The dates listed in the following table indicate the years it has continuously served as the state's sole capital. Most states have changed their capital city at least once. In the case of the thirteen original states, "statehood" in the table refers to its date of ratification of the United States Constitution.
Juneau, Alaska
The City and Borough of Juneau is the capital city of Alaska. It has been the capital of Alaska since 1906. It is one of 2 capital cities that cannot be reached by road, the other being Honolulu, Hawaii.
The government of the then-District of Alaska was moved from Sitka by the decision of the U.S. Congress. The municipality unified in 1970 when the city of Juneau merged with the city of Douglas and the surrounding Greater Juneau Borough to form the current home rule municipality.
The area of Juneau is larger than that of Rhode Island and Delaware individually and almost as large as the two states combined. Downtown Juneau is at the base of Mount Juneau and across the channel from Douglas Island. As of the 2010 census, the City and Borough had a population of 31,275.
Juneau is named after gold prospector Joe Juneau, though the place was for a time called Rockwell and then Harrisburg (after Juneau's co-prospector, Richard Harris).
The Tlingit name of the town is Dzántik'i Héeni (""river where the flounders gather""), and Auke Bay just north of Juneau proper is called "Aak'w" (""little lake"") in Tlingit. The Taku River, just south of Juneau, was named after the cold "t'aakh" wind, which occasionally blows down from the mountains.
Downtown Juneau sits at sea level, with tides averaging , below steep mountains about to high. Atop these mountains is the Juneau Icefield, a large ice mass from which about 30 glaciers flow; two of these, the Mendenhall Glacier and the Lemon Creek Glacier, are visible from the local road system; the Mendenhall glacier has been generally retreating; its front face is declining both in width and height.
The Alaska State Capitol in downtown Juneau was originally built as the Federal and Territorial Building in 1931. Prior to statehood, it housed federal government offices, the federal courthouse and a post office. It also housed the territorial legislature and many other territorial offices, including that of the governor. Today, it is still the home of the state legislature and the offices of the governor and lieutenant governor. Other executive branch offices have largely moved elsewhere, in Juneau or elsewhere in the state, in the ongoing battle between branches for space in the building, as well as the decades-long capital move issue. Recent discussion has been focused between relocating the seat of state government outside of Juneau and building a new capitol building in Juneau. Neither position has advanced very far. The Alaska Committee, a local community advocacy group, has led efforts to thus far keep the capital in Juneau.
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital and the largest city in the U.S. state of Arizona. The city is the county seat of Maricopa County. It is the largest capital city in the United States and the only capital with over more than million people. The city is along the normally dry Salt River. It became a city on February 25 1881. People who live in Phoenix are known as Phoenicians.
Phoenix had about 1,475,834 people in 2005. It is the fifth-largest city in the United States in the 2000 census. Phoenix is a very large city. It has an area of 515 square miles. This makes it the 10th largest city by area. As of 2006, the Phoenix Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) was the 13th-largest in the United States, with an estimated 4,039,182 people.
As early as 700 AD, the Hohokam people lived in the land that would become Phoenix. The Hohokam created about 135 miles (217 km) of irrigation canals. This let them grow things on the land.
It is believed that between AD 1300 and AD 1450 drought and floods caused the Hohokam to no longer live in the area. Spanish and Mexican explorers knew of the area but they did not go as far north as the Salt River Valley.
In 1867, Jack Swilling of Wickenburg, Arizona came to the area. He saw that the land was good for farming. The only problems he saw were a lack of rain and good irrigation. Swilling corrected the problem by having a series of canals built. A small community was created about four miles (6 km) east of the where the city is today.
The farming community was named Swilling's Mill. The name was later changed to Helling Mill, Mill City, and East Phoenix. Swilling was a Confederate soldier during the Civil War. He wanted to name the city "Stonewall," after Gen. Stonewall Jackson. Other people had other ideas for names. Finally, Lord Darrell Duppa suggested the name "Phoenix". The name is the same as the mythological fire bird which is born again from its own ash after it dies. It was a good name for a city born from a former civilization.
On February 25 1881, Phoenix became an incorporated city. At that time it had about 2,500 people. Phoenix held its first city election on May 3 1881. Judge John T. Alsap defeated James D. Monihon, 127 to 107, to become the city's first mayor. In early 1888, the city offices were moved into the new City Hall.
The coming of the railroad in the 1880s was the first of several important events changed the economy of Phoenix. Phoenix became a trade center. In response, the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce was created on November 4 1888.
Phoenix is at 33°26'54" North, 112°4'26" West (33.448457°, -112.073844°) in the Salt River Valley, or "Valley of the Sun", in central Arizona. It is at a mean elevation of 1,117 feet (340 m), in the northern reaches of the Sonoran Desert.
Other than the mountains in and around the city, the topography of Phoenix is mostly flat. This allows the city's main streets to run on a precise grid with wide, open-spaced roadways.
The Salt River runs westward through the city of Phoenix. The riverbed is often dry or just a trickle due to large irrigation usage. The river is full after infrequent rainstorms or when more water is released from upstream dams. The city of Tempe has built two inflatable dams in the Salt River bed to create a year-round recreational lake, called Tempe Town Lake. The dams are deflated to allow the river to flow unimpeded during releases. Lake Pleasant Regional Park is in Northwest Phoenix in the suburb of Peoria, Arizona.
As with most of Arizona, Phoenix does not observe daylight saving time. In 1973, Gov. Jack Williams argued to Congress that energy use would increase in the evening. Refrigeration units were not used as often in the morning on standard time. He went on to say that energy use would rise "because there would be more lights on in the early morning." He was also concerned about children going to school in the dark, which indeed they were. Navajo Nation lands in Northeastern Arizona observe daylight saving time in conjunction with the rest of their tribal lands in other states.
Phoenix has an arid climate, with very hot summers and temperate winters. The average summer high temperature is among the hottest of any populated area in the United States and approaches those of cities such as Riyadh and Baghdad. The temperature reaches or exceeds 100°F (38°C) on an average of 110 days during the year, including most days from late May through early September, and highs top 110 °F (43 °C) an average of 21 days during the year. On June 26, 1990, the temperature reached an all-time recorded high of 122 °F (50 °C).
On average, Phoenix has only 2 days per year where the temperature drops to or below freezing. Frequently, outlying areas of Phoenix see frost, but the airport does not. The earliest frost on record occurred on November 3, 1946, and the latest occurred on April 4, 1945. The all-time lowest recorded temperature in Phoenix was 16 °F (-8.8 °C) on January 7, 1913.