More than 1,000 years ago the Hohokam tribe built 315 miles of irritation canals throughout the Phoenix area. These people, numbering between 20,000 and 50,000 at their peak, flourished in the area before mysteriously disappearing around the year 1400. The name Hohokam is a Pima Indian word meaning “all used up.” There are several theories to explain their disappearance. Some speculate that the area was subject to a series of flood and droughts. This diminished their ability to provide food and a reliable water source for their large population. The central government or authority probably lost control of the tribe as a result. The population may have just packed up in small groups and move to other areas. Some may have formed other small communities in the local area.

When threaten by a predator,Horned lizards can squirt a stream of blood from their eyes. This it done to try to startle and distract the predator, so that the lizard can attempt to make an escape. What is amazing is that it can shoot this blood as much as  six feet. 

Some people mistakenly call these critters horned toads or horny toads, and falsely believe them to be some species of toads.  They are not toad but true lizards.

Image courtesy of National Park Service

More that 28 species of  bats call Arizona home. Like flying vacuum cleaners, bats keep the flying insect population under control. Some bats will consume 600 mosquitoes in one hour.  However, not all of Arizona’s bat species are insectivores (insect eaters). Two species are nectar-eating bats. The  Mexican long-tongued bats and lesser long-nosed bat dine on the pollen, nectar, and fruit of saguaro cactus, organ pipe cactus, and agaves.  Sometimes these two species can even be found drinking from hummingbird feeders.

a free copy of the poster shown in the photo is available from the Arizona Fish and Game Department.

In 1956 it was a very dry year at Davis Dam, Arizona. Total rainfall for the year was 0.07 inches. That’s less than one tenth of an inch of rainfall during the entire year.

1978 was Arizona’s wettest year, at least at Hawley Lake. Almost fifty-nine inches of rain fell that year.

Sunrise Mountain set a record for the most snowfall during one season in Arizona. Almost 401 inches of it covered the peak.

(Davis Dam photo courtesy of Bureau of Reclamation

The Arizona Strip, an isolated part of the state located between the Grand Canyon and the Utah border. Although the land area of this region is about the same as New Jersey, only 5,000 people live in the region.

The movie “Oklahoma,” was not filmed in its namesake state but in southern Arizona.  The song “Oh What a Beautiful Mornin” was filmed near the town of Amado, Arizona. The musical number that portrayed an Oklahoma train station was filmed in Elgin, Arizona.  Filming also took place in Nogales, Arizona and various other part of Arizona’s San Rafael Valley.

According to several sources, the films producers felt that these southern Arizona locations looked more like early Oklahoma than any of the sites that they could find in the Oklahoma.

The film won two Oscars and is one of the more famous Movie Musicals.  It starred Gordon Macrae and Gloria Grahame.  Other notable actors in the film were Shirley Jones, Rod Steiger,James Whitmore, and Eddie Albert.

The Arizona Territory capital was moved 5 times between 1864 and 1889. The first location was at Fort Whipple, in Chino Valley. In a few months the fort, and the capital, were moved to Granite Creek. This location would soon become the city of Prescott. Tucson’s growing political power enabled it to have the capital moved there in 1867. Ten years later, in 1877, the capital returned to Prescott. After many legislators complain about the difficulty traveling to Prescott, the capital was moved to Phoenix, where it remains today. (Photo: Arizona Capitol Museum)

Given the vast amount of desert in the state one would not expect Arizona to have a large timber industry.   However, a 1984 article in the Arizona Daily Star estimated that the rate of timber cutting in Arizona between 1908 and 1983 was twice that of Oregon.  Between 1925 and 1935 Arizona led the nation in timber production.  This is despite the fact that  that the total amount of forested land is much smaller than that of other western timber producing states. Only 27% of Arizona lands is “forest.” Only a portion of these forests contain harvestable trees in areas that are accessible.

Some of Arizona’s earliest settlers and visitors were less than impressed when they first arrived in Arizona during its early days.  Here is a sampling of some quotations that you probably don’t want to see on a tourism brochure.

The promising Metropolis of Phoenix consisted of three chimneys and a coyote – J. Ross Brown (journalist)

“Of all the dreary, miserable-looking settlements that one could possible imagine, that was the worst. An unfriendly, dirty, heaven-forsaken place. . .” –  Army wife Martha Summerhayes (Stated when her steamboat arrived in Arizona via the Colorado River.  Apparently she refused to get off the boat.)

“Every bush is full of thorns. . . and every rock you turn over has a tarantula or centipede under it. The fact is, take the country altogether and I defy any man who has seen it—or one as utterly worthless—even to imagine anything so barren. – Dr. John S. Griffin

“We had one war with Mexico to take Arizona, and we should have another to make her take it back” – General William Tecumseh Sherman.

This being April Fools day I thought the following piece of Arizona History to be particulary fitting.

 In March, 1880 the Southern Pacific Railroad reached Tucson, Arizona. A huge celebration was held to commemorate the event. The entire town joined in and the beer and liquor was flowing freely. Local officials began sending self-congratulatory telegrams to various towns and notable people around the country. At some point, someone convinced Tucson mayor Bob Leatherwood that it would be fitting to send a telegram to the pope. Leatherwood thought that this was a great idea. The wire, composed by Leatherwood was as follows:

 To his holiness, the Pope of Rome, Italy:

The mayor of Tucson begs the honor of reminding Your Holiness that this ancient and honorable pueblo was founded by the Spaniards under the sanction of your church more than three centuries ago, and to inform Your Holiness that a railroad from San Francisco, California now connects us with the entire Christian world.

R. N. Leatherwood, Major.

A short time later, Mayor Leatherwood was informed that the pope had telegraphed a reply. He was handed a piece of paper and told that it contained the pope’s message. Believing this to be an actual telegram from the pope, the mayor held it up and read it out loud as a crowd listened intently. The telegram read:

His Holiness the Pope acknowledges with appreciation receipt of your telegram informing him that the ancient city of Tucson at last has been connected by rail with the outside world and send his benediction, but for his own satisfaction would ask where the hell is Tucson? – Antonelli

Needless to say a roar of laughter probably erupted from the crowd.

It is assumed that that pope’s “reply” was a joke being played on the mayor.

Source: Arizona, A Cavalcade of History, Marshall Trimble – who tells the story much better than I can. (Picture of Tucson Train Depot from Southern Arizona Transportation Museum website.)