Some Amazing Facts About Arizona

Arizona is one of the states that far more people have heard about than who have actually seen. There are many facts about Arizona that even people who live there might not be aware of. Here are just some of them.

* There probably aren’t any shootouts of the old west that are more famous than the gunfight at the OK Corral, which happened in Tombstone, Arizona. Several books have been written about the event that happened 138 years ago and numerous movies have been made about it. Yet, the actual gunfight was over in less than 30 seconds.

* All of New England would easily fit inside of Arizona, with enough space left over to hold Pennsylvania.

* In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto while working at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.

* There are 13 species of rattlesnakes in Arizona. No other state has that many. About 150 people per year are bitten by rattlesnakes in Arizona, though death from rattlesnake bite is rare.

* Arizona is the sixth largest state, yet only 17% of it is privately owned. The rest is in national forests, parks, state land, and Native American reservation land.

* Phoenix, Arizona is gradually losing altitude. This is happening because the groundwater under Phoenix is being used by the people living there at a faster rate than it is being replenished, so the city is sinking.

* There are several popular snow skiing slopes in Arizona and large areas of fir and pine forests.

* Arizona is a major producer of oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes, and tangerines in the US. In fact, 13% of the tangerines produced in the US come from Arizona. The state also is a major producer of pecans, dates, and pistachios.

* If you put four skyscrapers, each 1,300 feet tall (about 130 stories), on top of each other at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, Arizona, they wouldn’t reach the height of the rim of the canyon. The rocks at the bottom of the Grand Canyon are also a billion years older than the rocks at the top. It is for this reason that there are no dinosaur fossils. The rocks are older than dinosaurs were.

* It was a notorious Arizona criminal who was responsible for the Miranda laws, for which they are named. The criminal’s name was Ernesto Miranda. (You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. etc)

* Both Tucson and Pheonix Arizona register more sunny days than anywhere in Hawaii or Florida.

* The movies; ‘Return of the Jedi’, ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’, ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’, ‘Planet of the Apes’, and ‘Casablanca’ were all filmed partly or completely in Arizona.

* As much as an inch of snow has been registered in Phoenix, Arizona. In fact, this has happened at least twice.

* The penalty for cutting down a Saguaro cactus in Arizona is up to a year in prison. Saguaros can be as tall as 60 feet, they are often hundreds of years old, and they are only found in the Sonoran Desert.

Now, I’d guess that you might know a little more about Arizona than you did before you started reading.