Arizona: In Other Words 1912-2012 Quiz

Answer: Grand Canyon

Although the Grand Canyon has been around for a long time, it wasn't designated as a national park until 1919, seven years after Arizona became a state. Arizona has long been called "The Grand Canyon State", but it didn't become our official nickname until 2011 when the governor signed the declaration into law on the state's 99th birthday.

The Grand Canyon, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, is 277 miles (446 km) long, varies in width up to 18 miles (29 km) across and is over a mile deep in some areas.

It was carved by the Colorado River over millions of years.

Answer: Barry Goldwater

Barry Goldwater was a five-term U.S. Senator and the 1964 Republican presidential nominee (he lost to Lyndon Johnson). Known as "Mr. Conservative", Goldwater was credited as the founder of the conservative movement in the U.S. with his focus on a strong defense and individual responsibility.

In his later years, he championed causes such as abortion rights and gay rights; he maintained that these were constitutional issues, not conservative or liberal issues.

Answer: London Bridge

At Lake Havasu in western Arizona, you can visit the London Bridge, the 1831 bridge that spanned the Thames River in London until 1967. It was sold to Robert McCulloch, the founder of Lake Havasu City, who was hoping it would become a tourist attraction for the area.

The bridge was transported and reassembled in 1971. McCulloch's wish has come true; Lake Havasu is now a popular spot for college students on spring break.

Answer: Miranda warning

"You have the right to remain silent. If you give up the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law..." Arizona native Ernesto Miranda was convicted of kidnapping, rape and robbery in 1963, based on a confession he had made without being informed of his right to remain silent or to have a lawyer present.

The conviction was appealed on those grounds and was overturned in a 5-4 Supreme Court decision, "Miranda v. Arizona". Since then, police have been required to give the warning when arresting suspects.

Answer: Frank Lloyd Wright

Renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright moved to Scottsdale in 1927 where he built his Taliesin West home and worked on projects such as the Arizona Biltmore and Gammage Auditorium. After his death in Phoenix in 1959, Taliesin West continued to be the headquarters of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation which operates the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.

Answer: Copper mines

Arizona is the nation's top copper producer, supplying more than 60% of the U.S.'s copper and has held that title for over 100 years. Gold and silver are also found here, and Arizona also has deposits of peridot, amethyst, garnet, turquoise and a variety of other minerals associated with copper mining.

Answer: Lowell Observatory

Lowell Observatory was established in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1894 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965. In 1930, the dwarf planet formerly known as the planet Pluto was discovered there by Clyde Tombaugh (well, not AT the observatory, but via the observatory's telescopes).

Answer: Alice Cooper

Although he was born in Detroit, Alice (aka Vincent Furnier) was raised in Phoenix and never left. He formed the Alice Cooper band in high school with fellow members of the Cortez High School track team. He and his wife of thirty five years, Sheryl, are fixtures on the charity circuit in Arizona, and despite his onstage persona, he's apparently quite the normal guy; he even coached his son's little league team.

Answer: Fiesta Bowl

A college gridiron football game, the Fiesta Bowl was first contested in 1971. The 1987 Fiesta Bowl between Penn State and Miami was a major turning point for the bowl game, since it decided the national championship. In the 1990s, the Fiesta Bowl became part of a bowl alliance to rotate the college championship game among a select group of bowls, leading to the Bowl Championship Series.

Answer: First female Supreme Court Justice

In 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female justice on the US Supreme Court. Although born in Texas, O'Connor spent part of her childhood in Arizona and returned to live in the state as an adult. She served as a state senator before becoming a judge in Arizona, and she was confirmed unanimously by the US Senate following her appointment to the court by Ronald Reagan.

Answer: Central Arizona Project

In 1993, the twenty-year construction of the Central Arizona Project was completed, a 336-mile long canal delivering 1.5 million acre-feet of Colorado River water from Lake Havasu to Phoenix and Tucson. Seven states share entitlements to the 1,450 miles (2,333 km) long Colorado River, and the "water wars" can get pretty intense. Arizona even once had a temporary navy consisting of two boats that were used on the Colorado River to prevent California building a dam to divert water from Arizona. The dam was eventually built in exchange for other concessions.

Answer: Baseball spring training

The Detroit Tigers were the first team to have their baseball spring training camp in Arizona (1929) although exhibition games had been played in the area even before Arizona became a state. In 1947, the Cactus League was born when the Cleveland Indians and New York Giants made Arizona their spring training home.

By the turn of the twenty-first century, more than ten teams had their spring training home in Arizona as part of the Cactus League.

Answer: Navajo Code Talkers

Arizona is home to 21 officially-recognized Native American tribes, and their reservations make up more than one quarter of the land in the state. The Navajo (Diné) are the largest in both population and area; the Navajo are also the largest tribe in the United States, with the Navajo Nation spreading across four states (Utah, Colorado and New Mexico are the other three). During World War II, over 400 Navajo tribal members served as "code talkers".

They used the Navajo language as a code to successfully prevent enemy translation of allied communications.

Answer: Japanese internment camps

In one of the sad footnotes in both Arizona and U.S. history, over 30,000 Japanese-Americans were interned in camps in the Arizona desert between 1942 and 1945 lest they collude with the enemy. There were ten "relocation camps" in the U.S., with two of them being located in Arizona.

The largest camp in area, Poston Relocation Camp, was located by the Colorado River in western Arizona. The camp was named for Charles Poston, who is known as the "Father of Arizona" for his efforts to get Arizona created as a separate territory from New Mexico in the mid 1800s.

Answer: Bola tie

Arizona was the first state to have official neckwear: the Bola tie (also known as the Bolo tie, but purists will tell you it's "Bola"). Bola ties consist of cord or braided leather with aglets (metal tips) and an ornamental clasp. The clasps are often made by Native Americans with turquoise being one of the common stones used.