Arizona Trivia & Tidbits - Page 3

The Antelope Point Marina, which opened last year on Lake Powell, near Page (pop. 6,809), incorporates a 27,000-square-foot concrete island that floats offshore with the help of 122,000 cubic feet of Styrofoam. Reported to be the world’s largest floating platform of its kind, the structure weighs 5 million pounds and was built using 33,333 cubic feet of concrete and 247,000 pounds of reinforcing steel.

—Established in 1994 with a purchase of 4,900 acres of riverside and upland habitat, the Sonoita Creek State Natural Area near Patagonia (pop. 881) was the state’s first major natural area. Designed to protect the wildlife-rich watershed of Sonoita Creek, the area now encompasses nearly 9,000 acres.

—The last surviving Martin PBM-5A Mariner is on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson. About 1,300 of the aircraft, which served as long-range patrol bombers and rescue planes through World War II and the Korean War, were built between 1937 and 1949. Originally “flying boats,” the Mariners became “amphibious” (able to operate from both water and land) with the 5A model. The Mariner aircraft is housed in the Pima Air & Space Museum’s new 42,000-square-foot “Spirit of Freedom” hangar, which opened last June. The $3.6-million hangar also is home to other rare aircraft, including one of only three North American F-107s ever produced and a Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird” Cold War spy plane, along with the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame.

—An Indian Village now is open at Grand Canyon West on the Hualapai Reservation, northwest of Peach Springs (pop. 600), featuring five smaller villages that depict the Hualapai, Havasupai, Hopi, Navajo and Plains tribes. Representatives of each tribe created the authentic dwellings, displays and stories that visitors find in the village, where a 250-seat amphitheater showcases daily American Indian presentations.

—The bones of a 93-million-year-old therizinosaur—a dinosaur with three sharp claws on each hand—are showcased in an exhibit running through March 29, 2009, at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff (pop. 52,894). Discovered in Utah in 2000, the fossilized remains are reported to be the world’s most complete skeleton of the sickle-clawed dinosaur, once thought to live only in Asia.

—Last October, the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa received the 2007 Odyssey Award for Geotourism from the Travel Industry Association and National Geographic Traveler magazine for sustaining an indigenous culture or community. The resort, located on the Gila River Indian Community, incorporates the culture and heritage of the Pima and Maricopa tribes in its architecture, design and art.

—Stone foundations and a few walls mark the Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate’s location in Cochise County. Established in the mid-1770s as a Spanish fort, the presidio originally was occupied by a force of 56 men, 352 horses and 51 mules that had marched north from Mexico. Supply difficulties and Apache Indian attacks forced the fort’s abandonment less than five years later.

In 1927, Walter Peck stumbled and nearly fell into a deep hole 22 miles west of Seligman (pop. 456). After realizing that he’d stumbled upon a cave, Peck began charging visitors 25 cents to descend into the 150-foot cavern on ropes. In 1962, an elevator was built to provide easier access and the attraction was named Grand Canyon Caverns.

—The Sedona Jazz on the Rocks Festival gave out its first Lifetime Achievement Award last September, presenting it to longtime musician Mose Allison, who also performed at the festival’s 2007 edition in Sedona (pop. 10,192). Recognized as a “musician’s musician,” Allison, whose songs have been recorded by Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt and The Who, hasn’t missed a gig in more than 60 years.

—In 2006, Desert Edge High School in Goodyear (pop. 18,911) earned a “silver” rating from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for its environmentally sustainable design. Efficient plumbing fixtures reduce water use by a million gallons a year, while motion and daylight sensors minimize artificial lighting, helping to make the school 28 percent more energy efficient than traditionally constructed schools.

Deron Beal founded Freecycle—an Internet-based network that allows people to offer items they no longer need to other people for free—in Tucson in 2003, after becoming frustrated with the number of usable items that were being thrown away. Today, Freecycle has millions of members in more than 70 countries, and keeps some 300 tons of material out of landfills every day.

—Baboquivari Peak, southeast of Sells (pop. 2,799), is the only major peak in Arizona that requires climbers to have technical climbing ability to reach its summit. The granite mountain, some 7,730 feet high, is sacred to the Tohono O’odham people, who consider it the center of their world and the home of their creator.

—The Murray Springs Clovis site near Sierra Vista (pop. 37,775) offers an excellent record of the Clovis people who lived in the area some 11,000 years ago. Excavated between 1966 and 1971 by researchers from the University of Arizona, the well-preserved archeological site revealed that the prehistoric people hunted animals such as bison, mammoth and horse using spear points and other tools.

Built in 1931, the Museum Club in Flagstaff (pop. 52,894) became a popular stop on Route 66. Originally designed as a museum by Dean Eldredge to showcase his taxidermy collection, the building was turned into a roadhouse in 1936, but some of the stuffed animals have lingered through the years. Today, the club is known for its historical artifacts and its dance floor.

—From the 1870s to the 1940s, tent houses often provided shelter for Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon pioneers. The Sedona Heritage Museum now has re-created one of these cabins, which featured a canvas tent placed on top of a low wooden wall, furnished it to reflect the 1920s and 1930s, and placed it on permanent exhibit at Jordan Historical Park in Sedona (pop. 10,192).

—Born in Douglas (pop. 14,312) in 1914, Stan Jones was a copper miner and park ranger who also wrote “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky,” a song about a ghostly cattle herd. The song became a hit for many singers, including Burl Ives, who released it in 1949, and Gene Autry, who built a movie around it, also released in 1949. Jones died in 1963.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Sinagua people carved cliff dwellings into the walls of a canyon near Flagstaff (pop. 52,894). Walnut Canyon National Monument was established to protect the dwellings in 1915, the same year the novel The Song of the Lark, written by Willa Cather and partially set in the canyon, was published. Today, the monument covers about 3,600 acres.

—The community of Naco (pop. 833) was bombed in 1929, when pilot Patrick Murphy decided to aid Mexican rebels who were fighting just across the border in Naco, Sonora. According to local lore, Murphy left a bar in nearby Bisbee (pop. 6,090), flew to Arizona’s Naco by mistake and dropped suitcases filled with dynamite in the area. Luckily, the bombs resulted only in property damage.

—State balladeer Dolan Ellis created the Arizona Folklore Preserve in 1996, when he began performing at the 1920s Moffett House on his 15-acre property in Ramsey Canyon, south of Sierra Vista (pop. 37,775). Today, the preserve is a partnership with the University of Arizona South, and features a purpose-built Folklore Center where the state’s songs, legends, poetry and myths are showcased.

—A Burger King restaurant in Kayenta (pop. 4,922) showcases the contributions of the Navajo Code Talkers during World War II, with display cases along one wall containing photographs, weapons and other artifacts of the American soldiers who used their native language over military radios as a code that Japanese forces couldn’t break. The restaurant owner’s father was one of the code talkers.