# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Arizona

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​ARIZONA (from the Spanish-Indian Arizonac, of unknown meaning,—possibly “few springs,”—the name of an 18th-century mining camp in the Santa Cruz valley, just S. of the present border of Arizona), a state on the S.W. border of the United States of America, lying between 31° 20′ and 37° N. lat. and 109° 2′ and 114° 45′ W. long. It is bounded N. by Utah, E. by New Mexico, S. by Mexico and W. by California and Nevada, the Colorado river separating it from California and in part from Nevada. On the W. is the Great Basin. Arizona itself is mostly included in the great arid mountainous uplift of the Rocky Mountain region, and partly within the desert plain region of the Gulf of California, or Open Basin region. The whole state lies on the south-western exposure of a great roof whose crest, along the continental divide in western New Mexico, pitches southward. Its altitudes vary from 12,800 ft. to less than 100 ft. above the sea. Of its total area of 113,956 sq. m. (water surface, 116 sq. m.), approximately 39,000 lie below 3000 ft., 27,000 from 3000 to 5000 ft., and 47,000 above 5000 ft.
Physical Features.—Three characteristic physiographic regions are distinctly marked: first the great Colorado Plateau, some 45,000 sq. m. in area, embracing all the region N. and E. of a line drawn from the Grand Wash Cliffs in the N.W. corner of the state to its E. border near Clifton; next a broad zone of compacted mountain ranges with a southern limit of similar trend; and lastly a region of desert plains, occupying somewhat more than the S.W. quarter of the state. The plateau region has an average elevation of 6000-8000 ft. eastward, but it is much broken down in the west. The plateau is not a plain. It is dominated by high mountains, gashed by superb canyons of rivers, scarred with dry gullies and washes, the beds of intermittent streams, varied with great shallow basins, sunken deserts, dreary levels, bold buttes, picturesque mesas, forests and rare verdant bits of valley. In the N.W. there is a giddy drop into the tremendous cut of the Grand Canyon (q.v.) of the Colorado river. The surface in general is rolling, with a gentle slope northward, and drains through the Little Colorado (or Colorado Chiquito), Rio Puerco and other streams into the Grand Canyon. Along the Colorado is the Painted Desert, remarkable for the bright colours—red, brown, blue, purple, yellow and white—of its sandstones, shales and clays. Within the desert is a petrified forest, the most remarkable in the United States. The trees are of mesozoic time, though mostly washed down to the foot of the mesas in which they were once embedded, and lying now amid deposits of a later age. Blocks and logs of agate, chalcedony, jasper, opal and other silicate deposits lie in hundreds over an area of 60 sq. m. The forest is now protected as a national reserve against vandalism and commercialism. Everywhere are evidences of water and wind erosion, of desiccation and differential weathering. This is the history of the mesas, which are the most characteristic scenic feature of the highlands. The marks of volcanic action, particularly lava-flows, are also abundant and widely scattered.
Separating the plateau from the mountain region is an abrupt transition slope, often deeply eroded, crossing the entire state as has been indicated. In localities the slope is a true escarpment falling 150 and even 250 ft. per mile. In the Aubrey Cliffs and along the Mogollon mesa, which for about 200 m. parts the waters of the Gila and the Little Colorado, it often has an elevation of 1000 to 2000 ft., and the ascent is impracticable through long distances to the most daring climber. It is not of course everywhere so remarkable, or even distinct, and especially after its trend turns southward W. of Clifton, it is much broken down and obscured by erosion and lava deposits. The mountain region has a width of 70 to 150 m., and is filled with short parallel ranges trending parallel to the plateau escarpment. Many of the mountains are extinct volcanoes. In the San Francisco mountains, in the north central part of the state, three peaks rise to from 10,000 to 12,794 ft.; three others are above 9000 ft.; all are eruptive cones, and among the lesser summits are old cinder cones. The S.E. corner of Arizona is a region of greatly eroded ranges and gentle aggraded valleys. This mountain zone has an average elevation of not less than 4000 ft., while in places its crests are 5000 ft. above the plains below. The line dividing the two regions runs roughly from Nogales on the Mexican border, past Tucson, Florence and Phoenix to Needles (California), on the W. boundary. These plains, the third or desert region of the state, have their mountains also, but they are lower, and they are not compacted; the plains near the mountain region slope toward the Gulf of California across wide valleys separated by isolated ranges, then across broad desert stretches traversed by rocky ridges, and finally there is no obstruction to the slope at all. Small parts of the desert along the Mexican boundary are shifting sand. ​
The temperature of Arizona is somewhat higher than that of points of equal latitude on the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts. In the mountains on the plateau it ranges from that of the temperate zone to that of regions of perpetual snow; S. of the mountains it ranges from temperate heats in the foothills to semi-tropic heat in the lower valleys of the Gila and Colorado. The average annual temperature over the region N. of 34′ N. is about 55°; that of the region S. is about 68°. The warmest region is the lower Gila valley. Here the hottest temperature of the year hovers around 130°, the mean for the hottest month (July) is about 98°, and the mean for the year is from 68.9°–74.4° F. at different points. Some parts of the Santa Cruz valley are equally hot. In the hottest (western) portions of the true desert on the Mexican border the daily maximum temperature is about 110° F.; but owing to the rapid radiation in the dry, clear, cloudless air the temperature frequently falls 40–50° in the night. The coldest points on the high plateau have annual means as low as 45–48°, and a mean for the coldest month at times below 20° F. The range from high to low extreme on the plateau may be as great as 125°, but in the S.W. it is only about 70–80° F. The daily variation (not uncommonly 60° F.) is of course greatest in the most arid regions, where radiation is most rapid. And of all Arizona it should be said that owing to the extreme dryness of the air, evaporation from moist surfaces is very rapid, so that the high temperatures here are decidedly less oppressive than much lower temperatures in a humid atmosphere. The great difference between absolute and sensible temperature is a very important climatic characteristic of Arizona. Generally speaking, during two-thirds of the year the temperature is really delightful; the nights are cool, the mornings bracing, the days mild though splendid. Intense heat prevails in July, August and September. In lowness of humidity (mean annual relative humidity at Yuma about 39, at Phoenix 36.7, at Tucson 37.8) and clarity of atmosphere, southern Arizona rivals Upper Egypt and other famous arid health resorts.
Fauna and Flora.—Within the borders of Arizona are areas representative of every life zone save the humid tropical. From the summit of the San Francisco Mountains one may pass rapidly through all these down into the Painted Desert. The Boreal-Canadian, Transition and Upper Sonoran embrace the highlands. Coyotes are very common; wild cats and mountain lions are fairly plentiful. Deer and antelope are represented by various species. Prairie-dogs, jack-rabbits, crows and occasional ravens, quail, grouse, pheasants and wild turkeys are also noteworthy in a rather scant animal life. Characteristic forms of the Upper Sonoran zone are the burrowing owl, Nevada sage-thrush, sage-thrasher and special species of orioles, kangaroo rats, mice, rabbits and squirrels. The Lower Sonoran covers the greatest part of southern and western Arizona, as well as the immediate valleys of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers. Its animal life is in the main distinguished in species only from that of the Upper Sonoran belt, including among birds, the desert sparrow, desert thrasher, mocking-bird, hooded oriole; and among mammals small nocturnal species of kangaroo rats, pocket mice, mice and bats. Jaguars occasionally stray into Arizona from Mexico. Lizards and toads are conspicuous in the more desert areas. Snakes are not numerous. The Gila-monster, tarantula, the scorpion and thelyphonus, scolopender and julus occur in some localities in the rainy season. The Arid-Tropical zone is represented by a narrow belt along the lower Colorado river, with a short arm extending into the valley of the Gila. The country is so arid that it supports only desert birds and mammals. Camels were very successfully employed as pack animals on the Tule desert in the palmy days of Virginia City, Nevada, before the advent of railways.
The general conditions of distribution of the fauna of Arizona are shown even more distinctly by the flora. There are firs and spruces on the mountains, characteristic of the Boreal zone; pines characteristic of the Transition zone; piñon juniper, greasewood and the universally conspicuous sage-brush, characteristic of the Upper Sonoran zone. In the Lower Sonoran belt, soapweed, acacias (Palo Verde or Parkinsonia torreyana), agaves, yuccas and dasylirions, the creosote bush and mesquite tree, candle wood, and about seventy-five species of cactuses—among them omnipresent opuntiae and great columnar “Chayas”—make up a striking vegetation, which in its colours of dull grey and olive harmonizes well with the rigidity and forbidding barrenness of the plains. It has exercised profound influence upon the industries, arts, faiths and general culture of the Indians. In places the giant cactus grows in groves, attaining a height of 40 and even 50 ft. The mesquite varies in size from a tangled thorny shrub to a spreading tree as much as 3 ft. in diameter and 50 ft. high; it is normally perhaps half as high, and 6–8 in. in diameter. Enduring hardily great extremes of heat and moisture, it is throughout the arid South-west the most important, and in many localities the only important, native tree. From the great juicy, leafless, branchless stalk of the yucca, soap is prepared, and strong fibres useful in making paper, rope and fabrics. The fibre of the agave is also made into rope and its juice into pulque. The canaigre grows wild and is also cultivated. It is easy to exaggerate greatly the barrenness of an arid country. There are fine indigenous grasses that spring up over the mesas after the summer rains, furnishing range for live-stock; some are extraordinarily independent of the rainfall. In the most arid regions there is a small growth of green in the rainy season, and a rich display of small wild-flowers, as well as the enormous flower clusters of the yucca, and blooms in pink and orange, crimson, yellow and scarlet of the giant cactus and its fellows. Even in the Mexican border, desert oak, juniper and manzanita cover the mountains, and there is a vigorous though short-lived growth of grasses and flower from July to October. The cliff-dweller country supports a scant vegetation—a few cottonwood in the washes, a few cedars on the mesas.
Continuous forest areas are scant. A fair variety of trees—cottonwood, sycamore, ash, willow, walnut and cherry—grow in thickets in the canyons, and each mountain range is a forest area. Rainfall varying with the altitude, the lower timber line below which precipitation is insufficient to sustain a growth of trees is about 7000 ft., and the upper timber line about 11,500 ft. ​Oaks, juniper, piñon, cedars, yellow pine, fir and spruce grow on the mountains and over large areas of the plateau country. The Coconino forest is one of the largest unbroken pine forests (about 6000 sq. m.) in the United States. Since 1898 about 86% of the wooded lands have been made reservations, and work has been done also to preserve the forest areas in the mountains in the south-east, from which there are few streams of permanent flow to the enclosing arid valleys.
Soil.—The soils in the southern part of Arizona are mainly sandy loams, varying from light loam to heavy, close adobe; on the plateaus is what is known as “mesa” soil; and along the rivers are limited overflow plains of fine sediment—especially along the Colorado and the river Verde. These soils are in general rich, but deficient in nitrogen and somewhat in humus; and in limited areas white alkaline salts are injuriously in excess. Virgin soils are densely compact. By far the most useful crops are leguminous green manures, especially alfalfa, which grows four to seven cuttings in a year and as a soil flocculator and nitrogen-storer has proved of the greatest value. The greatest obstacle to agriculture is lack of water. Artesian wells are much used in the south-east. For the reservation of the water-partings—in the past considerably denuded by lumbermen and ranchmen—the increase of the forest areas, and the creation of reservoirs along the rivers, to control their erratic flow and impound their flood waste for purposes of irrigation, much has been done by the national government. The irrigated areas are only little spots along the permanent streams. In 1900 the farm area was only 2·7% of the total area of the state and only 0·31% was actually improved (including Indian reservations, 0·35%; in 1906, 0·92% was cultivated); of the land actually under crops, 88·5% was irrigated. The improved acreage more than quintupled from 1880 to 1900. The total irrigated area in 1900 was 185,000 acres and in 1902, 247,250 acres. The increase in land values by irrigation from 1890 to 1900 is estimated at $3,500,000. A reservoir was begun in 1904 just below the junction of the Tonto and the Salt with capacity to store 1,330,000 acre-ft. for irrigation, and develop also an electric power sufficient to pump underground water for an additional 50,000 acres at the lowest estimate of lands lying too high for supply by gravity. Another important undertaking begun about the same time was the throwing of an East Indian weir dam (the only one in the United States) across the Colorado near Yuma, and the confinement of both sides of the lower Gila and Colorado with levees.
Agriculture.—Strawberries and Sahara dates; alfalfa, wheat, barley, corn and sorghum; oranges, lemons, wine grapes, limes, olives, figs, dates, peanuts and sweet potatoes; yams and sugar beets, show the range of agricultural products. The date palm fruits well; figs grow luxuriantly, though requiring much irrigation; almonds do well if protected from spring frosts; sea-island cotton grows in the finest grades, but is not of commercial importance. The country about Yuma is particularly suited to subtropical fruits. Temperate fruits—peaches, pears, apples, apricots and small fruits—do excellently; as do all important vegetables. The fruit industry is becoming more and more important. Farming is very intensive, and crop follows crop in swift succession; in 1905 the yield of barley per acre, 44 bushels, was greater than in any other state or territory, as was the farm price per bushel on the 1st of December, 81 cents; the average yield per acre of hay was the highest in the Union in 1903, 3·46 tons, the general average being 1·54 tons, was fourth in 1904, 2·71 tons (Utah 3·54, Idaho 3·07, Nevada 3·04), the general average being 1·52 tons, and was highest in 1905, 3·75 tons, the general average for the country being 1·54 tons; and in the same three years the average value per acre of hay was greater in Arizona than in any other state of the Union, being $35·78 in 1903, $40·22 in 1904, and $46·39 in 1905, the general averages for the country being $13·93, $13·23 and $13·11 respectively, for the three years. Of the total farm acreage of the state 97·6% were held in 1900 by the whites; and of these 80·2% owned in whole or in part the land they cultivated.
Stock-raising is a leading industry, but it has probably attained its full development. The over-stocking of the ranges has caused much loss in the past, and the almost total eradication of fine native grasses over extended areas. Of the neat cattle (7,042,635) almost 98%, and of the sheep (861,761) almost 100%, were in 1900 pastured wholly or in part upon the public domain. The extension of national forest reserves and the regulations enforced by the United States government for the preservation of the ranges have put limits to the industry. In 1900 the value of live-stock represented 15·7% of the capital invested in agriculture; the value of animals sold or slaughtered for food ($3,204,758) was half the total value of all farm products ($6,997,097). Ostrich farms have been successfully established in the Salt river valley since 1893; in 1907 there were six farms in the Salt river valley, on which there were about 1354 birds; the most successful food for the ostrich is alfalfa.
Minerals.—Mining is the leading industry of Arizona. Contrary to venerable traditions there is no evidence that mining was practised beyond the most inconsiderable extent by aborigines, Spanish conquistadores, or Jesuits. In 1738 an extraordinary deposit of silver nuggets, quickly exhausted (1741), was discovered at Arizonac. At the end of the 18th century the Mexicans considerably developed the mines in the south-east. The second half of the 19th century witnessed several great finds; first, of gold placers on the lower Gila and Colorado (1858–1869); later, of lodes at Tombstone, which flourished from 1879–1886, then decayed, but in 1905 had again become the centre of important mining interests; and still later the development of copper mines at Jerome and around Bisbee. Several of the Arizona copper mines are among the greatest of the world. The Copper Queen at Bisbee from 1880–1902 produced 378,047,210 ℔ of crude copper, which was practically the total output of the territory till after 1900, when other valuable mines were opened; the Globe, Morenci and Jerome districts are secondary to Bisbee. Important mines of gold and silver, considerable deposits of wolframite, valuable ores of molybdenum and vanadium, and quarries of onyx marble, are also worked. Low-grade coal deposits occur in the east central part of the state and near the junction of the Gila and San Pedro rivers. Some fine gems of peridot, garnet and turquoise have been found. The mineral products of Arizona for 1907 were valued at $56,753,650; of which $51,355,687 (more than that of any other state) was the value of copper; $2,664,000, gold; and $1,916,000, silver. In 1907 the legislature passed an elaborate act providing for the taxation of mines, its principal clause being that the basis of valuation for taxation in each year be one-fourth of the output of the mines in question for the next preceding year.
Manufactures.—The manufacturing industries are of relatively slight importance, though considerable promise attends the experiments with canaigre as a source of tannin. The Navaho and Moqui Indians make woollen blankets and rugs and the Pimas baskets. Onyx marbles of local source are polished at Phoenix. The capital invested in manufacturing industries increased from $9,517,573 in 1900 to $14,395,654 in 1905, or 51·3%, and the value of products from $20,438,987 in 1900 to $28,083,192 in 1905, or 37·4%. Of the total product in 1905 the product of the principal industry, the smelting and refining of copper ($22,761,981), represented 81·1%; it was 9·4% of all the smelting and refining of copper done in the United States in that year. The other manufactures were of much less importance, the principal ones being cars and general shop construction, including repairs by steam railway companies ($1,329,308), lumber and timber products ($960,778), and flour and grist mill products ($743,124).
Two transcontinental railway systems, the Southern Pacific and Santa Fé, were built across Arizona in 1878–1883. They are connected by one line, and a feeder runs S. into Sonora. ​The railway mileage of Arizona on the 1st of January 1908 was 1935·35 m.
Population.—The population of Arizona in 1880 was 40,440; in 1890, 59,620; in 1900, 122,931 (including 28,623 reservation Indians not counted before); in 1910, 204,354. The native population is of the most diverse origin; the foreign element is equally heterogeneous, but more than half (in 1900, 14,172 out of 24,283 foreign-born) are Mexicans, many of whom are not permanent residents; after 1900, immigrants were largely mine labourers, and included Slavonians and Italians. The largest towns in 1900 were Tucson, Phoenix, which is the capital, Prescott (pop. 3559), Jerome (pop. 1890, 250; in 1900, 2861); Winslow (pop. 1890, 363; in 1900, 1305), Nogales (pop. 1900, 1761), and Bisbee. The last was an insignificant mining camp in 1880, still unincorporated in 1900, but with an estimated population of 6000 in 1904. It is crowded picturesquely into several narrow confluent ravines. Railway connexion with El Paso was established in 1902. Douglas is another growing camp.
Over thirty Indian tribes are represented in the Indian schools of Arizona. The more important are the Hualapais or Apache-Yumas; the Mohaves; the Yavapais or Apache-Mohaves; the Yumas, whose lesser neighbours on the lower Colorado are the most primitive Indians of the United States in habits; the Maricopas; the Pimas and Papagoes, who figure much in early Arizona history, and who are superior in intelligence, adaptability, application and character; the Hopis or Moquis, possessed of the same good qualities and notably temperate and provident, famous for their prehistoric culture (Tusuyan); the Navaho, and the kindred Apaches, perhaps the most relentless and savage of Indian warriors. All the Indians of Arizona live on reservations save the few non-tribal Indians taxed and treated as active citizens. Even the Apaches after being whipped by relentless war into temporary submission have been bound by treaties which the gifts, vices and virtues of the reservation system have tempted them to observe. The Pimas and Papagoes were early converted by the Spaniards, and retain to-day a smattering of Christianity plentifully alloyed with paganism. Apaches, Pimas, Papagoes have been employed by the United States on great irrigation works, and have proved industrious and faithful labourers. In 1900 there were 1836 taxed Indians, 26,480 reservation Indians not taxed, and in addition many friendly Papagoes unenumerated.
In 1906 the Indian population was estimated as being 14% of the whole population of Arizona, and that they are singularly law-abiding is argued from the fact that in the same year the Indians furnished only 3% of the convicts in the territorial prison.
Government and Education.—Arizona became a territory of the first (or practically autonomous) class in 1863. Her organic law thereafter until 1910 consisted of various sections of the Revised Statutes of the United States. From the beginning she had a territorial legislature. Congress retained ultimately direct control of all government, administration being in the hands of resident officials appointed by the president and Senate. Special mention must be made of the secret police, the Arizona Rangers, organized in 1901 to police the cattle ranges; they are “fearless men, trained in riding, roping, trailing and shooting,” a force whose personnel is not known to the general public. The legislature repealed the law licensing public gambling in 1907; enacted a law requiring the payment of $300 per annum as licence fee by retail liquor dealers; and provided for juvenile courts and probationary control of children. In 1907 the total tax valuation of property was $77,705,251; the net debt of the territory $1,022,972, and that of counties and towns $3,123,275. The receipts of the territorial treasury for the year ending on the 30th of June 1907 were $687,386, and the disbursements for the same period were $601,568. A homestead provision (1901) exempts from liability for debts (except mortgages or liens placed before the homestead claim) any homestead belonging to the head of a family, existing in one compact body and valued at not more than $2500; such a homestead a married man may not sell, lease or put a lien on without his wife’s consent. Personal property to the value of $500 is exempt from the same liability. The public school system was established in 1871. A compulsory attendance law applies to children between 6 and 14 years of age, but it is not generally obeyed by the Mexican element of population. In 1907 there was an enrolment of 24,962 out of 33,167 children of school age; there were six high schools—three new in 1906; and the average number of school days was 128·4. In the fiscal year ending June 1907, the total receipts for schools were $697,762, and the expenditures were $701,102. Illiteracy is high, amounting in 1900 to 23·1% of native males, above 21 years of age, and 30·5% of foreign males, principally because of the large number of Indians, Chinese, Japanese and Mexicans in the state. There are two normal schools at Tempe (1886) and Flagstaff (1899), a university at Tucson with an agricultural experiment station that has done much for the industries of Arizona; there is a considerable number of Indian schools, the largest of which are maintained by the national government, and the funds of the university come largely from the same source. The first juvenile reform school, called the Territorial Industrial school, was opened in 1903 at Benson. The territorial prison, formerly at Yuma, was abandoned for a modern building at Florence, Pinal county; and a hospital for the insane is 3 m. from Phoenix.
History.—The history of the South-west is full of interest to the archaeologist. A prehistoric culture widely distributed has left abundant traces. Pueblo ruins are plentiful in the basins of the Gila and Colorado rivers and their tributaries. Geographical conditions and a hard struggle against nature fixed the character of this “aridian” culture, and determined its migrations; the onslaughts of nomad Indians determined the sedentary civilization of the cliff dwellers. A co-operative social economy is evidenced by the traces of great public works, such as canals many miles in length. The pueblos of the Gila valley are held to be older than those of the Colorado. Casa Grande, 15 m. S.E. of a railway station of the same name on the Southern Pacific railway, is the most remarkable of plain ruins in the South-west, the only one of its type in the United States. It resembles the Casa Grande ruin of Chihuahua, Mexico, with its walls of sun-dried puddled clay, and its area of rooms, courts and plazas, surrounded by a wall. It was already a ruin when discovered in 1694 by the Jesuit father Kino. John Russel Bartlett described it in 1854, and in 1889 Congress voted that it be protected as a government reservation; in 1892 it was set apart by the government. Excavations were made there in 1906–1907 by Dr J. Walter Fewkes. Migration was northward. The valleys of the Salt river and its affluents, the Agua Fria, Verde and Tonto, are strewn with aboriginal remains; but especially important in migrations of culture was the Little Colorado. A very considerable population must have lived once in this valley. It is represented to-day by the still undeserted habitats of Zuñi (in New Mexico) and Tusayan; the Moquis, after the Zuñis, are in customs and traditions the best survival of the ancient civilization.
Arizona north of the Gila, save for a very limited and intermittent missionary effort and for scant exploring expeditions, was practically unknown to the whites until well after the beginning of American rule. The Santa Cruz valley, however, has much older annals of a past that charms by its picturesque contrasts with the present. Arizona history begins with the arrival in Sonora in 1536 of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, who, although he had not entered Arizona or New Mexico, had heard of them, and by his stories incited the Spaniards to explore the unknown north in hope of wealth. Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan friar to whom the first reconnaissance was entrusted, was the first Spaniard to enter the limits of Arizona. He crossed the south-eastern corner to Zuñi in 1539, passing through the Santa Cruz valley; and F. V. de Coronado (q.v.) was led by Fray Marcos over the same route in 1540; while Hernando Alarcon explored the Gulf of California and the lower Colorado river. Members of Coronado’s expedition explored the Moqui country and reached the Grand Canyon, and after this a succession of remarkable and heroic explorations followed through the century; which however accomplished little for geography, further confusing ​and embellishing rather than clearing up its mysteries. All this has left traces in still living myths about the early history of the South-west. Early in the 17th century considerable progress had been made in Christianizing the Pimas, Papagoes and Moquis. Following 1680 came a great Indian revolt in New Mexico and Arizona, and thereafter the Moquis remained independent of Spanish and Christian domination, although visited fitfully by rival Jesuits and Franciscans. In 1732 (possibly in 1720) regular Jesuit missions were founded at Bac (known as an Indian rancheria since the 17th century) and at Guevavi. The region south of the Gila had already been repeatedly explored. In the second half of the century there was a presidio at Tubac (whose name first appears 1752) and some half-dozen pueblos de visita, including the Indian settlement of Tucson.
A few errors should be corrected and some credit given with reference to this early period. The Inquisition never had any jurisdiction whatever over the Indians; compulsory labour by the Indians was never legalized except on the missions, and the law was little violated; they were never compelled to work mines; of mining by the Indians for precious metals there is no evidence; nor by the Jesuits (expelled in 1767, after which their missions and other properties were held by the Franciscans), except to a small extent about the presidio of Tubac, although they did some prospecting. Persistent traditions have greatly exaggerated the former prosperity of the old South-west. The Spaniards probably provoked some inter-tribal intercourse among the Indians, and did something among some tribes for agriculture. Their own farms and settlements, save in the immediate vicinity of the presidio, were often plundered and abandoned, and such settlement as there was was confined to the Santa Cruz valley. From about 1790 to 1822 was a period of peace with the Apaches and of comparative prosperity for church and state. The fine Indian mission church at Bac, long abandoned and neglected, dates from the last decade of the 18th century. The establishment of a presidio at Tucson in 1776 marks its beginning as a Spanish settlement.
The decay of the military power of the presidios during the Mexican war of independence, the expulsion of loyal Spaniards—notably friars—and the renewal of Apache wars, led to the temporary abandonment of all settlements except Tubac and Tucson. The church practically forsook the field about 1828.
American traders and explorers first penetrated Arizona in the first quarter of the 19th century. As a result of the Mexican War, New Mexico, which then included all Arizona north of the Gila, was ceded to the United States. California gold discoveries drew particular attention to the country south of the Gila, which was wanted also for a transcontinental railway route. This strip, known as the “Gadsden Purchase” (see Gadsden, James), was bought in 1854 by the United States, which took possession in 1856. This portion was also added to New Mexico. The Mexicans, pressed by the Apaches, had, in 1848, abandoned even Tubac and Tamacácori, first a visita of Guevavi, and after 1784 a mission. The progress of American settlement was interrupted by the Civil War, which caused the withdrawal of the troops and was the occasion for the outbreak of prolonged Indian wars.
Meanwhile a convention at Tucson in 1856 sent a delegate to Congress and petitioned for independent territorial government. This movement and others that followed were ignored by Congress owing to its division over the general slavery question, and especially the belief of northern members that the control of Arizona was an object of the pro-slavery party. A convention held in April 1860 at Tucson undertook to “ordain and establish,” of its own motion, a provisional constitution until Congress should “organize a territorial government.” This provisional territory constituted all New Mexico south of 34° 40′ N. Officials were appointed and New Mexican legislation for the Arizona counties ignored, but nothing further was done. In 1861 it was occupied by a Texan force, declared for the Confederacy, and sent a delegate (who was not admitted) to the Confederate congress. That body in January 1862 passed a formal act organizing the territory, including in it New Mexico, but in May 1862 the Texans were driven out by a Union force from California. By act of the 24th of February 1863 Congress organized Arizona territory as the country west of 109° W. long. In December an itinerant government sent out complete from Washington crossed the Arizona line and effected a formal organization. The territorial capital was first at Prescott (1863–1867), then at Tucson (1867–1877), again at Prescott (1877–1889), and finally at Phoenix (since 1889).
There have been boundary difficulties with every contiguous state or territory. The early period of American rule was extremely unsettled. The California gold discoveries and overland travel directed many prospecting adventurers to Arizona. For some years there was considerable sentiment favouring filibustering in Sonora. The Indian wars, breeding a habit of dependence on force, and the heterogeneous elements of cattle thieves, Sonoran cowboys, mine labourers and adventurers led to one of the worst periods of American border history. But since about 1880 there is nothing to chronicle but a continued growth in population and prosperity. Agitation for statehood became prominent in territorial politics for some years. In accordance with an act of Congress, approved on the 16th of June 1906, the inhabitants of Arizona and New Mexico voted on the 6th of November 1906 on the question of uniting the territories into a single state to be called Arizona; the vote of New Mexico was favourable to union and statehood, but these were defeated by the vote of Arizona (16,265 against, and 3141 for statehood). In June 1910 the President approved an enabling act providing for the admission of Arizona and New Mexico as separate states.
Bibliography.—For the Colorado river and the Grand Canyon see those articles; for the Sonoran boundary region, Report of the Boundary Commission upon the Boundaries between the United States and Mexico (3 vols., Washington, 1898–1899, also as Senate Document No. 247, vols. 23-25, 55 Congress, 2 Session); for the petrified forest of the Painted Desert, L. F. Ward in Smithsonian Institution Annual Rep., 1899; for the rest of the area, various reports in the U.S. Geological Survey publications, bibliography in Bulletin Nos. 100, 177.—Fauna and Flora: U.S. Department of Agriculture, North American Fauna, No. 3 (1890), No. 7 (1893); U.S. Biological Survey, Bulletin No. 10 (1898); publications of the Desert Botanical Laboratory at Tucson; also titles under archaeology below, particularly Bandelier’s “Final Report.”—Climate, Soil, Agriculture: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Climate and Crop Service, Arizona, monthly reports, annual summaries; Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletins.—Mineral Industries: U.S. Geological Survey publications, consult bibliographies; The Mineral Industry, annual (New York and London).—Government: Arizona Revised Statutes (Phoenix, 1887); Report of the Governor of Arizona Territory to the Secretary of the Interior, annual.—Archaeology: An abundance of materials in the Annual Report, U.S. Bureau of Ethnology for different years; consult also especially A. F. A. Bandelier, “Contributions to the History of the South-western Portion of the United States,” in Archaeological Institute of America, Papers, American Series, vol. 5 (Cambridge, 1890); “Final Report of Investigations among the Indians of the South-western United States,” ib. vols. 3 and 4 (Cambridge, 1890–1892); other material may be found in Smithsonian Institution, Annual Report, 1896, 1897, &c., and many important papers by J. W. Fewkes, F. W. Hodge, C. Mendeleff and others in the American Anthropologist and Journal of American Ethnology.—History: H. H. Bancroft, History of Arizona and New Mexico (San Francisco, 1887); A. F. A. Bandelier, “Historical Introduction to Studies among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico,” in Archaeological Institute of America, Papers, American Series, vol. 1 (Boston, 1881); The Gilded Man (El Dorado) and other Papers (New York, 1893); G. P. Winship, “The Coronado Expedition,” in U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, 14th Annual Report (1892–1893), pp. 339-613, with an abundant literature to which this may be the guide. The traditional errors respecting the early history of the Spanish South-west are fully exposed in the works of Bancroft and Bandelier, whose conclusions are supported by E. Coues, On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer, Francisco Garcés (2 vols. New York, 1900).
* ↑ At Yuma, Phoenix and Tucson, the records of twenty-six, eighteen and fifteen years respectively show a rate of evaporation 35·2, 12·7, and 7·7 times as great as the mean annual rainfall, which was 2·84 in., 7·06 in. and 11·7 in. for the places named.
* ↑ The San Francisco yellow pine forest, with an area of some 4700 sq. m., is the finest forest of the arid south-west.
* ↑ The combined flow of the Salt and Verde varies from 100 to more than 10,000 cub. ft. per second.
* ↑ The dam locks a narrow canyon. The height is 284 ft., the water rising 230 ft. against it. The storage capacity is exceeded by probably but one reservoir in the world—the Wachusett reservoir near Boston.