The Story of Arizona.
Before any European set foot here, the Hohokam had already built six hundred miles of irrigation canals across the Salt River valley — an engineering achievement that fed tens of thousands for a thousand years. When Phoenix was platted in 1870, its founders simply dug their ditches along channels the Hohokam had abandoned four centuries earlier. The city that now holds five million people was built on top of a ghost city that had already proved it could be done.
Spain claimed this land in 1540 when Coronado marched through searching for cities of gold and found neither. The Spanish established a presidio at Tucson in 1776 — the same year the colonies declared independence — and the missions they built still stand in the Santa Cruz valley. The land passed to Mexico after independence in 1821, then to the United States after the Mexican-American War in 1848, with the southern strip added by the Gadsden Purchase in 1853.
The territorial years were defined by copper and conflict. Bisbee, Morenci, and Jerome produced ore that wired an electrifying world. The Apache wars — led in their final chapter by Geronimo — ended in 1886 after a campaign that consumed a quarter of the entire US Army. Tombstone’s silver boom gave the country the O.K. Corral in 1881. By 1911 the Roosevelt Dam had tamed the Salt River, the first major federal reclamation project, making Phoenix possible.
Arizona entered the union on Valentine’s Day, 1912, the last of the contiguous forty-eight. President Taft had vetoed an earlier statehood bill because Arizona’s constitution allowed the recall of judges. The state removed the provision, gained statehood, then reinstated it immediately. The water wars of the mid-twentieth century were existential: not until 1963 did the Supreme Court settle Arizona’s share of the Colorado River. The Central Arizona Project canal, completed in 1993, carries that water three hundred miles uphill to Phoenix and Tucson.
Today Arizona is one of the fastest-growing states in the country, driven by technology, aerospace, and a sun that never stops delivering. The Navajo Nation — larger than ten US states — occupies the northeast corner, a sovereign presence that predates Arizona’s statehood by centuries. The state’s contradictions run as deep as its canyons: desert floor and alpine snowpack, ancient and booming, fiercely independent and utterly dependent on water it imports from five hundred miles away.
Coronado Enters
The Spanish expedition marches through Arizona hunting mythical cities of gold. They find the Hopi mesas and the Colorado River, but no gold.
Tucson Founded
Spain establishes a presidio at Tucson — the same year the American colonies declare independence four thousand miles away.
Gadsden Purchase
The US buys the southern strip from Mexico for ten million dollars, finalizing Arizona’s modern border and giving the railroad a southern route to the Pacific.
The O.K. Corral
Thirty seconds in Tombstone. The Earps and Doc Holliday against the Clantons. It becomes the most written-about gunfight in American history.
Geronimo Surrenders
The Apache leader surrenders to General Miles, ending the Indian Wars in the Southwest. He is exiled to Florida, then Alabama, then Oklahoma. He never returns to Arizona.
Roosevelt Dam
The first major federal reclamation project is completed on the Salt River. Theodore Roosevelt attends the dedication. Phoenix becomes possible.
The 48th Star
Arizona becomes the last of the contiguous forty-eight states on February 14. Taft signs the proclamation. The state immediately reinstates the judicial recall provision he had demanded be removed.
First Female Justice
Sandra Day O’Connor, raised on the Lazy B cattle ranch near Duncan, Arizona, becomes the first woman to serve on the US Supreme Court.
CAP Canal Complete
The Central Arizona Project delivers Colorado River water to Phoenix and Tucson via a 336-mile canal — the most expensive water project in US history.
