Arizona

Dates: Tuesday, September 8th OR Thursday, September 10th 

Location: Your couch! See your e-mail for the Zoom link!

This we are exploring the Coronado National Memorial, which is part of the Southeast Arizona Group of parks. Other sites include the Chiricahua National Monument and the Fort Bowie National Historic Site. Our ranger this week will be talking to us about the Park group as a whole and then spending some time on the Coronado Expedition.

To help us get some background, our ranger has provided us with the following information:

First, check out the park website here: https://www.nps.gov/coro/index.htm

Next, you can check out some background information about the Coronado Expedition, you can go here: https://www.nps.gov/coro/learn/historyculture/index.htm

You can also check out a 9 minute video from the park about the Expedition here: https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm?id=6B526D9F-805C-48E1-BDBE-6FDAB402FFFE&utm_source=Video&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=experience_more

Our rangers have also provided us with an article about the Expedition. It is attached to the e-mail (and available on our website here: 

You can also scroll down for some general Arizona history (you know I can’t resist). 

These hunter/gatherer groups likely followed herds of animals for food. Around 1200 CE, these groups, known as Apache, began to settle into different tribal groups and develop farming techniques. The Navajo language, and others in the Southwest, still resemble other Apache languages and are even similar to Native language groups still spoken in regions of Canada. 

One of the largest groups is the Navajo, or Diné, people. Their current tribal lands occupy Northeast Arizona and extend into bordering states. 

European Contact

Spanish explorers were making inroads in the ‘new world’, exploring down the coast Oregon and California, as well as exploring Mexico and South America. They only began to explore inland in the early 1500s, encountering the Hopi and Navajo some time around 1540. When the Spanish arrived in the Southwest, they brought horses, goats, and sheep. Horses and sheep became especially important in local economies, even as the Spanish realized too late that horses put Natives on a more equal footing with the explorers. In 1680, the Pueblo peoples violently drove the Spanish from Santa Fe, capturing their horses in what became appropriately known as the Pueblo Uprising of 1680. By 1700, horses had been traded over much of North America. Sheep became another form of currency to many Native tribes, and many women in the Southwest took up weaving, a practice that continues today. 

The Apache also resisted Spanish incursion, raiding villages and running off horse herds. In the late 1780s and 1790s, the Spanish began setting up ‘Apache peace camps’ and providing Apache natives with rations to prevent their attacks. 

Mexican Independence

In 1821, after a decade of war, Mexico won its independence from Spain. The war, however, had drained the national treasury and the silver mining industry that had supported northern Mexico was left in ruins by the war. Missions and Apache peace camps in the Arizona territory were left unfunded and largely disappeared. As the Arizona territory was left largely alone by the Mexican government, Americans began entering the territory, looking to trap beavers to sell pelts. The American idea of Manifest Destiny and hunger for expansion helped lead to the Mexican American War in 1845.

Manifest Destiny - creating the United States

In 1848, after Mexico lost to the United States, they ceded a large portion of their northern territory in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.  (See map for the territory with modern borders.)Though gold had been discovered in California just before the treaty was signed, no one negotiating the treaty had yet learned of the discovery. 

After the cessation of lands and the news of gold in California, people flocked across the continent to strike it rich in California. As many as 50,000 miners made their way to California through the Arizona territory, leading to a population boom. 

In 1853, President James Buchanan sent James Gadsen to Mexico City to negotiate additional territory with Santa Anna. The successful negotiations yielded the Gadsden Purchase, completing the southern boundary of what would become Arizona and New Mexico. 

The Desert Land Act of 1877 gave settlers 640 acres (approximately 1 square mile), which caused people to flood the Arizona and New Mexico regions. 

Statehood at last

Despite a few false starts at statehood, Arizona finally joined the Union as the 48th state in the United States, and the last state in the contiguous United States in 1912. (Alaska and Hawaii would both join in 1959.) Arizona continued to grow, especially as industries like cotton, copper, farming, and mining grew. The military established bases in Phoenix and Tucson, providing a significant revenue stream for the surrounding communities. 

Recently, Arizona has become a major tourist and retirement destination, primarily for its relatively low cost of living and warm weather year round. Arizona also attracts thousands of visitors each year to their views of the Grand Canyon, and their sweeping desert vistas. If you have visited our near neighbor, what did you enjoy most? 

Here are even MORE fun facts about Arizona:

There are 22 national parks and monuments in Arizona! 

Additionally, they have 35 state parks and natural areas set aside to preserve the state's natural beauty and cultural resources. An estimated 5.9 million people visit Grand Canyon National Park each year, making it the second most popular National Park, just after the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. The Grand Canyon is one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World and the only one located within the United States.  (To see the other wonders, check out this link here: 

• The roof of the Arizona Capitol building is made of copper - about 5 million pennies worth!

• These huge cactus plants can live as long as 150-200 years and when they are fully hydrated, they can weigh between 3,200 and 4,800 pounds! The arms of the cactus generally bend upward and they can sport as many as 25 arms. Though its growing range is small, it is heavily protected by the State of Arizona and there are strict regulations about harvesting or destroying this species of cactus. Dead saguaros were often used to build roofs, fences, and even furniture by local peoples and Native Americans used the arms of dead cactus as water containers.

• Phoenix and Tucson get sunshine 85% of the year - even more sunshine than Florida or Hawaii. 

• Arizona was the first ever state to have a drive thru McDonalds! The drive thru was created in 1975 in Sierra Vista, Arizona in order to serve military members from nearby Fort Huachuca. Military members were not allowed to get out of their cars while wearing their fatigues, so McDonalds made sure they could still serve them without breaking the rules!

• 83% of Arizona is made up of reservations, forests, and public lands. Arizona holds more native land than any other state in the United States. 

Tune in this week to learn more about this wonderful vacation destination and the stunning scenery of Sedona, Arizona. We can’t wait to see you on screen!

https://statemuseum.arizona.edu/programs/american-indian-relations/tribes-arizona

https://www.crowcanyon.org/EducationProducts/peoples_mesa_verde/post_pueblo_navajo_name.asp

http://navajopeople.org/blog/first-contact-with-the-navajo-1540/

https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/arizona

https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/h/History_of_Arizona.htm

https://www.doi.gov/blog/13-things-you-didnt-know-about-grand-canyon-national-park

https://www.desertmuseum.org/kids/oz/long-fact-sheets/Saguaro%20Cactus.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive-through

https://kidadl.com/articles/fun-facts-about-arizona-how-many-do-you-know