Arizona’s capital city might have been called “Salina,” “Stonewall,” or even “Pumpkinville,” had it not been for a spurious English “Lord” named Darrell Duppa. Duppa was a well-educated world traveler who, it was rumored, was given a substantial allowance by his wealthy English relatives to remain permanently at large.
His raucous lifestyle, highlighted by epic bouts with dipsomania was, no doubt, a source of embarrassment to his relatives and contributed to his banishment to Arizona. It was said “Lord” Duppa was fluent in seven languages. Unfortunately for his listeners, the erudite eccentric spoke all seven in the same paragraph.
Duppa was a member of a committee chosen to select a name for the new settlement on the banks of the Salt River one sunny October day in 1870.
I was born and raised in Arizona, and a love affair with the sun has pretty much solidified my future here. I’ve lived in the Valley for about six years, and the toasty summers are a small price to pay for year-round comfort and recreation.
With the New Year in full gear, I thought it fitting to share reasons why I’m looking forward to an AZ-filled 2010. Last year was a tumultuous year for many Arizonans, yet despite many economic challenges, it’s important to recognize what’s going right.
Q: I admit that I’m not new to the Valley, but I have a burning question which in all my 36 years, I cannot answer. How did Bethany Home Road get its name? Is there such a place as “Bethany Home’’? I can understand how Camelback, Washington, Central, Indian School and just about all the other major thoroughfares got named, but not Bethany Home. Do you know?
A: Do we know? Do we know? Do you think the state’s largest newspaper, a powerful media colossus such as Phoenix Newspapers Inc., a newspaper for the new millennium, would blithely hand over the awesome responsibility of teaching the Valley 101 course to someone who didn’t know something as simple as that? It is to laugh. Ha, ha.
Actually, no, we don’t know. Or at least we didn’t know until we asked around a bit.
It took Robert John Miley more than a decade to turn guns into art. The result is a sculpture that rises above a small park at the corner of Roosevelt Street and Central Avenue in downtown Phoenix. Miley spent 11 years acquiring the land, material and manpower needed to create the work. The statue, which resembles a man lifting his arms skyward, is made of steel and weighs 17,000 pounds. Four tons of the material came from guns that were once used in the commission of violent acts.
