All About Arizona
Arizona is a constituent state of the United States of America. Although its area is the sixth largest in the Union - 114,000 square miles (295,260 square kilometres) - Arizona has a relatively small population that is demographically urban rather than rural. It is located in the southwestern quadrant of the coterminous states, bordered by Utah on the north, New Mexico on the east, and the Mexican state of Sonora on the south. The Colorado River forms the boundary with California and part of Nevada on the west. Phoenix, situated in south central Arizona, is the capital. The state's name comes from arizonac, derived from two Papago Indian words meaning ''place of the young spring.'' Arizona achieved statehood on Feb. 14, 1912, the last of the 48 coterminous United States to be admitted to the Union.
Arizona is a land of contradictions. Although widely reputed for its hot, low-elevation desert covered with cacti and mesquite, more than half of the state lies 4,000 feet (1,200 metres) above sea level, and it possesses the largest stand of evergreen ponderosa pine trees in the world. Arizona is well known for its waterless tracts of desert, but, thanks to many large man-made lakes, it has more shoreline and more boats per capita than almost any other state in the United States. Such spectacular landforms as the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley have become international symbols of the region's ruggedness, yet Arizona's environment is so delicate that in many ways it is more threatened by pollution than are New York City or Los Angeles. Its romantic reputation as the last refuge of primitive society and old-fashioned, close-to-the-earth simplicity is at variance with the fact that, after the 1860s, the Arizona economy became industrial and technological long before it was pastoral or agrarian.
Plate tectonics - the shifting of large, relatively thin segments of the Earth's crust - and stream erosion have done the most to create Arizona's spectacular topography. Specifically, the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate came into conflict and created the major tectonic forces that uplifted, wrinkled, and stretched Arizona's geologic crust, forming its mountain ranges, basins, and high plateaus. Over the centuries rivers and their tributaries have carved distinctive landforms on these surfaces.
To Arizona's two major physiographic divisions, the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range Province, local authorities add the Transition Zone (or Central Highlands). The northeastern two-fifths of Arizona is part of the scenic Colorado Plateau. Far less rugged than adjacent portions in Utah, these tablelands in Arizona consist mainly of plains interrupted by steplike escarpments. Although they are labeled mesas and plateaus, their ruggedness and inaccessibility have been exaggerated. The incomparable Grand Canyon of the Colorado River provides the major exception to what has proven to be an area easily traversed. Forest-clad volcanic mountains atop the plateaus provide the state's highest points: Humphreys Peak, 12,633 feet (3,851 metres), in the San Francisco Mountains, and Baldy Peak, 11,590 feet, in the White Mountains.
Before World War II the focus of Arizona's economy was primary production - mineral extraction, lumbering, cattle raising, and growing crops. Since the late 1940s the focus has shifted toward manufacturing industry and service, the economy becoming one that better represents America's growing affluence and technology. Metallic ores such as copper, zinc, and, to a modest degree, silver and gold traditionally have brought revenue to the state. Coal from the Black Mesa area of the Indian reservations in northeastern Arizona has become important, since coal-fired stations generate much of the electricity for the southwestern United States; the northeastern area also produces a small amount of petroleum.
Urban and industrial expansion have so polluted major areas of Arizona that it no longer serves as the refuge it once did for sick people seeking pure air. The climate, scenery, and casual life-style, however, still attract millions of visitors each year, and the state has become a popular retirement centre, particularly in the lower desert areas. Large ''senior citizen'' communities such as Sun City, near Phoenix, and Green Valley, near Tucson, have continued to grow. A variety of sports and recreational activities provide entertainment and leisure. Varied desert and forest terrains and many man-made lakes attract thousands of hunting and fishing enthusiasts, campers, hikers, and amateur prospectors and historians throughout the year. Arizona has more national parks and monuments than any other state; among the best known are the Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest national parks and the Chiricahua, Montezuma Castle, and Saguaro national monuments. The Arizona–Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson has received worldwide attention as a living museum dedicated to the natural world of the Sonoran Desert. Rodeos revive the spirit of the Old West in all of the cities and on the larger Indian reservations.
Most towns and cities have low population densities. Buildings of adobe can be seen in the older inhabited areas of southern Arizona, while Flagstaff and Prescott, northern Arizona cities settled by New Englanders in the 1860s and '70s, have Victorian homes that reflect the traditions and preferences of their first inhabitants. Phoenix is the primary trade centre of the state. Its central location, extensive agricultural economy, and attractive vacation and retirement amenities have caused it to become one of the largest and fastest-growing urban areas in the Southwest. Tucson, while older and smaller, has acted as a doorway to Mexico and maintains well-developed commercial and medical ties with Sonora and other northern states of Mexico. Since 1970, its population growth rate has rivaled that of Phoenix.
