Arizona at Last!

Arizona became the 48th state (and the last of the 48 contiguous states) to join the United States on February 14, 1912 (Valentine's Day!)  That year, an earthquake caused a 50 mile crack in the San Francisco Range, but earthquakes aren't as frequent or generally as damaging as California earthquakes.

You can see from this picture I took at the Arizona welcome center/rest area that it's divided into several distinct regions.  Ultimately we will end up in the River Country on the edge of California.

Eighty years BEFORE the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock the Spanish Conquistadors "landed" in  the Arizona River Country.  They came via the Gulf of Mexico.  Marcos de Niza met up with the Sobaipuri Indians (sigh, to be politically correct I should say Native Americans...) in 1539, and Coronado (probably a more familiar name to you) came the next year in search of Cibola (the Seven Cities of Gold).  He and his men hung around for a couple of years, but finally admitted that Cibola was a myth and high-tailed (or rather high-sailed it) home to Spain.  Over a hundred years later, in the 1690's and on into the 1700's, the Spanish Society of Jesus sent folks over with an eye to converting the locals to Christianity.  In 1752, Spain sent some dudes over to build a presidio, or fortified town, at Tubac.  Then, the year before Americans on the east coast began their fight for independence from England, the Spanish built another presidio in Tucson.  About fifty years after that, Mexico won its independence from Spain, and this area became Nueva California, a Mexican territory.

In the Mexican-American War, after the United States occupied Mexico City...  (Hmmm.  If we had kept Mexico City back then we wouldn't have to worry about legalizing all the illegal aliens because they would already be Americans!)  As I was saying, though, after the U.S. occupied Mexico City and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848, the U.S. owned much of what was then northern Mexico. From a portion of this acquisition, the New Mexico Territory was formed which included what is now the state of Arizona.  Unfortunately, just a few years later, in 1861, the southern parts of the New Mexico Territory seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy.  We all know how well that worked out...  In 1863, the United States Congress passed a bill designating the western portion of the New Mexico Territory to be known as the "Arizona Territory."  When Lincoln signed that bill into law, the name Arizona became official and permanent.

The Battle of Picacho Pass in what is now the state of Arizona has the distinction of being the location of the western-most battle of the Civil War.