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Arizona Trivia & Tidbits - Page 6

Looking for Arizona trivia? Try our list Arizona little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

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Built in 1902, the Copper Queen Hotel in Bisbee (pop. 6,090)—which still features historic elements such as clawfoot tubs—has hosted VIP guests such as actor John Wayne, World War I Gen. John "Black Jack" Pershing and President Teddy Roosevelt. By the early 1900s, Bisbee was the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco, with a population of about 20,000.
first appeared: 7/30/2006
Colorful, life-size fiberglass sculptures of javelinas, which are wild, desert-dwelling pig-like animals, are appearing throughout Sedona (pop. 10,192) as part of a public art project. The sculptures, bearing names such as Sedonamina and Tiny Trina, will be displayed in parks and other public spaces until fall 2007, when they'll be auctioned to raise money for the Sedona Arts Festival and other nonprofit organizations.
first appeared: 7/16/2006
"Buff" the dog was a contender for the mayor's job in Williams (pop. 2,842) earlier this year, running on a campaign platform that included friendliness and honesty. Buff and his fellow (human) write-in challengers received about 25 percent of the votes, with the rest going to incumbent Mayor Ken Edes, who was the only official candidate on the ballot.
first appeared: 7/2/2006
A pocket-sized Raman spectrometer could be heading to Mars in the next few years. Partially funded by NASA, researchers at the University of Arizona in Tucson are developing the small device to identify material such as rock or gemstone by the unique wavelength of the light it emits.
first appeared: 7/2/2006
West of Page (pop. 6,809), in the Coyote Buttes area near the Utah border, a sandstone ravine contains a formation called "The Wave"—a series of multi-colored rock layers that appear to flow through the walls like an ocean wave. Access to this part of the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area is limited each day to protect the fragile rock formations.
first appeared: 6/25/2006
On July 14, 1900, fire raced along the street known as Whiskey Row in Prescott (pop. 33,938), destroying The Palace saloon—but not its 1880s oak "Brunswick" bar. Patrons carried the bar across the street to safety, allowing it to be re-installed when The Palace was rebuilt. Thanks to a major restoration, the saloon today appears much as it did in 1901.
first appeared: 6/4/2006
At the Rusty Spur Saloon in Scottsdale beverages are stored in a bank vault. The saloon's building housed the Farmer's State Bank of Scottsdale from 1921 to 1933, and was subsequently the first home of the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce. It also served as a real estate office and a coffee shop before becoming the Rusty Spur in the 1950s.
first appeared: 6/4/2006
A giraffe named Kibo is among 400 African animals that roam 104 acres of wilderness known as Out of Africa Wildlife Park near Camp Verde (pop. 9,451). Park visitors can travel through the Serengeti experience in a Mercedes Unimog safari vehicle. Kibo is named for one of the peaks on the tallest mountain in Africa, Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro.
first appeared: 5/21/2006
Dana Kanzler and Dave Williamson founded Arizona High Spirits Distillery—the state's first distillery—in Flagstaff (pop. 52,894) in 2005, producing vodkas with flavors such as prickly pear. The High Spirits name comes from the city's 7,000-foot elevation and its Old West spirit.
first appeared: 5/14/2006
A replica of author Zane Grey's Rim Country cabin, which was destroyed by a 1990 forest fire, was opened to the public last year. Grey, known as the father of the Western novel, visited Arizona frequently and built the cabin in the early 1920s. The replica in Payson (pop. 13,620) includes materials salvaged from the original structure.
first appeared: 4/23/2006
Italian immigrant Alessio Carraro envisioned a resort when he began building his wedding cake-shaped "castle" on the outskirts of Phoenix in the late 1920s. In 1931, however, Carraro sold the property to his sheep-herding neighbors, the Tovrea family. Today, the city of Phoenix is restoring both Tovrea Castle and its Carraro Cactus Garden.
first appeared: 4/23/2006
Payson (pop. 13,620) residents Jayne Peace and Jinx Pyle were named Arizona "culturekeepers" last year. The couple, who are Payson’s official historians, founded Git A Rope! Publishing, to record and preserve Arizona’s history and to help Arizona authors get their books published. Ten culturekeepers are announced each year by the Arizona Historical Foundation and the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa.
first appeared: 4/9/2006
A century ago, Echo Canyon, near Sedona (pop. 10,192), supplied miners in nearby Jerome (pop. 340) with fruit and vegetables. Today, it’s home to the Echo Canyon Vineyard and Winery, opened in 2002 by former Detroit attorney Jon Marcus. Fed by the canyon’s Oak Creek, the winery uses organic farming methods to produce varieties such as cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel and syrah.
first appeared: 3/26/2006
At more than 7,400 feet above sea level, the Desert View Watchtower serves as the easternmost overlook for the Grand Canyon’s south rim and provides stunning canyon views. The round tower was built in the early 1930s and designed by Mary Colter of the Fred Harvey Co. Colter based the design of the 70-foot-high stone building on prehistoric American Indian structures, adding concrete and steel for strength.
first appeared: 3/12/2006
Mary Colter’s interest in American Indian cultures included commissioning Hopi artist Fred Kabotie to paint a mural inside the Watchtower. Born in Shungopavi (pop. 632) in 1900, Kabotie—whose Hopi name, Nakavoma, means "day after day"—became an accomplished artist, silversmith and teacher. In the pictograph-style Watchtower mural, he depicted Hopi mythology, including the snake legend.
first appeared: 3/12/2006
The Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg (pop. 5,082) features nearly 600 Western artifacts, one of the nation’s largest exhibits of authentic cowboy memorabilia. Dating from the 1870s to the 1950s, items in the Hays "Spirit of the Cowboy" collection range from silver spurs to leather saddles to rawhide lariats and are on loan from art collectors Abe and Lalla Hays.
first appeared: 2/26/2006
The Sahuaro Ranch’s first permanent dwelling—the Adobe House—was built in 1887, shortly after William Henry Bartlett founded the ranch as a large-scale fruit farm. Wrought iron fencing now surrounds 17 acres of the original farm, where the Adobe House and 16 other ranch buildings form a historic museum and park in Glendale.
first appeared: 2/12/2006
Between 1943 and 1945, some 36,000 gunners trained for World War II bomber duty at the Kingman Army Airfield in Kingman (pop. 20,069). After the war, when the gunners’ aircraft were no longer needed, the airfield converted aluminum in the airplanes into ingots. The job was completed in 1948, with the recovery of 70 million pounds of aluminum from 7,000 planes.
first appeared: 2/12/2006
Traditional agricultural plants native to the Southwest, including the New Mexico Bolita bean, the Aztec scarlet runner bean and the Tohono O’odham cowpea, can be found on a 60-acre conservation farm in Patagonia (pop. 881). The farm belongs to the Tucson-based Native Seeds/SEARCH organization, which preserves nearly 2,000 seed varieties used by American Indian cultures such as the Havasupai, Hopi and Tarahumara.
first appeared: 1/29/2006
A 7.5-mile stretch of State Route 179 that runs through Oak Creek village, near Sedona (pop. 10,192), is Arizona’s first All-American Road, a federal designation recognizing the road as a destination, rather than a route to somewhere. Route 179, between mileposts 302.5 and 310, also is known as Red Rock Scenic Road for red-hued rock formations along the highway.
first appeared: 1/15/2006
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