix averages 7.64 inches; and Yuma's annual average is 3.27 inches.
28. Crops include 2%; pastureland 57%; forests 24%; and other uses are 17% in land-use designation.
29. The Arizona ridge-nosed rattlesnake is perhaps the most beautiful of all eleven species of rattlesnakes found in Arizona.
30. The colors blue and gold are the official state colors.
31. Located in Fountain Hills is a fountain believed to be the tallest in the world.
32. Four Corners is noted as the spot in the United States where a person can stand in four states at the same time.
33. The age of a saguaro cactus is determined by its height.
34. The Apache trout is considered a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act.
35. Arizona, among all the states, has the largest percentage of its land set aside and designated as Indian lands.
36. Rising to a height of 12,643 feet, Mount Humphreys north of Flagstaff is the state's highest mountain.
37. The Hopi Indians of Arizona are noted for growing their multicolored corn.
38. Barry Goldwater, a famous public official, senator, and presidential candidate was born in Phoenix.
39. In 1939 architect Frank Lloyd Wright's studio, Taliesin West, was built near Phoenix.
40. Oraibi is the oldest Indian settlement in the United States. The Hopis Indians founded it.
41. Grand Canyon's Flaming Gorge got its name for its blazing red and orange colored, twelve-hundred-foot-high walls.
42. Grand Canyon's Disaster Falls was named to commemorate the site of a previous explorer's wreck.
43. Grand Canyon's Marble Canyon got its name from its thousand-foot-thick seam of marble and for its walls eroded to a polished glass finish.
44. Arizona became the 48th state on February 14, 1912.
45. The world's largest solar telescope is located at Kitts Peak National Observatory in the city of Sells.
46. At one time camels were used to transport goods across Arizona.
47. Between the years 1692 and 1711 Father Eusebio Kino focused on area missionary work. During the time many grain and stock farms began.
48. A person from Arizona is called an Arizonan.
49. Phoenix originated in 1866 as a hay camp to supply Camp McDowell.
50. The famous labor leader, Ceasar Estrada Chavez, was born in Yuma.
Famous Arizonans include:
Glen Campbell (country singer)
Stevie Nicks (singer of Fleetwood Mac)
Cesar Chavez (labor leader)
Cochise and Geronimo (Apache Chiefs)
Wyatt Earp (marshall)
Barry Goldwater (politician)
John McCain (politician)
Helen Hull Jacobs (tennis)
Zane Grey (novelist)
Sandra Day O'Connor (US Supreme Court)
David Spade (comedien)
Stewart Udall (Secretary of the Interior)
Steven Spielberg (film director)
Joan Ganz Cooney (producer of Sesame Street)
Bil Keane (cartoonist)
Frank Lloyd Wright (architect)
Ted Danson (actor)
Kate Walsh (actor)
Jim Adkins/Jimmy Eat World (singer/band)
Authority Zero (band)
Chester Bennington (singer of Linkin Park)
Michelle Branch (singer)
Alice Cooper (singer)
The Gin Blossoms (band)
Job for a Cowboy (band, that I partied with a few times)
Joe Jonas (singer of Jonas Brothers)
The Meat Puppets (band)
Dave Mustaine (singer of Megadeth)
Page the Village Idiot (who I've seen perform a couple times)
Jordin Sparks (singer and winner of American Idol season 6)
Percival Lowell (astronomer and founder of the Lowell Observatory)
Reggie Jackson (baseball)
Phil Mickelson (golf)
Jimmy Kimmel (talk show host)
Dave Pratt (radio host)
For a more extensive list check out the source.
In Arizona, it is unlawful to refuse a person a glass of water.
Any misdemeanor committed while wearing a red mask is considered a felony.
There is a possible 25 years in prison for cutting down a cactus.
Donkeys cannot sleep in bathtubs.
A class 2 misdemeanor occurs if one places a mark upon a flag which is “likely to provoke physical retaliation”.
It is illegal to manufacture imitation cocaine.
When being attacked by a criminal or burglar, you may only protect yourself with the same weapon that the other person posseses.
You may not have more than two dildos in a house. (More details on this interesting one!)
In the city of Globe, cards may not be played in the street with a Native American.
In Hayden, if you bother the cottontails or bullfrogs, you will be fined.
In Maricopa County, no more than six girls may live in any house.
In Mohave County, a decree declares that anyone caught stealing soap must wash himself with it until it is all used up.
In Nogales, an ordinance prohibits the wearing of suspenders.
In Prescott, no one is permitted to ride their horse up the stairs of the county court house.
In Tucson, women may not wear pants. (Leaving them with skirts, etc.)
In Phoenix, Arizona, you can't walk through a hotel lobby with spurs on.
In Tombstone, it is illegal for men and women over the age of 18 to have less than one missing tooth visible when smiling.
For explanations behind some of these strange laws check out the source.
More facts!
Arizona has 3,928 mountain peaks and summits—more mountains than any one of the other Mountain States (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming).
All New England, plus the state of Pennsylvania would fit inside Arizona.
Arizona’s disparate climate can yield both the highest temperature across the nation and the lowest temperature across the nation in the same day.
There are more wilderness areas in Arizona than in the entire Midwest. Arizona alone has 90 wilderness areas, while the Midwest has 50.
Yuma, Arizona is the country’s highest producer of winter vegetables, especially lettuce.
Arizona is the 6th largest state in the nation, covering 113,909 square miles.
Billy the Kid killed his first man, Windy Cahill, in Bonita, Arizona.
Arizona grows enough cotton each year to make more than one pair of jeans for every person in the United States.
In 1912, President William Howard Taft was ready to make Arizona a state on February 12, but it was Lincoln’s birthday. The next day, the 13th, was considered bad luck so they waited until the following day. That’s how Arizona became known as the “Valentine State.”
When England’s famous London Bridge was replaced in the 1960s, the original was purchased, dismantled, shipped stone by stone and reconstructed in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where it still stands today.
The world’s largest to-scale collection of miniature airplane models is housed at the library at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.
The only place in the country where mail is delivered by mule is the village of Supai, located at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
South Mountain Park/Preserve in Phoenix is the largest municipal park in the country.
Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, located about 55 miles west of Phoenix, generates more electricity than any other U.S. power plant.
Built in by Del Webb in 1960, Sun City, Arizona was the first 55-plus active adult retirement community in the country.
Many of the founders of San Francisco in 1776 were Spanish colonists from Tubac, Arizona.
Rainfall averages for Arizona range from less than three inches in the deserts to more than 30 inches per year in the mountains.
The city of Phoenix was named for the mythical Egyptian phoenix bird—which burst into flame and was reborn from its ashes—because the town sprouted from the ruins of a former civilization.
Spanish Franciscan friar Marcos de Niza was the first European to explore Arizona. He entered the area in 1539 in search of the mythical Seven Cities of Gold.
The best-preserved meteor crater in the world is located near Winslow, Arizona.
The Arizona Cardinals are the oldest continuous franchise in the National Football League, dating back to 1898.
The geographic center of Arizona is 55 miles southeast of Prescott near the community of Mayer.
Nearly 5 million people visit Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park each year.
The hottest temperature recorded in Arizona was 128 degrees at Lake Havasu City on June 29, 1994.
The coldest temperature recorded in Arizona was 40 degrees below zero at Hawley Lake on January 7, 1971.
A saguaro cactus can store up to nine tons of water.
The State Motto is Ditat Deus, which means “God Enriches” in Latin.
The state of Massachusetts could fit inside Maricopa County (9,922 sq. miles).
Jerome, Arizona was named for Eugene Jerome of New York City, who never visited the town.
The Navajo Nation Zoological and Botanical Park is the only tribally-owned zoo in the U.S.
On June 6, 1936, the first barrel of tequila produced in the United States rolled off the production line in Nogales, Arizona.
The world’s tallest Kachina doll, measuring 39 feet tall and fashioned of concrete, is located in Carefree, Arizona.
The Sonoran Desert is the most biologically diverse desert in North America.
Arizona is the only state in the nation that elects a Mine Inspector.
The 13 stripes on the Arizona flag represent the 13 original colonies of the United States.
Thirteen species of rattlesnakes live in Arizona, more species than in any other state.
Pretty cool state, huh?
