Regarding monuments Will Rogers used to say: “You don’t need much monument if the cause is good. It’s only the monument that’s for no reason at all that has to be big.”
On the outskirts of Casa Grande, along what used to be the main highway…
The Story of Arizona’s First Newspaper: The “Arizonian”
October 3, 2011 By 1 Comment
TUBAC – More than 150 years ago – five decades before statehood – Arizona’s first newspaper hit the printing press in Tubac.
At the time, Tubac was among the territory’s more active presidios with 400 residents. The Gadsden Purchase had just been ratified five years earlier…
Arizona’s “Hollywood” Trivia: Can You Pass?
August 9, 2011 By 1 Comment
Test your knowledge of Arizona’s “Hollywood” scene below, originally published in Marshall Trimble’s Official Arizona Trivia. Don’t scroll down too quickly. The answers are posted shortly below the questions. When you’re finished, leave a comment with your score. Good luck! We have much more Hollywood trivia, so let us know if you enjoy it!
1. Where was John Ford’s 1939 classic film, “Stagecoach,” filmed?
2. The stage driver in “Stagecoach” was played by this Arizona native.
Why are Phoenix and Tucson so Different?
January 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Q: My grandpa and grandma live in Tucson, and when we visit them, I always wonder why are Phoenix and Tucson so different?
A: This is an excellent question. The answer would fill a volume or two, but the short explanation is: History, dear child, it’s all about history.
In the great scheme of things, Phoenix is a fairly young city.
Granted, the Hohokam and other Native Americans lived around here for centuries, but a permanent European presence was not established until the Army opened Fort McDowell in 1865. The hay camp that supplied the fort eventually became Phoenix.
By contrast, Tucson’s European roots go back to 1694, when the tireless missionary Father Kino founded a small mission roughly near the Miracle Mile overpass at Interstate 10. Not far away was another village Kino called San Cosme de Tucson. It was more or less the northern most point of the Spanish settlement in what is now Arizona.
Origin of Old Arizona’s Railways
January 9, 2011 By 1 Comment
The Southern Pacific railroad stretched its steel ribbons across Arizona in the late 1870s, reaching Tucson in March, 1880. The rail station nearest Phoenix was 35 miles to the south at Maricopa. From the beginning, local citizens began clamoring for a railroad. Despite the fact that thousands of miles of track were being laid across the nation each year, seven railroad companies were organized and went broke in a 10-year period before a line was built from Maricopa to Phoenix.
During that time the stage line of Gilmer, Salisbury and Company ran a daily from Maricopa to Prescott, passing through Phoenix. A proposed railroad followed the same route, the old Woolsey Road, north to New River, then up through Black Canyon, hugging the Aqua Fria River most of the way before veering off to the territorial capital, nestled picturesquely in the Bradshaw Mountains. A tri-weekly stage also ran north to Prescott via Wickenburg.
