Arizona. It’s my home, and I love it here. It’s not what you think it is.
Really. It doesn’t matter what you think of when you think of Arizona it’s more than that. It’s got an incredibly rich history that is surprising to most people. It’s got low desert and high country. It’s got incredibly dry places and parts that are quite wet. It has stunning natural beauty and huge agriculture. It has unique geology that is much more than the Grand Canyon although that is clearly part of it. Let’s take a look.
Arizona is the 6th largest state in the US by area and was the 48th state admitted to the Union in 1912. It was a part of the state of Sonora, Mexico from 1822 until 1848 when a successful war with Mexico gave the US all the territory north of the Gila River. The Gadsen purchase in 1854 added the territory south of the Gila to give the state the shape we know today. Arizona territory was split from New Mexico in 1863. The population has always been clustered in cities and towns due to the harsh summer weather. The advent of refrigeration and airconditioning after WWII made Arizona one of the fastest growing states in the Union. The census in 2020 will almost certainly show that the Phoenix area has passed the Chicago area as the third most populous in the US.
Arizona is a 4 flags state: US, Mexico, Spain and the Confederate States of America. Arizona petitioned and the CSA accepted Arizona as a territory. It really had nothing to do with slavery or states rights, the Confederacy promised a company of soldiers to help protect against the Apache nation that was upset with people taking their land and were attacking settlers with regularity. The westernmost battle of the Civil War was fought near Tucson.
The history of Arizona is nearly as ancient as the earth itself. Some of the oldest rocks on the planet are found at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
Geology
Arizona is geology. Everybody knows that the Grand Canyon cuts through the Kaibab Plateau in spectacular fashion. It is rightly one of the 8 scenic wonders of the world. But what is the Kaibab Plateau and how did it get there to have a river shape it so?
The Kaibab Plateau is a huge geologic structure that formed millions of years ago. To get some idea of the size and scope of the place, think of this: According to National Geographic (who tracks such things) more people are known to have walked on the moon than are known to have walked the entire North Rim.
Arizona spent millions of years as an inland sea. Most of the most notable (red) rock that we see today is the result of siltation and dying sea creatures. It went on for millions of years. About 90 million years ago, the plate tectonics of North America changed. What is now the Pacific plate broke loose and started to slide under the North American plate. This raised the north east half of the state considerably forming the mostly level Colorado Plateau. The same action caused upthrusts and volcanic events throughout the state. The most obvious of these upthrusts would be the Mongollon Rim (pronounced mun ghe un) that runs diagonally across the state into New Mexico, over 200 miles (320 km) total. You can see a sudden elevation gain of as much as 2000 feet (700 m) in several places.
This upthrust event shaped the south west half of the state, too. Mountain ranges of igneous rock arose to tower above the mostly level area that had been sea floor. Those mountain ranges are sprinkled all over SW Arizona. Typically, they rise very suddenly from a flat or even a valley.
The same forces caused the wider upthrust that is the Rocky Mountains. Volcanic hotspots where the magma from the inner earth rose to the surface in volcanic eruptions and flows led to the mineralization of the region and of Arizona. Those mountains form the eastern edge of Arizona where there are high plateaus and towering peaks.
About 6 million years ago things had mostly stabilized and water from melting snow in the Rocky mountains needed to find a way to the sea. The Colorado river took it’s present course across the Kaibab Plateau and started carving a canyon in the relatively soft sandstone and limestone. The Grand Canyon was born. At roughly the same time other rivers started draining the mountains. Some are still active today in Arizona such as the Little Colorado, the Salt and the Gila (pronounced Hee la) rivers which are tributaries of the Colorado today. Other rivers became intermittent or changed completely leaving behind many spectacular canyons for us to enjoy today.
Minerals
Arizona was founded on Cows and Gold. Roughly half of the state provides good cattle grazing and the first really prosperous people in the area were cattle ranchers. Not long after the cows came the discovery of Gold in California which lead to a steady stream of people through Arizona, principally Yuma, which had the only ford through the Colorado. Some of these people decided to prospect in Arizona rather than head to California and Gold was discovered at several locations.
The gold deposits were not particularly profitable but another mineral is. Copper. Arizona is one of the premier Copper producers in the world. There are many huge Copper mines working in Arizona, and even more that have been worked out. The state is riddled with old abandoned mines.
In conjunction with the Copper comes Turquoise. Arizona is well known for it’s Turquoise production with many famous varieties. Some of these are still being mined and some are not. Prices for the not mined range from steep to unimaginable. Turquoise from the Lavender Pit in Bisbee has been out of production for near 100 years. Those prices are astronomical. Sleeping Beauty Turquoise from Globe is rising as we speak.
There is a vastly simplified Geology of my adopted home state. You could spend the rest of your life studying nothing but the Geology of this state and not cover it all.
I thank you for reading this through and invite you back for the next section which will deal with the people of Arizona.
While the words and concepts in this article are all mine, I referred to these two sources to get some sort of accuracy in my account.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Arizona
https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/nature/grca-geology.htm
All photos in this article are courtesy of the author.
Authored by: @bigtom13
Adsactly is a society for freethinking people. Interested? Click Here to join our Discord channel.
In the bottom of the page type in: adsactly-witness and select vote.
All small letters and without the @ sign
Or give us a direct vote here
Thank you!