Phoenix Trivia Trivia Quiz

Answer: 33.4484° N, 112.0740° W

The contiguous 48 states lie between 24 degrees and 47 degrees north of the equator and 66 degrees and 124 degrees west of Greenwich London. The other options are coordinates of other prominent cities: New York City, Rio de Janeiro and Hiroshima, Japan.

Phoenix is located near the confluence of the Gila River and its tributary, Salt River. The Gila River is a tributary of the Colorado River. The city is located on the north-eastern edge of the Sonoran desert which extends southward into Mexico.

Answer: In the 1860s a new town emerged from the ruins of a former civilization

From the archaeologically significant Pueblo Grande ruins, we now know the Phoenix area was occupied between 700 A.D. and 1400 A.D. by a civilization who built an irrigation system on the desert land near the river confluence. This consisted of 135 miles of canals, which irrigated the land which then became fertile, and formed the basis of the settlement. The fate of this early society, is unknown. It is thought that it was destroyed by an extended drought. Nomad Indians saw the Pueblo Grande ruins and the canal system these people left behind, and gave them the name "Ho Ho Kam" which means the people who have gone.

An early settler, Darrell Duppa, suggested the name Phoenix, as the new town had emerged from the ruins of a former civilization. It was previously called Swilling's Mill. The name Phoenix was ratified in 1868 as part of an election district and a post office with the township name on its doors further substantiated the name.

Answer: Thick forests to start a timber industry

Jack Swilling, from the central Arizona Territory prospecting town of Wickenburg, crossed the White Tank Mountains from the north and saw the entire Salt River Valley before him. He saw rich topsoil, a plain with few trees to clear and the remains of irrigation channels from the Hohokem people but what excited him the most was the soil was almost free of rock - the nemesis of the farmer with a plough.

He knew from living on the other side of the mountains the area would be free of frost in the wintertime. All he needed to do was to get water into those canals.

He went back to Wittenburg to organise the Swilling Irrigation Canal Company in the valley. His company dug out the canals to once more divert some of the water of the Salt River which filled with water in March 1868.

Some people managed to raise a few meagre crops that summer. Early settlers were attracted to the rejuvenated canal system. A small settlement call Swillings Mill was established about four miles east of the current city centre. Streetcars crisscrossed the city by 1887 and the Southern Pacific train arrived on July 4 1889 from Maricopa Wells. Phoenix had the basic infrastructure to survive and indeed thrive, in the future.

Answer: Copper

Initially the agricultural products grown in the district were alfalfa, cotton, citrus, and hay. In time, as methods became more scientific, cotton, cattle, citrus, copper and climate became the "Five C's" that anchored the Phoenix district's economy up until WWII.
Over 60% of the US copper is mined in Arizona, principally around and south of Phoenix. Nearly all of the silver mined in Arizona is a byproduct of copper mining. Arizona is the fourth largest silver producing state after Alaska, Nevada, and Idaho.

Answer: 1912

The story of how Phoenix became a state capital goes back to the Mexican-American War (1846-48), where under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1848, Mexico transferred its northern holdings, including what is now the American Southwest and California to the US. This created the Territory of New Mexico in the area between California and Texas. With the Gadsden Purchase of 1853 (to facilitate the proposed trans-American Railroad), the Territory was roughly the same shape as the contemporaneous states of Arizona and New Mexico.

During the American Civil War, both sides claimed the New Mexico Territory so the New Mexico Territory split into two along the north-south border of the 107th meridian. While New Mexico Territory had permitted slavery (but there were very few), this was expressly forbidden in the Arizona Territory.
The Territory's first capital was established at Navajo Springs, then Prescott, then Tucson, then back to Prescott, and finally to Phoenix in 1889.
Arizona was the last of the contiguous 48 states to achieve statehood, which occurred in 1912, and Phoenix then became the state capital.

Answer: Tucson

Tucson, a city of over half a million people located 120 miles south east of Phoenix, is Arizona's second largest city in population and the only one outside the Greater Phoenix metropolitan area.

Phoenix had a 2010 census population of over 1.4 million people making it the fourth largest and the most populous state capital in the US.

Phoenix and the eight other top ten Arizona cities are located in Maricopa County. Phoenix is the county seat. This is state's most populous county, and the largest in area, being about the size of New Hampshire. Its 2018 population of 4.4 million people means over 60% of the state's population lives within this county's boundaries.

Answer: I-10 and I-17

Interstates highways are even when they run east/west and odd when they run north/south. Numbering starts from the west cost for north/south routes and from the south when running east/west. As Phoenix is in the southwest you would expect any Interstate to be in the small numbers. I-10 runs from Jacksonville Florida to Santa Monica California with Phoenix on the route. I-17, despite its name, is located entirely within Arizona. I-17's southern terminus is in Phoenix itself, at I-10, and its northern terminus is in Flagstaff, at Interstate 40.

(There are no plans to connect Dover DE, Pierre SD, Jefferson City MO and Juneau AK to the Interstate system).

I-5 and I-10 intersect in Los Angeles and is the archetype of the Interstate interchange. I-90 and I-55 both travel through Chicago.

Answer: Sky Harbor

Sky Harbor was named by J. Parker Van Zandt, owner of Scenic Airlines, based in Phoenix, in 1928. The airline folded a year later. The airport was sold to Phoenix City in 1935 when American Airlines had already established a base there and TWA started flying to San Francisco shortly after.

In 2018 over 44 million people flew through Arizona's biggest airport making it the 13th biggest in the US and 44th in the world that year. The reason for this is not just tourism (which undoubtedly contributes a major portion), but also as a hub for American Airlines (Over 48% of flights in 2018 were American) and South-West Airlines also have an operational base there.

Answer: MLB: The Diamondbacks used to be the Montreal Expos until relocation in 1998

All four men's major sporting teams are located within the Phoenix metropolitan area (but two are located at Glendale). Also of the four teams only the Phoenix Suns are named after the capital, the other three have Arizona in their names.

The Arizona Diamondbacks were an expansion team (ie did not re-locate) which played for the first time in 1998 and beat the Yankees in the World Series in 2001. This was the first time an expansion team had won within three seasons of commencement. (The Montreal Expos relocated to become the Washington Nationals).

The Phoenix Suns were the first major sporting team established in Phoenix. Established as an expansion tam in 1968, they reach the MBA finals in 1976 pushing Boston Celtics to six games.

The Arizona Cardinals started as the Morgan Athletic Club in Chicago in 1898. With the Chicago Bears, they were the only two inaugural teams (with the Chicago Bears) remaining in the American Professional Football Association (APFA), the forerunner of the NFL. The Arizona Cardinals relocated via St Louis to Arizona as the Phoenix Cardinals in 1988, became the Arizona Cardinals in 1994 and reached the Super Bowl in 2008 losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Arizona Coyotes were the Winnipeg Jets until they relocated to Phoenix as the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996. In 2014, the team was re-named the Arizona Coyotes.

Answer: Valley of the Sun

Many military personnel were stationed in Phoenix and surrounds during WWII and the population exploded after this date when they returned with their families to live. Being on the edge of the Sonoran desert, the city is hot with many days over 100F with averages of approximately 300 days of sunshine, with over 85% of daylight hours, per year. Rainfall is low, the average annual total around 8 inches (200 mm) per year. The Valley of the Sun is approximately the Gila River Valley on which the metropolitan area lies at an average of 1100 feet above sea level. Snow is rare but has been reported in Phoenix, albeit as a light dusting on eight occasions between 1898 and 2018.