Yes, indeed, it is against Arizona law to grow morning glories. As far as we know, no one has ever been sent up for this offense, nor have there ever been, that we are aware of, turf struggles between elements of the criminal underclass vying to control the morning glory trade.
Nonetheless, it turns out that beneath its happy, colorful flowers beat the roots of a really nasty plant.
The Diamondback Bridge in Tucson can probably lay claim to a variety of different titles — “the world’s longest rattlesnake,” “the world’s largest rattlesnake” and even “the world’s most artistic use of steel floor grating.” The pedestrian bridge is 300 feet long, 16 feet high, 16 feet wide, and it spans Broadway, one of the city’s major traffic arterials. It’s the creation of Tucson artist Simon Donovan, who observed that “the proportion of the bridge seemed to be perfect for depicting a large snake.” And so he made one.
About 20 miles up the Gila River from Yuma, the community of Dome basks in the desert sun. It’s pretty quiet around here these days—a far cry from that prosperous time in the late 1850s when the boisterous boom town of Gila City boasted some thousand rough and tumble prospectors. It was Arizona’s first gold strike, and the town set the style for other mining camps over the next few years.
Arizona Oddities’ Clay Thompson is best known for his long-running column in The Arizona Republic, Valley 101. For decades, he has offered a humorous glimpse into the quirks and oddities surrounding the Valley lifestyle. And earlier this summer, he gave Arizona residents the chance to show off their comedic skills in the Great Big Annual Hot Weather Limerick Contest.
