Prehistoric Times
The land that
is present-day Arizona is one of the oldest inhabited areas
in the United States. Although statehood was achieved as
recently as 1912, Arizona's history began more than 12,000
years ago.
Little is known
of the early people in Arizona as they left no written word.
Historians assume the first inhabitants came from Asia
across a long land bridge in the
Bering Strait created by receding polar ice.
The Cochise
people lived in this region from about 5,000 years ago to
the early part of the first century. They were hunters,
gatherers, and farmers who grew an early form of maize
(corn) along with beans and squash.
The
Anasazi inhabited the high plateau region of
northwestern Arizona. Their name was Navajo for "those who
lived before." The tribe is the first known to abandon a
nomadic lifestyle to build multi-room houses into caves.
They also built circular buildings, or kiva, for ceremonial
purposes. Canyon de Chelly is the home of the Anasazi White
House ruins. The Sinagua (without water) people descended
from the main Anasazi tribe.
The people of
the mountains in eastern Arizona were named Mogollon after
an early Spanish colonial Governor of New Mexico, Juan
Ignacia Mogollon. The Mogollon were likely descendants of
the Cochise, although their culture was more complex than
the Cochise.
The Hohokam, a
name derived from the Pima language meaning "ancient ones,"
were farmers. They constructed an elaborate irrigation canal
system as early as 500 A.D. The Casa Grande ruins are
monuments to the Hohokam way of life.
The Anasazi and
the Hohokam tribes reached the height of their civilization
between 1100 and 1300 A.D. but by 1400 A.D., the Mogollon,
Anasazi, and Hohokam no longer existed. The disappearance of
these people remains a mystery, but speculation of a
prolonged drought may have reduced food supplies and dried
farmland.
When the
Spanish arrived in the 16th century they found the
distribution of native peoples largely as it is today. The
tribes native to Arizona are divided into three groups: the
Uto-Aztecan, the Athapascan, and the Yuman. Many other
tribes can be found here, but they moved to Arizona from
other locations. These include the Paiute from Utah and the
Yaqui from Mexico. Among the Uto-Aztecan tribes are the
Hopi, the Pima, and the Papago.
The Hopi are a
peace-loving people who have kept their culture intact due
in large part to living in an isolated area. The Pima and
Papago are believed to be descendants of Hohokam farmers.
The name Papago means "bean people"; however, in 1986, the
Papago changed their name to Tohono O'odham, meaning "people
of the desert."
The Athapascans
include the Apache and Navajo. The Apache tribes include the
Chiricahua, the Mescalero, the San Carlos, the Cibecue, and
the White Mountain Apache. Among their membership were
famous chiefs such as Cochise, Victorio, Nana, and Geronimo.
The Navajo live
in northeastern Arizona. The entire Navajo reservation is
located in parts of four states. Their tribal headquarters
are located in Window Rock, Arizona.
Many early
Spanish explorers asked the native people what they called
themselves. In one case, the native thought the Spanish were
asking the name of the chief's son and so answered "Yuma."
Thus the Yumans were misnamed, but the name carried forward.
Among the Yumans are the Mohave, the Quechan, the Cocopah,
the Maricopa, the Yavapai, the Hualapai, and the Havasupai.
Spanish Exploration
Spanish
exploration of the land north of Mexico focused on the three
"Gs": God, Gold and Glory. According to Spanish legend,
seven bishops fled Spain during the Moorish invasion and
each founded a Christian city in a distant land. In 1527 the
legend grew when a captured native told the Spanish of seven
wondrous cities of great wealth. These cities were known as
the Seven Cities of Cibola and were thought to be located
north of what is now present day Mexico.
In 1539 the
viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, gave Franciscan
missionary Fray Marcos de Niza orders to travel north in
search of the legendary cities. From Yacapa, de Niza sent a
Moroccan slave, Esteban, ahead to find the cities. His
orders were to communicate with de Niza by sending a cross
by messenger. The size of the cross would signify the
importance of what he found -- the larger the cross, the
more important the discovery.
Esteban sent de
Niza very large crosses, but never saw him again. The friar
learned from a surviving member of Esteban's party that they
found the first of the Seven Cities of Cibola. De Niza was
told that Esteban and his group were warned by a Zuni tribe
not to enter the city. When Esteban insisted, he and most of
his party were arrested and killed.
When de Niza
arrived at the site, he feared for his life and tried to
bribe the native people with gifts. He was shown a hill
overlooking the city that, he was told, was the smallest of
the Seven Cities. Knowing the location, he was still afraid
to enter, and returned to Mexico only to embellish his story
with images of grandeur. Word of the discovery spread
quickly. Francisco Vásquez de Coronado was then appointed to
lead an expedition to bring back the riches of Cibola.
The party
eventually returned to Mexico to report they had found
neither gold or silver nor the Straits of Anián.
Coronado
departed Compostela accompanied by Marcos de Niza, on
February 23, 1540. His expedition included 336 Spaniards,
1,000 native Americans, 1,500 horses and mules, and
countless slaves, cattle, and sheep.
Marcos de Niza
guided them along the San Pedro River valley, the same route
he had earlier traveled. Coronado's group reached the city
seen by Fray Marcos on July 7, 1540. Using an interpreter,
Coronado tried to explain that he was there to defend the
city's inhabitants for the Spanish king. The natives tried
to kill the interpreter, which started the first battle
between natives and Europeans in what is now the United
States. Coronado was victorious and held a meeting with the
defeated chief, learning he had captured a Zuni pueblo
(town) named Hawikúh. He also learned there were five other
pueblos nearby, not six, and none of them was filled with
gold and silver. An angry Coronado sent Fray Marcos back to
report the truth to the viceroy.
The Zunis
pointed Coronado to the west, hoping that he would leave in
search of the gold and silver. He instead sent Captain Pedro
de Tovar to explore the area. Tovar arrived at the Hopi
villages of Tontonteac and Tusayán, only to be told by the
Hopis that gold and silver were farther west. He sent word
back to Coronado who then dispatched Captain García López de
Cárdenas to further explore the area. Cárdenas traveled the
same route as Tovar to the Hopi villages and then headed
west, reaching the edge of what we now know as the Grand
Canyon. Unimpressed with the canyon's natural beauty, but
hoping to find gold and silver within, Cárdenas searched for
an entrance to the canyon for three days. Having no luck, he
returned to Coronado.
During this
same time, several hundred miles downstream from Cárdenas,
Captain Hernando de Alarcón led the naval arm of Coronado's
expedition on the Colorado River. When Alarcón reached the
mouth of the Gila River, he learned about Coronado's
discovery of the pueblos from the natives. Alarcón knew he
could not provide naval help to Coronado. Before returning
to Mexico, he buried informational letters under a tree and
placed an identifiable inscription on the trunk.
Captain
Melchior Díaz, who traveled through the present day Sonora
River valley, was under orders from Coronado to find
Alarcón. Díaz explored west through land controlled by the
Pima and Papago, a parallel route to the present day
international border between Arizona and Mexico. Díaz
reported this area was quite desolate and named it El Camino
del Diablo (the Devil's Highway). The expedition traveled
about 80 miles north of the Colorado River's mouth, near the
area where San Luis, Arizona, is currently located. There
the natives led Díaz to the tree where Alarcón's letters
were buried. With the search for Alarcón's expedition
resolved, Díaz and his men crossed the Colorado into what is
now California. There Díaz accidently impaled himself on his
own lance and died. His men sent a report to Coronado and
traveled to Culiacán.
Before the
report could be delivered to Coronado, his expedition
journeyed to the Rio Grande River valley. In New Mexico the
natives described to him a place called Grand Quivira where
even the lowliest peasant ate from golden plates.
In search of
Grand Quivira, Coronado and his men crossed what is now the
Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, into Kansas. There they found
a village with huts made of mud and straw, but no gold or
silver. When Coronado questioned him, his native guide
admitted to lying to him at the request of the Pueblo
natives. Coronado, angry, ordered the guide killed and,
using compasses, he and his men found their way back to the
New Mexico pueblo. The following spring, Coronado ordered
his party home to Mexico City where he reported to the
viceroy that he had found no wealth.
Although he
returned to his post as Governor of Nueva Galacia, the
rigors of the expedition and its expense left Coronado in
failing health and his fortune gone. Some of the
expedition's investors accused Coronado of mismanagement,
cruelty to the native peoples, and even of finding wealth
and then hiding it for his own benefit. He was convicted,
removed as Governor, and stripped of his titles. In 1546, a
review board in Spain cleared him of all charges. He died
shortly thereafter. Today, the Coronado National Monument
and the Coronado National Forest commemorate his early
exploration of Arizona.
The event that
created new interest in exploration of Arizona was Francis
Drake's voyage around the world between 1578 and 1580. The
Spaniards did not believe Drake had actually sailed around
the Cape of Good Hope at the southern end of Africa, or that
he had sailed through the Straits of Magellan. They were
convinced Drake found a northwest passage around North
America. The Spaniards decided to search north to find this
legendary waterway which they named the Straits of Anián.
Friar Agustín Rodríguez, two other Franciscan missionaries,
nine soldiers, and 16 native Americans left on an expedition
on June 5, 1581 to find the waterway. They followed the
Conchos River to the Rio Grande near the present site of
Presidio, Texas. From there they traveled north along the
Rio Grande to the Indian territory.
Only one of the
missionaries returned to Mexico. Fearing the safety of the
other missionaries, Antonio de Espejo, a wealthy miner,
organized a rescue party at his own expense. Led by Fray
Bernadino Beltrán, the search party departed on November 10,
1582. When they arrived in New Mexico, they learned the two
missionaries had been killed.
Espejo began
his search for the Seven Cities of Cibola and Grand Quivira
journeying east, but found regions not worth exploring. The
party eventually returned to Mexico to report they had found
neither gold or silver nor the Straits of Anián.
Madrid later
ordered the colonization of New Mexico as a way of bringing
Christianity to the reported large numbers of native
peoples. The decree included the requirement that any
colonizing expedition must be paid for by the expedition
leader. In return, the leader would be named Governor of the
area colonized.
In 1595 Juan de
Oñate received the contract for such an expedition. He left
on February 7, 1598, with 400 colonists, 83 carts of
baggage, and 7,000 animals. A delegation of Franciscan
missionaries accompanied them.
Oñate took
possession of the territory at a site close to Santa Fe. Six
months later, he set out to find the Seven Cities of Cibola
and Grand Quivira. Arriving at the same village in Kansas
that Coronado had discovered years earlier, Oñate was just
as disappointed as his predecessor in what he found.
In 1604, Oñate
headed west across Arizona and traveled down the Colorado
River to its mouth. He never found the gold, silver, and
gemstones in stories told by the natives along the way.
Oñate was later charged with offenses similar to those
brought against Coronado. He was tried and convicted but
later pardoned by the King of Spain. Oñate is generally
considered to be the founder of New Mexico.
Missionaries
from Oñate's colony later worked with the Hopis, bringing
Christianity to the tribe; however, some of the older Hopi
tribal members felt the missionaries were trying to
eliminate Hopi beliefs and traditions. They joined in the
New Mexico Pueblo Uprising in 1680, killing the
missionaries, and driving the Spaniards out of New Mexico.
The Spaniards ended up founding El Paso del Norte, the site
of present-day Juarez, Mexico.
In 1693,
Colonel Diego de Vargas managed to make a peaceful visit to
the Hopi tribe. Although tribal members swore allegiance to
the King of Spain, they did not permit the Spanish to occupy
their land.
Future
colonization of Arizona would come from the south, making
Arizona a part of Mexico, rather than from the east which
would have made Arizona part of New Mexico.
One of the most
famous missionaries in Arizona was a Jesuit, Father Eusebio
Francisco Kino, who was appointed missionary to the Pimas in
1687. As a young man, Eusebio Kino had been offered a
professorship at the University of Inglestadt but, before
accepting the post, he became ill, almost losing his life.
He prayed to Saint Francis Xavier, promising to join the
Society of Jesus should his life be spared. Upon his
recovery, he kept his promise and adopted his middle name,
Francisco, to show his gratitude.
When Kino
finished seminary, he asked for an assignment in the Orient
but was assigned to New Spain. On arriving in Mexico City in
1681, he learned he was to colonize Baja, California.
Despite his best efforts, colonization there failed. He was
then assigned an area in northern Sonora known as Pimería
Alta, the upper land of the Pimas. In 1687, he established
the mission Nuestra Señora de los Dolores.
From there he
worked his way north and west, reaching Arizona in 1691.
After establishing the mission San Cayetano Tumacácori, he
traveled north to establish the missions San Xavier del Bac
and Guevavi. San Xavier del Bac is the only one of the three
that is still a mission today. Guevavi no longer exists and
Tumacácori is no longer used as a mission.
In addition to
establishing missions, Father Kino taught the native peoples
different agricultural methods and brought horses, sheep,
mules, and cattle into Arizona. His teachings formed the
basis for ranching in the Santa Cruz and San Pedro river
valleys.
Father Kino was
also an explorer and mapmaker. He made several trips as far
as the Gila River and twice traveled to the Colorado River.
Before his exploration to the Colorado River, Baja
California was thought to be an island. When he reached the
mouth of the Colorado in 1702, Father Kino found that Baja
California was a peninsula rather than an island. His 1710
map unveiled this discovery and was the model for all area
maps for the next 100 years. The maps that Father Kino drew
of the area, while widely distributed in Europe, were never
attributed to him.
Father Kino
traveled more than 75,000 miles in his lifetime. At age 55,
he averaged 40 miles a day for 26 straight days. He died in
1711 at Magdelena, Sonora. The missions Father Kino founded
were not permanently staffed until 1732. The only missionary
to truly venture into Arizona after Kino's death was Father
Jacobo Sedelmayr, who traveled as far as the Casa Grande
ruins.
In 1796, a
Yaqui native discovered silver in
Arizona. He took samples of the silver to a Sonoran merchant
and soon many Spaniards, hearing of the discovery, traveled
to the area in search of easy wealth. Captain Juan Bautista
de Anza of Fronteras arrived soon after to collect taxes.
There was some question whether to tax the silver at 20%
because it was an ore, or at 95% because it was a treasure.
Before authorities in Madrid could make a final
determination that the silver should be taxed at the higher
amount, the area was abandoned because all of the surface
silver had been removed. Not only would it take a large
investment to tunnel for silver beneath the earth, there was
also fear of aggression from Apaches in the area. A book
published in Barcelona in 1754 notes the king referred to
this as Real de Arizonas.
During this
time, an undercurrent of tension smoldered between the
missionaries and the natives. On November 21, 1751, the
Pimas attacked and set fire to the mission at Tubatma,
Sonora. The missionaries managed to put out the fire and
fend off the attackers, who retreated to the Catalina
Mountains north of Tucson.
Shortly after
Mexican Governor Parilla sent Captain José del Carpio to
pursue the Pima leader Luís Oacpicagua. Carpio established
headquarters at Tubac and sent word out that no harm would
come to any Pimas who returned peacefully to their pueblos
and swore allegiance to Spain. Oacpicagua arrived in Tubac
and accepted the terms, restoring peace in Arizona.
The Pima
Uprising brought a halt to additional exploration to the
north. To prevent additional uprisings, the viceroy ordered
two presidios (military posts) to be built. One, located in
Tubac, was built as a walled fort made of adobe. By 1757,
the presidio and the small town that had grown around the
presidio boasted more than 400 residents. This gave the
Spanish a permanent settlement in Arizona, and it also
reduced the Jesuit influence with the natives.
Two events in
the mid-1760s had a profound effect on Arizona history. The
first, the transfer of the Louisiana Territory to the
Spanish, lessened the threat of the French to the Spanish
colonies. The second was the issuance of a decree by King
Charles II of Spain to expel all Jesuits from the Spanish
Empire. This latter event required that the Jesuits from the
Arizona missions be taken into custody and sent to Mexico
City. From there they were sent to Vera Cruz where they were
put on ships bound for Europe. Their property, including the
missions, reverted to the government. The missions in
Pimería Alta were given to the Franciscans. By this time the
missions were deteriorating, and most of the natives
reverted to their original beliefs.
Father
Francisco Tomás Hermengildo Garcés, who arrived at San
Xavier del Bac in 1768, rivals Father Kino as the most
influential missionary in Arizona. He continued the
explorations that Kino had started many years earlier.
During one of his trips, he explored the region in what is
now Calexico. There the natives told of Europeans to the
west. Garcés noted that there were two gaps in the mountains
to the west and believed an overland route to California was
possible. He reasoned an overland route would make it easier
to deliver supplies to the missions, rather than bringing
them by sea, which often proved treacherous. Garcés and
Captain Juan Bautista de Anza together requested authority
to explore the area.
On authority
granted by the viceroy, the two men and their party managed
to reach the San Gabriel (Los Angeles) mission and the
Monterey presidio. Garcés still thought there might be
another overland passage farther north. They explored this
route and discovered the Great Salt Lake. After their
supplies dwindled, they were forced to return to New Mexico.
In 1781, the
Spanish established two settlements along the route taken by
Garcés and Anza, beginning with Yuma Crossing. There
missionaries assigned some lands previously held by the
Yumans to soldiers to farm. In addition, when the Spanish
disciplined the natives, yet allowed the colonists and
soldiers to take what they wanted from them, the natives
became angered. On July 17, the Yumans attacked the
settlements, clubbing the soldiers to death, killing the
male colonists, and taking women and children as slaves.
They spared Garcés and another priest for two days before
killing them. Although the women and children were ransomed
to Captain Pedro Fages two months later, the hostility of
the Yumans prevented any connection between California and
Arizona for more than 50 years.
The Royal
Regulations of 1772, decreed by King Charles III of Spain
specified many changes to be made in New Spain. Among them
was moving the presidio at Tubac to Tucson which became the
Presidio San Agustín del Tucson in 1776. With native
hostility still high, the viceroy of New Spain, Bernardo
Gálvez, issued Instructions for the Governing of the
Interior Provinces of New Spain in 1785. Included was a
specification that natives requesting peace be placed in
villages close to the presidios and given presents of
inferior firearms and alcoholic beverages. To the dismay of
the Franciscans, Gálvez's plan was not to Christianize the
natives, but to corrupt them.
In spite of
many problems and complaints, the Gálvez plan did bring
peace to Arizona. When peace arrived, so did the settlers,
ranchers, farmers, and miners. Notable land grants of the
period include the Canoa and the Sonoita land grants.
Arizona's peace was not even disturbed by the Mexican War of
Independence. Spain recognized Mexico's independence in the
Treaty of Cordoba, August 24, 1821.
In the new
Republic of Mexico, the area we know as Arizona became part
of El Estado Libre de Occidente (the Free State of the
West), which also included Sonora and Sinaloa. The Mexican
flag was raised at Tucson, the only major settlement in
Arizona. In 1831, differences between Sinaloa and Sonora
caused the two states to separate. Arizona remained part of
Sonora until it became part of the United States.
American Exploration
The first
significant American exploration of Arizona occurred after a
trade route was established between St. Louis and Santa Fe.
From Santa Fe,
fur trappers trekked across northern Arizona. The most
famous trapper was Bill Williams for whom the town of
Williams, Bill Williams Mountain, and the Bill Williams
River are named. The first American to write about Arizona
was Ohioan James Pattie.
Indian Wars and the Mexican-American War
The Apaches
again instigated war in 1831. Mexico tried to quell the
hostilities by reinstituting the Royal Regulations of 1772,
but the plan was outdated. Because the Sonorans had neither
strong leadership nor soldiers well equipped and
knowledgeable about their arms, the population of Sonora
declined from the mid-1830s but increased in other parts of
Mexico.
Arizona did not
play a role in the Mexican-American War. Most of the battles
were waged in Texas, New Mexico, and California. Because
Arizona had no major cities and no mines, it was of no real
value to either side.
The Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the
Mexican-American War and called for Mexico to cede a portion
of its land to the United States in exchange for $15
million. The ceded portion included all of present-day
Arizona north of the Gila River. The treaty was ratified
July 4, 1848, but establishing the boundary between Mexico
and the United States proved to be a difficult task.
The United
States placed Lieutenant Amiel Weeks Whipple in charge of
the Boundary Commission. The commission delineated a
boundary between upper and lower California. A joint
commission consisting of officials from both countries was
to complete the remainder of the work that was considered
part of the treaty, although not originally specified in it.
President James K. Polk appointed John B. Weller as Boundary
Commissioner. Later, President Zachary Taylor appointed John
Charles Fremont to the post. Fremont accepted the position
but resigned before he took office as he had been elected
U.S. Senator from California. Weller then continued to serve
until he was fired in 1850. William H. Emory, the next
Boundary Commissioner, managed to finish marking the
California and Mexico boundary before resigning.
The next
commissioner, John Russell Bartlett and Mexican Commissioner
General Pedro García, discovered a problem. The treaty had
specified that the southern boundary of New Mexico was to
follow an 1847 map published by J. Disturnell. That map
showed El Paso (currently Juarez, Mexico) to be 34 miles
north and 100 miles east of where it actually is. An
agreement was reached but would not be valid without the
name of the surveyor. As the surveyor had not yet arrived in
El Paso del Norte, Whipple was appointed interim surveyor
and approved the agreement. When surveyor Gray arrived he
declared the agreement invalid.
By the summer
of 1852, sentiment was growing against Commissioner
Bartlett, who had been charged with private use of
government transportation, mismanagement of public funds,
general negligence, and disregard for the health, comfort,
and safety of those under his charge. Added to this was the
Bartlett-Conde Agreement that gave 6,000 square miles of
territory to Mexico--land that the U.S. considered necessary
for a transcontinental railroad. President Millard Fillmore
was forced to halt work on the survey after Congress
attached several amendments to appropriations bills deleting
funds for the survey's completion. In the meantime, both New
Mexico and Chihuahua believed the 6,000 square miles
belonged to their states respectively. It appeared as if a
second Mexican-American War was imminent.
When Franklin
Pierce became president of the United States, he reasoned
that the Mexican dictator, Antonio López de Santa Anna,
needed money, not a war. In March 1853, President Pierce
appointed James Gadsden as his emissary to Mexico to settle
the dispute. On December 30, 1853, the Gadsden Purchase
agreement was signed. By 1855, the land between the two
countries had been marked and all of Arizona, with the
boundaries we know today, became part of the American
territory.
Settling Arizona
Many people who
traveled through Arizona after the Mexican-American War were
on their way to the California gold fields.
The military
began arriving in Arizona and in 1849 Camp Calhoun was
established. A year later its name was changed to Camp
Independence, and in 1851 it was abandoned as a military
camp. The camp was once again occupied in 1852 and named
Fort Yuma. Other military forts established in Arizona
before the Civil War included Fort Defiance in 1852, Fort
Buchanan in 1856, Fort Mohave in 1859, Fort Aravaipa (later
to be called Fort Breckenridge) in 1860, and Camp Tucson in
1860. All of these forts were governed by either California
or New Mexico because Arizona was not yet a separate
territory.
To travel
between the few scattered towns and the military forts,
roads were needed. In 1851, Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves
established a route across Arizona at approximately the 35th
parallel near which the towns of Williams, Flagstaff, and
Kingman grew.
Early settlers
included Dr. Able Lincoln, who owned and operated the
Colorado River ferry in Yuma. L.J.F. Jaeger took over
operations when Dr. Lincoln was killed by Yumans. Pete
Kitchen established a ranch in southern Arizona on which he
raised pigs and cattle and grew grain, potatoes, cabbage,
and fruit. Unfortunately, Kitchen built his ranch on an
Apache war trail. The Apaches were intrigued by the pigs,
which they had never before seen. They liked shooting the
pigs full of arrows so that, in the words of Kitchen, they
looked like "perambulating pincushions." Sylvester Mowry, a
military officer, promoted mining in Arizona before the
Civil War. When he heard that a meeting was to be held in
Tucson to discuss Arizona becoming a separate territory, he
saw a chance to escape the military life at Fort Yuma.
With the
settlers who came to the new land to ranch also came some in
search of gold and silver. One such individual, Charles
Poston, thought silver could be mined in the Tucson area. He
discussed this possibility with Major Samuel P. Heintzelman,
the commanding officer at Yuma. Poston then left for
Heintzelman's home town in Cincinnati, Ohio to obtain
funding for the Sonora Exploration and Mining Company which
developed several mines in the Tubac area. Among them the
Heintzelman mine proved to be the richest.
The
Territory of Arizona
The first
meeting to discuss Arizona becoming a separate territory
occurred in 1856. The dividing line between Arizona and New
Mexico was proposed as an east-west line drawn at
approximately the 34th parallel.
The second
meeting, the one about which Mowry heard, resulted in a
petition bearing 260 signatures, among them the names of
early Arizona pioneers: Mark Aldrich, Herman Ehrenberg,
Edward E. Dunbar, Peter R. Brady, Frederick Ronstadt,
Granville Oury, and Charles Schuchard.
Mowry decided
to present the idea of a separate Arizona territory to
Congress himself. While in Washington, Mowry wrote Memoir on
the Proposed Territory of Arizona, the first published work
devoted entirely to Arizona. There he also established the
Arizona Land and Mining Company and purchased the Sopori
Grant, a 220 acre land grant. He resigned his military
commission in 1858 and became Arizona's territorial
delegate.
In April 1860,
when asked again to serve as territorial delegate, he
declined, citing the ten bills attempting to create the
Arizona territory that had failed to pass. Instead he
acquired the Patagonia Mine, changed its name to the Mowry
Mine, and began mining silver.
In February
1860 the New Mexico legislature passed a bill creating an
Arizona county with Tucson as its county seat. Despite this,
the county was never formed. The people of southern Arizona
and southern New Mexico decided to create a separate
territory for themselves. They even drew up a constitution
that they decided would be valid until Congress acted. That
constitution was published, becoming the first book
published in Arizona.
Arizona was
even part of the Confederacy for a time. In 1860, residents
living in the Gadsden Strip proclaimed that area as a
separate territory. A similar statement was made a week
later by Tucson residents. When word reached Tucson in May
about the Southern victory at Fort Sumter, residents erected
a flagpole, raised the Confederate flag, and played "Dixie's
Land." A bill introduced by John H. Reagan of Texas on
November 22, 1861, called for recognition of Arizona as a
Confederate territory. President Jefferson Davis signed the
bill on February 14, 1862, exactly 50 years to the day
before Arizona would become a state. The western most battle
of the Civil War was fought at Picacho Pass northwest of
Tucson on February 15, 1862. The Confederates won the
battle, but the win meant nothing.
Finally, on
February 24, 1863, after several bills had been introduced
and then failed, President Abraham Lincoln signed into law
the bill that provided for the Territory of Arizona, with a
boundary separating it from New Mexico at approximately 109°
longitude. The first officers of the Territory, appointed by
President Lincoln on March 4, 1863, were the following:
Governor John A. Gurley; Chief Justice John Noble Goodwin;
Secretary Richard C. McCormick; Associate Justices William
T. Howell and Joseph P. Allyn; District Attorney Almon Gage;
U.S. Marshal Milton B. Duffield; and Superintendent of
Indian Affairs Charles Poston. Unfortunately, Gurley died
before leaving Washington. In his place, Goodwin was named
Governor and William F. Turner was appointed Chief Justice,
replacing Goodwin.
The first
capitol was near the mines in the Chino Valley. The town was
originally called Goodwin in the Governor's honor. Then the
name Granite was suggested because the town was located
along Granite Creek. Secretary McCormick then suggested the
name Prescott, after the historian who wrote History of the
Conquest of Mexico and who had noted in that work the
nearness of Arizona to Mexico. The name "Prescott" was
chosen.
The 1st
Territorial Legislature convened in Prescott in September
1863 and established the Howell Code, a code of laws
compiled by Associate Justice William T. Howell. The
Legislature also approved four counties, appointed a Board
of Regents for a proposed university, and appropriated funds
for public education.
The
Infancy of the Arizona Territory
During the
Civil War and the early days of the Arizona Territory, war
was being waged against the native people.
By April 1864,
Kit Carson and his men had captured more than 8,000 Navajos
and moved them to Bosque Redondo, a reservation in eastern
New Mexico. Many Navajos died there because the climate was
so different from northeastern Arizona. In June 1868, the
government moved the Navajos back to a reservation that
spanned northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. At
the time that Carson was fighting the Navajo Nation, others
were trying to fight the Apaches with mixed success.
When Richard
McCormick became Governor in 1866, one of his first acts was
to move the capitol from Prescott to Tucson. When McCormick
later became territorial delegate to Congress, President
Ulysses S. Grant appointed Anson Peaceley-Killen Safford as
Governor. Safford advocated free public education. The
Legislature responded by establishing a public school
system, and Safford become known as the "Father of Arizona
Schools."
President
Rutherford B. Hayes appointed John Philo Hoyt Governor in
1877, the same year the capitol was moved back to Prescott.
A year later Hoyt was asked to resign in favor of John
Charles Fremont. Fremont resigned two years later after many
people protested his absences from the Territory.
Following
Fremont was Frederick A. Tritle, appointed by President
Chester A. Arthur. Tritle had been in Arizona for about a
year before his appointment. Despite that short tenure as a
resident, he is generally considered to be the first
Arizonan to be appointed Governor.
President
Grover Cleveland asked for Tritle's resignation so that he
could appoint Conrad Meyer Zulick, who had to be rescued
from a Mexican jail before he could take office. Zulick
moved the capitol to Phoenix and was criticized for his
position that the native people should be treated as humans.
Zulick resigned when a Republican administration took over
the presidency in 1889.
Next to serve
was Lewis Wolfley, but President Benjamin Harrison later
removed him from office and appointed John Nichol Irwin as
Governor in 1896. Irwin faced a growing demand from the
people for statehood. The state's legislature authorized a
constitutional convention in 1891, even though Congress had
not passed enabling legislation. The voters, in December
1891, passed the constitution created by delegates that
included 17 Democrats and five Republicans. Congress found
several flaws in that constitution, among them the
establishment of silver as the legal currency instead of
gold as the standard. Legislation introduced in Congress by
Arizona's territorial delegate, Marcus A. Smith, failed in
the Senate as Republican legislators feared letting a
Democratic state into the Union.
Other Governors
before statehood included Nathan Oakes Murphy (twice), Louis
C. Hughes, Benjamin Joseph Franklin, Myron Hawley McCord,
Alexander O. Brodie, Judge Joseph H. Kibbey, and Judge
Richard Elihu Sloan.
In 1898 the
United States declared war on Spain. Because they believed
that serving in the war would help strengthen their bid for
statehood, many Arizonans signed up. Captain Buckey O'Neill,
one of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, was among the many
who were willing to risk their lives so that a star,
representing Arizona, could be added to the U.S. flag.
Arizona at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century
Arizona before
and at the turn of the century was still a wild place.
Violence was a way of life in this corner of the Old West.
Shootings were
commonplace, and robberies of trains and stagecoaches
occurred fairly regularly. The most famous gunfight occurred
in Tombstone on October 26, 1881, pitting the Earp brothers
and Doc Holliday against the Clanton gang. "The Gunfight at
the OK Corral" actually lasted only about 15 seconds and was
most probably fought in an alley, not at the OK Corral. The
last stagecoach robbery actually occurred in Arizona in
1899. Joe Boot and his accomplice, Pearl Hart (known as the
"Girl Bandit"), were brought to trial in 1900. Joe was
convicted, but the all-male jury found Pearl innocent. The
decision angered the judge, and he ordered her to stand
trial on a new charge. She was found guilty in that trial
and sentenced to prison at the Yuma Territorial Prison. She
was released early due to a faked pregnancy.
In 1901
Governor Murphy authorized the formation of the Arizona
Rangers. Until 1909 when the group was disbanded, the
Rangers helped track down and arrest cattle rustlers and
worked to suppress striking miners. In 1909, the legislature
voted not to continue the Arizona Rangers because those
counties not disturbed by the outlaws or striking miners did
not want to pay for services they did not need.
On New Year's
Day 1909, an event occurred that had great significance to
Arizona and the United States, although it was not
recognized as a momentous occasion at the time. On that
date, Barry Morris Goldwater was born to Baron and Josephine
Goldwater. Also in 1909, the famous Chiricahua Apache leader
Geronimo died at age 80.
In 1910 two
brothers, Ernie and Oscar Woodson, boarded a train in
Phoenix. Before the train reached the town of Maricopa, the
two brothers stopped the train, robbed the passengers of
money and valuables, and rode away on the horses they had
hidden previously. Maricopa County Sheriff Carl Hayden
formed a posse and loaded the posse members and their horses
on a special train bound for the robbery site. There Pima
natives easily picked up the brothers' trail. Sheriff Hayden
headed on to Maricopa where he located an automobile to
pursue the brothers while the posse followed on horseback.
This was the first time an automobile was used to chase
criminals in Arizona. Sheriff Hayden and the posse found the
brothers, both of whom eventually surrendered. Because the
sheriff had developed a reputation of being a steady,
cool-headed lawman, the citizens of Arizona elected him
their first U.S. Representative in Congress when Arizona
became a state.
The
March Toward Statehood
In 1910
Congress passed the enabling legislation for a
constitutional convention for Arizona. Election Day,
September 12, 1910, saw 41 Democrats elected delegates to
the convention out of a total of 52 delegates.
The
constitution created by these delegates included a bicameral
legislature with legislators of both houses being elected
every two years, a two-year term and low pay for the
Governor, and the popular election of judges. It also
specified that all officials, including judges, were subject
to recall. The voters overwhelmingly approved the new
constitution on February 9, 1911. The following August,
Congress passed a joint resolution calling for statehood for
both Arizona and New Mexico, however, President William
Howard Taft vetoed the measure because he strongly opposed
the recall of judges. He refused to allow admission of
Arizona as a state until that provision was stricken from
its constitution.
Within a week
Congress passed another joint resolution excluding judges
from recall. On December 12, 1911, voters in Arizona
exempted judges from recall and elected a slate of
officials, including George W.P. Hunt as Governor; Sidney P.
Osborn as Secretary of State; Marcus A. Smith and Henry F.
Ashurst as U.S. Senators; and Carl Hayden as the U.S.
Representative. On February 14, 1912, President Taft signed
the proclamation making Arizona the 48th state. The signing
ceremony was recorded by movie cameras for the first time.
Shortly after officially becoming a state, the voters of
Arizona showed their independence by amending their
constitution to once again make judges subject to recall.
Arizonans
celebrated their new statehood in various ways. A statehood
tree was planted in Prescott's Courthouse plaza. The
University of Arizona dismissed its students, all 254 of
them, from classes. Governor-elect George Hunt walked from
the Ford Hotel to the Capitol. William Jennings Bryan spoke
for two hours at the statehood ceremonies at the Capitol. A
48-gun salute had to be halted after 38 shots because the
booming rattled the windows and panicked the horses. In
Bisbee, miners set off dynamite; in Snowflake, residents
blew up an anvil. And in Phoenix, people took to the street
and some fired their pistols into the air. One couple, Joe
Melczer and Hazel Goldberg delayed their wedding, scheduled
for earlier that morning, until they got the word that
Arizona had become a state. They thus became the first
couple married in the state of Arizona and exchanged rings
presented by three-year-old Barry Goldwater. Newspapers
reported that, in spite of all the celebrations, very few
people spent the night in jail.
Government and the State of Arizona
George W. P.
Hunt, a Democrat, became the Arizona's first Governor,
serving a total of seven terms, though not in succession.
Hunt lost his
bid for re-election to his third term on November 7, 1916.
Thomas Campbell was declared the winner by 30 votes;
however, both men took the oath of office as Governor of
Arizona on December 30, 1916. As the new year began,
Governor Hunt refused to vacate the Governor's office and
Campbell opened a temporary office in his home.
On January 3,
the state treasurer and the state auditor both stated they
would not honor checks signed by Campbell. On January 23,
Phoenix hotels and lodging houses agreed to give credit to
members of the legislature until a Governor was authorized
to pay them their fees. The fight over who was Governor
continued when Governor Hunt took his case into Arizona's
Superior Court in Phoenix on January 25, 1917.
The next day
postal authorities decided that all official mail for the
Governor would be delivered to Sidney P. Osborn, the
Secretary of State, until the Superior Court made its
ruling.
On January 27,
the court declared Thomas E. Campbell Governor, de facto, of
Arizona. Two days later Hunt agreed to turn his office over
to Campbell. On December 22, 1917, the Supreme Court
reversed the Superior Court's decision and declared that
Hunt was legally elected Governor. Campbell, who had served
as Governor 11 months and three weeks turned his office over
to Governor Hunt three days after the court's decision was
handed down. On January 8, 1918, Campbell filed an
unsuccessful appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court for a
rehearing of the gubernatorial contest.
Campbell was
elected Governor in November 1918. Former Governor Hunt
departed the state for Bangkok on June 16, 1919, to serve as
U.S. Minister to Siam. He eventually returned to be elected
to another term as Governor.
John C.
Phillips, a Republican lawyer, defeated George Hunt in the
1928 election. His accomplishments include the following:
establishing the Bureau of Criminal Identification;
establishing free county libraries; and creating the
Colorado River Commission. Like most Republicans in 1930,
during the Great Depression, Phillips lost the election to
his opponent, George Hunt.
Dr. Benjamin
Baker defeated Governor Hunt in the primary election in 1932
in what would be the last time Hunt was a candidate for
office.
On December 25,
1934, George W.P. Hunt died at his Phoenix home at the age
of 75. His body lay in state in the Capitol rotunda on the
Great Seal of the State of Arizona that he helped design.
Dr. B.B. Moeur
went on to win the general election in 1932. Governor Moeur
was a physician who had practiced in Tombstone, Bisbee, and
Tempe. Many people joked that the babies Governor Moeur had
delivered over the years were now the adults who elected him
Governor. Moeur won re-election in 1934. During his four
years in office, he dealt with the Depression by cutting
property taxes by 40% and establishing new taxes, including
those on sales and income. He was defeated in the primary
election in 1936, mainly due to the continuing economic
problems of the time.
Rawghlie
Clement Stanford, another Democrat, was elected Governor in
1936. Before being admitted to the bar, Stanford had been a
cowboy and a soldier. During his single two-year term, the
federal Social Security Act was instituted in Arizona,
unfair sales practices were outlawed, and minimum wage laws
were established. Robert Taylor Jones succeeded Governor
Stanford. Jones was an engineer who worked on the railroad,
helped construct the Panama Canal, and worked at a mine in
Nevada. Although Jones came to Arizona to work on the
railroad he ended up opening a drug store in Superior. That
store led to a chain of drug stores that made him well-known
around Arizona. His name recognition helped elect him to the
State Senate three times before being elected Governor.
While Governor, his friendship with several state senators
did not sit well with members of the House of
Representatives. In spite of that, laws passed during his
administration included minimum wages for public works
employees and establishment of the Department of Library and
Archives. He chose not to seek re-election.
Sidney Preston
Osborn succeeded Governor Jones. Osborn was a native
Arizonan and had served three terms as Secretary of State.
He had also served as the youngest, at age 24, elected
member of the Constitutional Convention. After his service
as Secretary of State, he involved himself in journalism and
publishing. In 1940 he was elected Governor and was
re-elected three times, thus becoming the first Governor to
serve four consecutive terms. During his tenure, World War
II and its post-war boom occurred. The War brought military
installations to Arizona; the post-war boom saw the
population double, bringing social and educational problems
as well as the reality of a shortage of water. Governor
Osborn died in office on May 25, 1948, of amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS). Democrat Dan Garvey succeeded
Osborn. Garvey had been Secretary of State when Governor
Osborn died and thus became acting Governor. In the
elections of November 1948, the voters passed a
constitutional amendment establishing the line of succession
for political officers. Garvey was then sworn in as
Governor, rather than acting Governor, and was elected in
his own right in that election. Garvey served one full term
and then was defeated in the primary election of 1950.
Arizona
Democrats nominated a woman for Governor in 1950. Ana
Frohmiller had been the state auditor and was highly
regarded. The Republicans chose to nominate Howard Pyle, a
radio personality known as the "Voice of Arizona." Pyle
narrowly won that election and then was re-elected in 1952
by a wide margin. He was defeated in 1954, largely due to an
incident at Short Creek, Arizona.
In 1909 the
town of Millennial City was established on the Utah-Arizona
border. The town's founding fathers were polygamists who
considered themselves "unreconstructed." Soon the town was
renamed Short Creek, for a nearby creek that did not run
very far. In the 1890s, the Mormon Church declared polygamy
illegal so that Utah could be considered for statehood. Many
of the church elders who did not want to give up the
practice of polygamy moved to Short Creek.
Two stories
arose about the houses in Short Creek. One was that the
houses were so constructed that the bedroom was in Arizona
while the living room was in Utah; the other was that the
houses were built on skids to enable the houses to be
dragged across the border from the state that was giving the
polygamists trouble. Some people claimed that young girls
were being forced into polygamist marriages against their
will. Officials in Mohave County protested the number of
welfare claims from young women all identifying the same
husband. The town fathers essentially told all outsiders to
mind their own business.
In 1953, the
Arizona Highway Patrol, under Governor Pyle, staged a
surprise summer raid on Short
Creek, taking the polygamists to Kingman and the women and
children to Phoenix where the latter were placed in foster
homes. The children's rural customs and outmoded dress made
them rather conspicuous. Within several months, Short
Creek's citizens were allowed to return home when the
state's case against them was dismissed. In 1958, the
citizens changed the name of the town to Colorado City.
The Mormons,
who strongly disliked the actions taken in Short Creek,
banded together to defeat Governor Pyle in 1954, electing
instead Ernest McFarland. McFarland had served in the U.S.
Senate from 1940 to 1952 when he was defeated by Barry
Goldwater. McFarland served two terms as Governor, choosing
in 1958 to run again for the U.S. Senate but he was
unsuccessful in his attempt.
Paul J. Fannin,
a Republican, was elected Governor in 1958 and served three
terms. During his tenure, he argued Arizona should receive a
greater portion of Colorado River water. Fannin was elected
to the U.S. Senate in 1964 when Barry Goldwater chose to run
for U.S. President.
Samuel P.
Goddard, Jr., a Democrat, won the Governor's seat in 1964.
Goddard had run unsuccessfully in 1962 and would do so again
in 1966 and 1968.
John Richard
"Jack" Williams succeeded Governor Goddard. Williams, a
Republican, was another radio personality who had also
served as the mayor of Phoenix. In 1965, the courts ordered
redistricting under the "one man-one vote" requirements
dictated by the U.S. Supreme Court. When Governor Williams
was elected in 1966, the people also elected a predominantly
Republican Senate and House, making the legislature and
Governor's office Republican for the first time in the
state's history. Williams was re-elected in 1968 and again
in 1970, becoming in the latter year the first Governor to
serve a four-year term due to a constitutional change. One
of the major projects initiated during Williams' tenure was
the Central Arizona Project.
In 1974, Raul
Castro was elected Governor, the first Hispanic to hold that
office in Arizona. Castro was a former judge. He left office
on October 20, 1977, before the end of his gubernatorial
term, to accept an ambassadorship to Argentina under
President Jimmy Carter. Castro's successor was Secretary of
State, Wesley Bolin. Bolin, who served as Secretary of State
for almost 29 years before becoming Governor, died in office
less than five months after becoming the state's chief
executive.
The succession
in office established by the voters in the 1948 election
provided that the Secretary of State becomes the new
Governor; however, in order to assume the office of
Governor, the Secretary of State must have first been
elected to the office.
When Wes Bolin
became Governor, he appointed his long-time assistant Rose
Mofford as Secretary of State. Mofford had not yet been
elected to the office at the time of Bolin's death.
Therefore the next elected person in succession, Attorney
General Bruce Babbitt, became Governor and was later elected
and served two full terms.
As Governor,
Babbitt is most remembered for the 1980 implementation of a
major groundwater management program. In 1981, the state
legislature and Governor Babbitt approved the concept for
the first statewide Medicaid managed care system based on
prepaid, capitated arrangements with health plans. Known as
the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS),
the program was approved by the Health Care Financing
Administration in 1982. Over the years this program has
repeatedly received praise from independent evaluations for
effectiveness.
In 1985,
Babbitt focused on the protection and education of the
state's children. He championed strict penalties for child
abusers and established an Office of the Child.
Subsequently, Arizona child welfare programs received high
marks. After he left office, he unsuccessfully ran for the
U.S. presidency in 1988. President Bill Clinton appointed
him Secretary of the Interior in 1993. For more information
about Babbitt's accomplishments see page 269.
Arizona's next
Governor was Evan Mecham, an automobile dealer. Mecham
served one term in the state senate and ran for U.S. Senate
in 1962 against Carl Hayden. He unsuccessfully ran for
governor in 1964, 1974, 1978, and 1982.
In 1986 Mecham
won the election carrying 40% of the vote. One of his first
acts as Governor was to rescind an Executive Order that had
established a holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Within a year after election, Mecham was facing impeachment,
recall, and a criminal trial. He was impeached in April
1988, and Rose Mofford, who by that time had been elected
Secretary of State several times, became Governor on April
5, 1988. Mofford was the first woman to serve as Arizona's
Governor.
In 1988,
Arizonans passed a referendum requiring the constitutional
officers to be elected by a majority of votes in elections.
If no one received 50% plus one of the vote, a run-off
election was to be held to select a winner from the top two
candidates. Two years later this provision was invoked.
Governor
Mofford decided not to seek election in 1990. The Democrats
nominated Terry Goddard who had been mayor of Phoenix for
several years and who was the son of former Governor Sam
Goddard. The Republicans nominated J. Fife Symington III, a
Phoenix real estate developer. Neither candidate received
50%+1 of the vote. A run-off election was conducted on
February 26, 1991. Symington won by more than 40,000 votes.
Also in 1991,
several legislators and others were caught in a scandal
known as AzScam. A "sting" operation, which involved
lobbying to bring legalized gambling to Arizona, resulted in
some legislators being sent to prison and several others
resigning.
In 1994,
Symington won re-election. On June 13, 1996, Symington was
indicted on criminal charges, was convicted by a federal
jury on Sept. 3, 1997, and resigned as governor. (His
conviction was later overturned by the 9th U.S. District
Court of Appeals). Secretary of State Jane Hull became
Governor and took the oath of office on September 8, 1997,
administered by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor.
Governor Hull
was elected to a full term as Governor in 1998. In that
election, five women were elected to constitutional offices
in Arizona: Governor Jane Dee Hull; Secretary of State
Betsey Bayless; Attorney General Janet Napolitano, the lone
Democrat among the "Fab Five"; State Treasurer Carol
Springer; and Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa
Graham Keegan. Brenda Burns was also re-elected president of
the Senate, continuing as the first woman to hold that post.
Hull is the 20th Arizona Governor and is the first woman to
be elected as Governor. She also holds the distinctions of
being Arizona's first woman Speaker of the House of
Representatives and the first Republican woman elected
Secretary of State and Governor.
Other
interesting political facts: Arizona had only one
representative in Congress for 28 years from 1912 until
1940, when it gained one additional seat. Arizona gained its
third seat 20 years later as a result of the 1960 census.
One additional seat was gained as a result of each census
taken in 1970, 1980, and 1990 for a total of six. It is
expected that the state will gain two more seats as results
from the 2000 census are counted. In the section of this
Blue Book on Arizonans in the Federal Government, you will
find a listing of all the senators and representatives in
Congress from Arizona since statehood.
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