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Arizona – The Grand Canyon State

Sun City, AZ
Sun City, AZ

Sun City, established by developer Del Webb and opened in 1960, was one of the first such communities.  Green Valley, south of Tucson, was another such community, designed as a retirement subdivision for Arizona’s teachers.  Many senior citizens from across the U.S. and Canada come to Arizona each winter and stay only during the winter months; they are referred to as snowbirds.

Geography:

Arizona is well known for its desert Basin and Range region in the state’s southern portions, which is rich in a landscape of xerophyte plants such as the cactus.  This region’s topography was shaped by prehistoric volcanism, followed by the cooling-off and related subsidence.  Its climate has exceptionally hot summers and mild winters.

Saguaro Cactus in Flower
Saguaro Cactus in Flower

The state is less well known for its pine-covered north-central portion of the high country of the Colorado Plateau.

Like other states of the Southwest United States, Arizona has an abundance of mountains and plateaus.  Despite the state’s aridity, 27% of Arizona is forest, a percentage comparable to modern-day France or Germany.  The world’s largest stand of ponderosa pine trees is in Arizona.

The Mogollon Rim, a 1,998-foot escarpment, cuts across the state’s central section and marks the southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau.

Located in northern Arizona, the Grand Canyon is a colorful, deep, steep-sided gorge, carved by the Colorado River.  The canyon is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and is largely contained in the Grand Canyon National Park—one of the first national parks in the United States.

Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado
Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado

President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of designating the Grand Canyon area as a National Park, often visiting to hunt mountain lion and enjoy the scenery.  The canyon was created by the Colorado River cutting a channel over millions of years, and is about 277 miles long, ranges in width from 4 to 18 miles and attains a depth of more than 1 mile.  Nearly two billion years of the Earth’s history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut through layer after layer of sediment as the Colorado Plateau uplifted.

Arizona is home to one of the most well-preserved meteorite impact sites in the world.  Created around 50,000 years ago, the Barringer Meteorite Crater is a gigantic hole in the middle of the high plains of the Colorado Plateau, about 25 miles west of Winslow.  A rim of smashed and jumbled boulders, some of them the size of small houses, rises 150 feet above the level of the surrounding plain.  The crater itself is nearly 1 mile wide and 570 feet deep.

Barringer Meteor Crater
Barringer Meteor Crater

Arizona is one of two U.S. states that does not observe Daylight Saving Time, the other being Hawaii. The exception is within the large Navajo Nation, which observes Daylight Saving Time, in the state’s northeastern region.

Economy:

Early in its history, Arizona’s economy relied on the “five C’s”: copper, cotton, cattle, citrus, and climate (tourism).  Copper is still extensively mined from many expansive open-pit and underground mines, accounting for two-thirds of the nation’s output.

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