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Arizona

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Arizona
State
CountryUnited States
Admitted to the UnionFebruary 14, 1912 (48th)
CapitalPhoenix
Largest cityPhoenix
Government
 • GovernorJanet Napolitano (D)
 • Upper house{{{Upperhouse}}}
 • Lower house{{{Lowerhouse}}}
U.S. senatorsJohn McCain (R)
Jon Kyl (R)
Population
 • Total5,130,632
 • Density45.1/sq mi (17.43/km2)
Language
 • Official languageEnglish
 • Spoken languageEnglish 74.1%, Spanish 19.5%, Navajo 1.9%
Latitude31°20'N to 37°N
Longitude109°3'W to 114°50'W
Symbols

Arizona is a large state in the western United States. It is best known for its crack rock, which includes the good shit they gots over in New York. Arizona is also known for its exceptionally hot summers and mild winters. Less well known is the pine-covered high country in the north-central portion of the state, which contrasts with the lower deserts of the state.

Arizona is one of the Four Corners states, situated south and east of the Colorado River. It borders New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California, touches Colorado, and has a long international border with Mexico. Arizona is the sixth largest state in area, after New Mexico and before Nevada. Aside from the Grand Canyon, a number of other National Forests, Parks, Monuments, and Indian reservations are located in the state.

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.

Origin of the name

Historians disagree about the origin of the name "Arizona" and its attachment to the region. Two possible derivations are:

  • O'odham words "alĭ ṣon" ("small spring"), actually the name of a town which is called "Arizonac" in English. Arizonac is a small town about eight miles (12 km) south of the United States–Mexican border. Historically, it may have been "alĭ son" or even "alĭ sona". The O'odham "l" is a voiced alveolar lateral fricative, which might sound to a Spanish or English speaker like an "r" sound. Later in the mid 18th century Spanish missionaries changed Father Eusebio Francisco Kino's maps of the area; they renamed the town Arizonac as Arizona. As the maps were republished and circulated in Europe, the name Arizona became attached to the whole northern part of New Spain.
  • Spanish words "árida zona" ("arid zone") However, this would be grammatically incorrect because in Spanish, the noun precedes the adjective.

History

Main article: History of Arizona

Beyond its original native inhabitants, Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan, explored the area in 1539. Coronado's expedition entered the area in 1540–42 during its search for Cibola. 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. All of what is now Arizona became part of Mexico's northwest frontier upon the Mexican assertion of independence from Spain in 1810. The United States took possession of most of Arizona at the end of the Mexican War in 1848. 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 it was organized into a separate territory on February 24, 1863.

Brigham Young sent Mormons to Arizona in the mid to late 1800s. 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.

Arizona was the site of a German and Italian prisoner of war camp during WWII. The site was purchased after the war by the Maytag family, and is currently the Phoenix Zoo. A Japanese internment camp was located on Mount Lemmon, just outside of the southeastern city of Tucson.

Arizona was admitted into the Union on February 14, 1912.

Law and government

See: List of Congressmen

Arizona's legislature consists of a thirty-member Senate and a 60-member House of Representatives. The majority party is the Republican Party, which has held power since 1950. The 2002 budget of the Arizona state legislature was $14.3 billion, while the executive budget was $13.8 billion. Besides the money spent on state agencies, money has also been allocated for tax cuts, pay raises for government employees, and health insurance for government employees. The executive budget has allocated money to previously passed legislation. Arizona state senators and representatives are elected for two year terms and there are no terms limits. However, no more than four terms may be served consecutively.

Arizona's executive branch is headed by a governor elected for a four-year term. The governor may serve any number of terms, though no more than two in a row. The current Governor of Arizona is Janet Napolitano, a Democrat. She has been governor since 2003.

See:List of Arizona Governors

The two US Senators from Arizona are Senator John McCain (Republican) and Senator Jon Kyl (Republican).

Arizona's representatives in the United States House of Representatives are Rick Renzi (R-1), Trent Franks (R-2), John Shadegg (R-3), Ed Pastor (D-4), J.D. Hayworth (R-5), Jeff Flake (R-6), Raul Grijalva (D-7), and Jim Kolbe (R-8). Arizona gained two seats in the House of Representatives due to redistricting based on Census 2000. Jim Kolbe is currently the only openly gay Republican U.S. Congressman.

While the Republican Party has long dominated Arizona, the state did support one recent Democratic candidate, Bill Clinton in 1996. In 2004, George W. Bush easily won the state's ten electoral votes by a margin of 11 percentage points with 54.9% of the vote. Democrats are strongest in Tucson, Yuma, and Santa Cruz and Apache counties.

Geography

State Topography Image: Arizona
See: List of Arizona counties List of Arizona rivers List of Arizona lakes
  Arizona state parks List of U.S. National Forests

Like other states of the Southwest, Arizona has an abundance of topographical characteristics in addition to its desert climes. More than half of the state features mountains and plateaus and contains the largest stand of Ponderosa pine in the United States. The Mogollon Rim, a 600-meter (2000-foot) 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.

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 the Grand Canyon area, visiting on numerous occasions to hunt mountain lion and enjoy the breathtaking scenery.

The canyon, created by the Colorado River cutting a channel over millions of years, is about 277 miles (446 km) long, ranges in width from 6 to 29 kilometers (4 to 18 miles) 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.

Statistics

Art

Arizona has witnessed a continuous string of dancing and performing groups of many ethnicities. The state is a recognized center of Native American art, with a number of galleries such as the Heard Museum showcasing historical and contemporary works. Sedona and Tubac are known as budding artist colonies, and small arts scenes exist in the larger cities and near the state universities.

Many tourist souvenirs produced in Arizona or by its residents display immediately characteristic images, such as sunsets, coyotes, and desert plants. Several major Hollywood films, such as U-Turn, Waiting to Exhale, Just One of the Guys, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and Raising Arizona have been made there (as indeed have many Westerns).

Climate

Due to its large area and variations in elevation, the state has a wide variety of climates. 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 degrees Celsius). November through February are the coldest months with temperatures typically ranging from 40–75 degrees Fahrenheit (4–24 degrees Celsius), although occasional frosts are not uncommon. About midway through February, the temperatures start to rise again with sunny warm days, and cool breezy nights. The summer months of May through August bring a dry heat ranging from 90–100 degrees Fahrenheit (35 to 40 degrees Celsius), with occasional high temperatures exceeding 125 °F (50 °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 (-20 °C) to the higher parts of the state.

Monsoon season in Arizona is from the end of July through August. Monsoon season storms bring lightning, thunderstorms, wind, and torrential, if usually brief, downpours. It is rare for tornadoes to occur in Arizona.

Indicative of the variation in climate, Arizona is the state which has both the metropolitan area with the most days over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (Phoenix), and the metropolitan area in the lower 48 states with the most days with a low temperature below freezing (Flagstaff).

Economy

The 2004 total gross state product was $187.27 billion. If Arizona were an independent country, it would have the 61st largest economy in the world (CIA - The World Factbook). This figure gives Arizona a larger economy than most other countries, including Norway, Denmark, Czech Republic, Ireland, Finland, and New Zealand. Arizona currently has the 21st largest economy among states in the U.S..

The state's per capita income is $27,232, 39th in the U.S. Early in its history, Arizona's economy relied on the "Five C's": copper, cotton, cattle, citrus, and climate (tourism). At one point Arizona was the largest producer of cotton in the country. Copper is still extensively mined from many expansive open-pit and underground mines.

The state government is the Arizona's largest employer, while Wal-Mart is the state's largest private employer, with 17,343 employees (2003). Arizona lost much of its comparative advantage as a high-tech industry leader between 1990 and 2001, according to a state Department of Commerce report.

In 2001, 161,166 Arizonans were employed in the high-tech sector, accounting for about 8.3 percent of total private-sector employment of more than 1.9 million. High-tech payroll in 2001 was $2.2 billion, or 14.7 percent of the private-sector total. High-tech employment was led by software and computers, with 34,314; electronics components manufacturing, 30,358; aerospace manufacturing, 25,641; architectural and engineering services, 21,378; telecommunications, 21,224; and instruments manufacturing, 13,056.

Demographics

Historical populations
Census
year		 Population
1860 6,482
1870 9,658
1880 40,440
1890 88,243
1900 122,931
1910 204,354
1920 334,162
1930 435,573
1940 499,261
1950 749,587
1960 1,302,161
1970 1,770,900
1980 2,718,215
1990 3,665,228
2000 5,130,632

As of 2004, Arizona had a population of 5,743,834 according Census Bureau estimates.

The racial breakdown of the state is as follows:

According to 2003 Census estimates, Arizona has the second highest number (and the 6th highest percentage) of Native Americans of any state in the Union. 286,680 reportedly live in Arizona, representing more than 10% of the country's total Indian population of 2,752,158. Only California has more Indians than Arizona, and Arizona has slightly more Indians than Oklahoma [1].

The largest ancestry groups in Arizona are Mexican (21%), German, British, Irish, and American Indian. The southern and central parts of the state are heavily Mexican-American, especially in Yuma and Santa Cruz County. The north-central and northwestern counties are largely inhabited by residents of British ancestry. The northeastern part of Arizona has many American Indians.

Arizona is likely to become a minority-majority state by the year 2035, if current population growth trends continue. In 2003, for the first time, there were more Hispanic births in the state than white non-Hispanic births.

As of 2000, 74.1% of Arizona residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 19.5% speak Spanish. Navajo is the third most spoken language at 1.9%, followed by Other Native North American languages at 0.6% and German at 0.5%.

49.9% of the population is male, 50.1% is female.

See also the list of Arizona Natives.

Religion

Four in five Arizonans are self-described Christians, with large numbers of both Catholics and Protestants living in the state. There is also a significant Mormon population.

Religious affiliations in Arizona:

Important cities and towns

Template:Ussm

File:Phoenix sykline.jpg
Phoenix
Tucson

See: List of cities in Arizona, List of cities in Arizona (by population), List of Arizona counties

Phoenix is the largest, primary city and capital of the state. The Phoenix metro area includes Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, Tempe, and Scottsdale. The Phoenix metropolitan area supports a population of nearly 3.5 million.

Tucson, is the state's second largest city, located 135 miles (220 km) southeast of the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Tucson metropolitan area has a population rapidly nearing 1 million.

Each city named in bold has a population greater than 100,000.

25 Richest Places in Arizona

Ranked by per capita income

City Income City Income
1 Paradise Valley, Arizona $81,290 14 Sedona, Arizona $31,350
2 Carefree, Arizona $62,433 15 Green Valley, Arizona $31,138
3 Rio Verde, Arizona $58,783 16 Oro Valley, Arizona $31,134
4 Tubac, Arizona $46,643 17 Williamson, Arizona $30,232
5 Catalina Foothills, Arizona $42,006 18 Big Park, Arizona $30,026
6 Scottsdale, Arizona $39,158 19 Queen Valley, Arizona $28,886
7 Cave Creek, Arizona $38,070 20 Corona de Tucson, Arizona $28,304
8 Litchfield Park, Arizona $37,793 21 Elgin, Arizona $27,909
9 Tanque Verde, Arizona $36,467 22 Sonoita, Arizona $27,312
10 Gold Camp, Arizona $35,010 23 Sun City, Arizona $25,935
11 Sun Lakes, Arizona $33,394 24 New River, Arizona $25,932
12 Fountain Hills, Arizona $32,230 25 Tortolita, Arizona $25,550
13 Sun City West, Arizona $32,049 See complete list of Arizona places

Notable people

Famous Arizonans also include retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, author Zane Grey, former Governor and Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Presidential candidate (1964) and former Senator Barry Goldwater, Presidential candidate (2000) and Senior Republican Senator John McCain, former senator Carl Hayden and former Solicitor General Rex E. Lee, From the rock and roll world, both Alice Cooper and Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac are from Phoenix; Linda Ronstadt is from Tucson. Film director Steven Spielberg grew up in Scottsdale, as did Wonder Woman star Lynda Carter. Labor leader Cesar Estrada Chavez is from Yuma. For a complete list, see List of people from Arizona.

Education

Colleges and universities

State universities

(Ranked by student enrollment)

Community colleges

Private colleges and trade schools

Education associations

Professional sports teams

Spring training

Arizona is a popular location for Major League Baseball spring training, as it is the site of the Cactus League. The state hosts the following teams:

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Category:Arizona.


 United States

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