As I have traveled around the country for the past 50 years, there is one thing I have truly come to appreciate. We have one fantastic country, with each state having one or more unique features or distinctive things about it.
Our state today is the great state of Arizona. It is known as the “Grand Canyon” state, because one of the seven natural wonders of the world is in the Northwestern part of this state. The Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, and the Petrified Forest attract millions of people each year to the state. At one time the state of Arizona was thought to be an almost worthless desert, but it has since become a prosperous state, rich in farm and mineral products. Today the state is growing rapidly in manufacturing and population, which is due in large part to the development of air conditioning and the widespread use of irrigation.
Arizona is a Southwestern border state, irregular in shape, bordered by California and Nevada on the west, Utah on the north, New Mexico on the east, and Sonora Old Mexico on the south. The Northeast corner of the state is the only place in the United States where four states join: Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. Arizona became a state on Feb. 14, 1912, as the 48th state. It gets the name “Arizona” from a Papago Indian word meaning “Little Spring.” The state flower is the wax-like bloom of the Saguaro cactus, the state tree is the Paloverde, the state bird is the Cactus Wren, and the state motto is “God Enriches.”
The surface area consists of 113,000 square miles, ranking it 6th in size among the states. Arizona has only 14 counties, with Coconino County being the second largest county in the United States. The state’s capital, and largest city, is Phoenix. Other important cities in the state are Tempe, Flagstaff, Tucson and Scottsdale. The “Father” of Arizona was Charles D. Poston, who promoted Arizona in business and in Congress. He helped organize a mining company in the 1850s and became the territory’s first delegate to Congress. There are many other famous people who have played an important role in the history of this beautiful state, among them are Wyatt Earp, Cochise, Barry Goldwater, and Sandra Day O’Conner.
In closing there is one statistic that I would like to call your attention to and tell you why this is happening. The population of Arizona in the 1960s was approximately 1.8 million people. Today the population of Arizona is 7,379,346 people. The reason for the population explosion is that their neighbor state of California, the most populus in the nation, is having massive problems, like homelessness, violence, tax issues and many others. This is causing people to leave this state in droves. Many of them are moving to Arizona. Florida, Texas, and several other states are also experiencing population growth because of this.
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(Jim Davidson is an author, public speaker, syndicated columnist, and Founder of the Bookcase for Every Child project. Since its inception in the Log Cabin Democrat in 1995, Jim’s column has been self-syndicated in over 375 newspapers in 35 states. For a personalized copy of “Your Future Begins Today” send $20, which includes postage and handling, to Jim Davidson, 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034.)