February 25, 2019

Arizona’s spectacular Grand Canyon National Park celebrates its 100th birthday in 2019. Credit: © Digital Vision/SuperStock

To mark the anniversary, the park worked with Arizona State University and other partners to create the Grand Canyon Centennial Project—also known as “100 Years of Grand”—a series of programs at the park and online throughout 2019. On February 26, a special Founder’s Day Centennial Celebration at the park will include cultural, educational, and musical programs. In the following months, special events will highlight President Theodore Roosevelt (who created the Grand Canyon National Monument in 1908), the past and present efforts to map the massive canyon, and the history of the park. Traditional Native American arts and crafts will be demonstrated and presented all year long by the Desert View Cultural Demonstrators, members of the Grand Canyon’s 11 traditionally associated native peoples.

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Grand Canyon National Park Celebrates its centennial on Feb. 26, 2019. Credit: National Park Service

Various Native American cultures have lived in the Grand Canyon during the last 4,000 years. Today, about 450 members of the Havasupai people live on a reservation in a side canyon called Havasu Canyon. Other main Native American groups of the Grand Canyon include the Hopi, Navajo, Paiute, and Zuni. In 1540, a group of Spanish explorers led by García López de Cárdenas became the first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon. They were part of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado‘s expedition to the area. In 1869, the American geologist John Wesley Powell led a river expedition through the vast canyon, which he named the Grand Canyon. A forest preserve was created in the Grand Canyon in 1893.

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This map shows the location of the Grand Canyon National Park in northwest Arizona. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

About 5 million people visit Grand Canyon National Park every year. The majority of visitors drive along park roads and stop at scenic viewing points about the Grand Canyon. Visitors may also walk along the canyon’s rim. Many tourists hike along trails in the park. Some people ride mules into the canyon, and others enter by boat or raft on the Colorado River.

Grand Canyon National Park is home to a wide range of mammals, including bats, desert bighorn sheep, American bison, coyotes, elk, mountain lions, mule deer, and skunks. More than 450 species of birds live in the park, and reptiles such as gila monsters, short-horned lizards, and several species of snakes are commonly seen. Varied plant populations thrive in the park’s desert scrub, grassland, meadow, woodland, and high elevation communities.

January 14, 2019

Ninety years ago yesterday, on Jan. 13, 1929, “Wild West” lawman Wyatt Earp died at age 80 in his home in Los Angeles. Earp gained fame for his role in the famous “gunfight at the O.K. Corral” in Tombstone, Arizona, on Oct. 26, 1881. The gunfight involved members of an outlaw gang called the “Cowboys” and the Earp brothers—Wyatt, Morgan, and Virgil. Wyatt was a deputy United States marshal; Morgan was a police officer; and Virgil was marshal of Tombstone. Aiding the Earp brothers in the fight was gambler, gunfighter, and dentist Doc Holliday—a famous Wild West personality in his own right. At that time, the silver mining town of Tombstone was infamous for its crime and various vices.

Famed “Wild West” lawman Wyatt Earp died 90 years ago on Jan. 13, 1929. Credit: © Jon Van Hasselt, Sygma/Corbis

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was born in Monmouth, Illinois, on March 19, 1848. He grew up in Iowa and California. As a young man, Earp worked as a buffalo hunter. During the 1870′s, he was a police officer in Wichita and Dodge City—another town known for lawlessness—in Kansas.

This photograph shows Tombstone, Arizona, in 1881, the year of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The town had a population of about 4,000 people. Credit: Public Domain

Earp moved to Tombstone in 1879. He worked there as a stagecoach guard, card dealer, and deputy U.S. marshal. In 1881, a feud developed between the Earps and the Cowboys gang led by Ike and Billy Clanton. The feud peaked in October, when the Earps and Doc Holliday faced off against the Cowboys in the streets of Tombstone. In a quick gun battle (some say 30 seconds), Billy Clanton and two other gang members—Tom and Frank McLaury—were killed. Ike Clanton filed murder charges against the Earps, but the charges were dismissed. The feud did not end there.

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Tombstone is located in the southeastern corner of Arizona. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Two months after the famous gunfight, in December 1881, Virgil Earp was badly wounded in an ambush thought to have been sprung by members of the Cowboys. In March 1882, Morgan Earp was murdered in Tombstone. Wyatt Earp then led a vigilante gang that killed several members of the Cowboys. Wyatt’s adventurous life later took him to various points in the West, where he worked as a saloonkeeper, prospector, and at various jobs linked to law enforcement. Wyatt eventually settled in Los Angeles, where he consulted on motion picture Westerns and began working on his memoirs.

December 19, 2018

On Dec. 21, 1928, 90 years ago this Friday, United States President  Calvin Coolidge signed the Boulder Canyon Project Act that authorized the building of the Hoover Dam. The dam, which was named for Coolidge’s successor as president, Herbert Hoover, is one of the highest concrete dams in the world. It stands in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River on the Arizona-Nevada border. The Boulder Canyon Project included the construction of a hydroelectric power plant, a reservoir, and later the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. The Boulder Canyon Project supplies water and electric power for much of the Pacific Southwest.

The Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928 authorized the construction of Hoover Dam, one of the world’s highest concrete dams. The Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge spans the canyon just south of the dam. Credit: U.S. Department of Transportation

Hoover Dam stands about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. Hundreds of thousands of people visit the dam each year. The dam is 726 feet (221 meters) high and 1,244 feet (379 meters) long. Elevators descend the equivalent of 44 stories into the dam. But they still do not reach its base. The concrete base is 660 feet (200 meters) thick. It contains enough concrete to pave a two-lane highway from New York City to San Francisco. Water falling through the huge turbines of the dam generates electric power. The power is sold to industries and to cities in the Pacific Southwest. The power plant has a capacity of about 2 million kilowatts.

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The Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928 authorized the building of the Hoover Dam. The first page of the act is shown here. Credit: National Archives

Lake Mead, the dam reservoir, is one of the world’s largest artificially created bodies of water. It is about 115 miles (185 kilometers) long and 589 feet (180 meters) deep. The reservoir stores approximately 28 million acre-feet (35 billion cubic meters) of water. Water from Lake Mead can irrigate about 1 million acres (400,000 hectares) of farmland in the three-state area. The reservoir also supplies water for cities in southern California.

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This map shows the location of Lake Mead, a large artificial lake on the Arizona-Nevada border. The lake was created by the completion of Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The need for a dam on the Colorado River was apparent in the early 1900′s. Floods were causing much damage in the Palo Verde Valley and in the Imperial Valley. Extensive levees were built. But crops died when the river ran too low to meet the area’s irrigation needs. In 1928, Congress approved the Boulder Canyon Project. The Bureau of Reclamation designed the dam and supervised its construction. The entire project cost about $385 million. The dam itself cost about $165 million. Hoover Dam was completed in 1935.

December 7, 2018

On Dec. 9, 1962, 56 years ago Sunday, the United States Congress established Petrified Forest National Park, an area with one of the greatest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood in the world. Located in the Painted Desert in northeastern Arizona, the park contains giant logs of agatized wood (wood petrified into agate) and numerous broken sections and petrified fragments. Visitors can view petrified wood and other park features while hiking the park’s many trails. The park also contains dinosaur fossils and Native American petroglyphs (rock carvings).

These petrified logs at Petrified Forest National Park are about 225 million years old. Credit: © George Burba, Dreamstime

The trees of Petrified Forest National Park grew about 225 million years ago during the Triassic Period, when reptiles became the dominant animals on land and in the sea. Reptiles of the Triassic Period included the first dinosaurs and early large marine reptiles. The trees were buried in mud, sand, or volcanic ash, and turned to stone over time. Today, the park is home to a wide variety of plant and animal life. Cactuses, grasses, lichens, and wildflowers live there, as do many types of birds, lizards, rabbits, and other animals.

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Petrified Forest National Park is located in the Painted Desert in northeastern Arizona. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

People of the Clovis culture first inhabited the area of the park around 13,000 years ago. Fragments of pottery found in the forest show that small groups of farming Indians lived there as early as A.D. 300. Spanish explorers reached the area in the late 1500′s, and American pioneers and homesteaders began settling there in the 1800′s.

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This map shows the locations of the national parks of the United States, which form part of the country’s National Park System. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt created Petrified Forest National Monument in 1906. After becoming a national park in 1962, the Petrified Forest National Wilderness Area was added within the park in 1970. In 2004, the park expanded from 93,533 acres (37,851 hectares) to 218,533 acres (88,437 hectares). Later additions brought the park’s area to 221,390 acres (89,593 hectares).

February 22, 2017

Last weekend, Major League Baseball (MLB) teams began full workouts at spring training camps in Arizona and Florida. After an off-season of savoring success (for the few) or ruing defeat (for everyone else), ballplayers returned to the field to stretch, run, catch, throw, and hit in preparation for the grind of the long MLB season. As the winter chill is shaken off, the heat of competition slowly returns, and players and fans alike turn a hopeful eye toward the possibility of an October crowned by a World Series championship.

Houston Astros pitchers loosen up at their spring training facility in Kissimmee, Florida, in March 2010. The Astros opened a new spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, in 2017. Credit: © John Kershner, Shutterstock

Pitchers and catchers—always the first to report—arrived at camps early last week. Pitchers need time to get their arms in shape and, well, catchers have to catch them. The Cleveland Indians, who lost the 2016 World Series by a hair’s breadth to the Chicago Cubs, were the first to arrive. On Feb. 12, 2017, the sun rose over Goodyear, Arizona, to warm bullpens suddenly blooming with the red, white, and blue of Indians’ uniforms. Within two days, pitchers and catchers from all 30 MLB teams were in their spring training homes. A few days later, position players arrived with their bats and gloves, and the full show got underway.

Baseball spring training dates back to the late 1800’s. Back then, all teams were clustered in the Midwest and northern East Coast of the United States—areas notorious for unbaseball-like weather well into spring. The Cincinnati Red Stockings (now the Reds), the first professional baseball club, first took an extended spring southern tour in 1870, spending most of their time in New Orleans, Louisiana. Over the next 30 years, many teams took advantage of southern spring warmth to prepare for the season—particularly in Arkansas and Florida—but spring training didn’t become a baseball institution until the early 1900’s.

By 1910, enough teams were training in Florida to create a competitive spring training league that became known as the Grapefruit League. Teams trained in other locations, too, such as Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico—often simply as MLB marketing tours. The Cubs went out west to southern California, where they trained for years in Santa Monica and even out on Santa Catalina Island. Chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, who bought the Cubs in 1921, also owned Catalina Island. During World War II (1939-1945), fuel rationing forced teams to train close to home. During that time, for example, the New York Yankees held spring training in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and the Boston Red Sox trained at Tufts College in nearby Medford, Massachusetts.

In the desert sun of Arizona, where teams had trained from time-to-time, the spring training Cactus League firmly took root in 1947. That year, the Indians and New York (now San Francisco) Giants opened spring training facilities in Tucson and Phoenix, respectively. Other teams soon joined the Giants and Indians in the Southwest, particularly as baseball integrated and black players often met with racial discrimination in Florida.

Today, MLB teams are evenly divided between the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues. Baseball fans flock to the warm spring training sites to take in the sun and watch their favorite teams play in the intimate settings of small ballparks and practice fields, where interaction with players is common. Well-known stars begin the games, tuning their skills at a less-than-frantic pace. The later innings provide a stage for fringe and minor league players hoping to prove themselves worthy of “heading north” with the big club for the start of the MLB regular season in April.

July 1, 2013

An entire squad of firefighters–19 men–was killed yesterday in Arizona’s Yarnell Hill Fire, northwest of Phoenix. The elite squad battled wildfires up close by erecting barriers to stop a fire’s spread. “Our entire crew was lost,” confirmed Prescott, Arizona, Fire Chief Dan Fraijo, speaking to the media. “We just lost 19 of some of the finest people you’ll ever meet. Right now, we’re in crisis.”

The team is believed to have deployed their fire shelters, described as aluminum blankets that protect against the flames and heat. However, use of the shelters must be carefully timed. If the shelters are deployed too soon, the heat inside becomes suffocating. If they are set up too late, they are useless.

Arizona officials believe the Yarnell Hill fire was started on the night of June 28 by lightening. In 48 hours, it had burned across more than 6,000 acres (2430 hectares) and destroyed at least 100 buildings. It is the deadliest wildfire since 1933, when 25 firefighters died battling a chaparral fire near Griffith Park in Los Angeles. The American Southwest is currently suffering through record high temperatures and extremely dry conditions.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano urged area residents to follow evacuation orders, noting that Homeland Security and FEMA were working closely with the Forest Service and the Department of Interior to support state and local efforts.

The U.S. Fire Administration, a FEMA department, confirmed today that before the 19 deaths in Arizona, 43 firefighters had died so far in 2013. In 2012, a total of 83 firefighters died on duty.

June 25, 2012

The Supreme Court of the United States today struck down nearly all provisions of a strict 2010 Arizona law that had served as a model for states attempting to crack down on illegal immigration. In a 5-3 decision, the court ruled that, for the most part, immigration policy must be left to the federal government.

The court unanimously let stand one of the law’s most contentious elements, often known as the “papers please” provision. This provision requires police to check the immigration status of people they stop for another crime if they have a “reasonable suspicion” that the detainees are in the country illegally. The court said overturning this provision would have been premature because Arizona police had not yet adopted this practice. At the request of the Department of Justice, federal courts had blocked Arizona from implementing the law. However, the court left open the possibility that this provision could be challenged later if implementing the provision results in “racial profiling.” Discrimination on the basis of race and ethnic background is unconstitutional.

The decision was a major victory for the administration of President Barack Obama, who had criticized the law for undermining “basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans.” Critics had charged that the law authorized discrimination against Hispanic Americans. Supporters of the law, who had argued that such action was necessary to counter the problem of illegal immigration in the state, praised the ruling on the “papers please” provision.

Among provisions of the law rejected by the court were those that:

• made it a crime for undocumented immigrants to work or apply for work in Arizona;
• allowed police officers to arrest people without a warrant solely on the suspicion that the people were undocumented immigrants;
• made it a state requirement that immigrants register with the federal government;
• required immigrants to carry their alien registration papers at all times.

In its decision, the court recognized that while Arizona might have “understandable frustrations with the problems caused by illegal immigration … the state may not pursue policies that undermine federal law.” Justice Elena Kagan did not participate in the ruling, presumably because she worked on the case during her tenure as President Obama’s first solicitor general.

U.S. Border Patrol members ride all-terrain vehicles near El Paso, Texas, looking for signs of illegal immigration and other crimes. Juarez, Mexico, rises in the background. (© Jim Young, Reuters/Landov)

Arizona is one of many states that have passed strict anti-immigration laws in recent years. Those laws will now come under additional scrutiny in light of the Supreme Court decision.

Additional World Book articles:

• Immigration 2010 (a Back in Time article)
• Immigration 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Immigration Politics 2006 (a Special Report)