Arizona Details

Arizona is the sixth largest state in the United States and has area of 113,999 square miles. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Other larger cities of the state include Mesa, Glendale, Chandler and Scottsdale. It is surrounded by New Mexico, Utah, Nevada and California. It also borders Sonora and Baja California in Mexico.

Also called The Grand Canyon State, Arizona was first discovered by a Spanish Franciscan friar named Marcos de Niza who entered the area in 1539 in search of the Seven Cities of Gold. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado followed the next year, this time for missionary purposes. These Spanish built and established Fort Tucson in 1775. Most of Arizona territory later became part of the U.S. sometime in 1848 just after the Mexican War. The rest of the territory was later added through the Gadsden Purchase in 1853.
Arizona has plenty of legends on America’s Old West. This is where the great Indian chiefs Geronimo and Cochise fought against frontiersmen. Arizona’s the site of the West’s most famous shoot-out known as the O.K. Corral.

Arizona had rich deposits of gold, silver, copper and other minerals, thus attracting more adventurers, prospectors, farmers, business and builders. Gold was later discovered to be rich in California in 1848. It was then that Arizona’s Trail became one of the main routes to California gold fields. In 1852, Americans began navigating the Colorado River by steamer and soon enough, Army Corps began surveying Arizona. Copper was later discovered, mined and commercially sold in 1854. Copper became the most important mineral in Arizona in 1888.

Arizona officially became the 48th state of the United States on Feb. 14, 1912, the same time women gained the right to vote in Arizona. It has 15 counties.