Arizona: In the Beginning Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mayan

These early people settled in three main areas: the Anasazi of the high plateau region in Northeastern Arizona, the Mogollon in central eastern Arizona and the Hohokam in the southern desert region. By 1400 C.E., all three groups had disappeared. Current speculation is that drought was responsible for their migration to other areas or that they had been absorbed into the cultures that migrated into the area.

As with most pre-written history information, the dates are estimates. Additionally, the names given to the people were done so by other tribes or Europeans, and they aren't always complimentary.

The name "Anasazi", for example, is now considered derogatory among Native Americans, and the term "Ancient Pueblo Peoples" is preferred. However, they are still referred to as Anasazi in many sources, so I've listed them as such here for the purpose of clarity.

Answer: Alaska and Canada

Around the time that the Anasazi, Mogollon and Hohokam cultures disappeared, other cultures emerged (leading some sources to speculate that those tribes were absorbed into the new cultures). The Navajo (Diné) and Apache (Indé) people are believed to have traveled over the Bering Strait land bridge thousands of years ago, eventually moving down into the Arizona area in the early second millennium C.E., just before the arrival of the Spanish.

The Athabaskan language group is also known as the Na-Dene languages. Both the Navajo and Apache languages belong to the Southern Athabaskan (Apachean) language group.

The Northern Athabaskan languages are spoken in Alaska and across central and western Canada, and the Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages are spoken in the coastal California and Oregon region.

The Athabaskan languages are tonal like many of the languages of East Asia, which distinguishes them from most other indigenous languages of the Americas.

Answer: The oldest continuously inhabited settlement in Arizona

Some sources credit Oraibi as the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the United States, but that distinction probably belongs to the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico, which was established between 1000 and 1100 C.E., depending on the source. The Hopi live in Northeastern Arizona, surrounded by the Navajo Nation. Unlike the Navajo, who are believed to have migrated to Arizona from the north, the Hopi are believed to have come to Arizona from the south; their language is one of the Uto-Aztecan family.

The Hopi were present in the area much earlier than the Navajo, and they consider the Hisatsinom (Anasazi) to be their ancestors. Some notable Hopis include Lewis Tewanima, the first Arizonan to win an Olympic medal (1912 Olympics) and Lori Piestewa, the first Native American woman to die in combat while serving in the U.S. Military (Iraq, 2003).

Answer: Franciscan friar

Fray Marcos de Niza was born in Nice, France (hence the "de Niza", "of Nice"), which was under the control of Savoy, Italy at that time. He was sent to the New World in 1531 to help convert the natives, with his first assignment being as a member of Francisco Pizarro's expedition to conquer the Incas in Peru.

He then spent time in Guatemala before arriving in Mexico in 1536. He entered the territory of the future state of Arizona on April 12, 1539 (he kept detailed journals) and claimed it for Spain.

A monument near Lochiel, Arizona, marks the general area where he is believed to have entered. Another Spanish explorer, the interestingly-named Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca may have visited Arizona a few years earlier, but he didn't keep sufficient records of his travels in the southwestern region of what is now the United States, so he isn't officially credited as being first.

Answer: First African to set foot in western North America

Also known as Estevanico, some sources credit Estevan with being the first African to set foot in what is now the United States overall (he did so on an expedition to Florida in 1527 or 1528); other sources state that a West African-born conquistador named Juan Garrido first set foot in Florida in 1513.

Besides being the first African to set foot in the western United States (he reached Texas in 1528), Estevan was also the first African to visit Arizona, and since Fray Marcos de Niza sent him ahead of the expedition to look for Cibola (the mythical Seven Cities of Gold), he was likely the first non-native to set foot in many parts of Arizona and New Mexico (where he died at the hands of the Zuni tribe). Estevan was a really interesting character in Arizona (and US) history.

Born in Morocco, he was sold into slavery as a young man, but he lived more as an assistant to his owners and was given his freedom along the way. He spent his life as a New World explorer, and he was gifted at languages and was able to develop a friendly rapport with the natives. Estevan Park in Tucson, Arizona, was named in honor of Estevanico.

Answer: Padre Kino

Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, known as Padre Kino, was a Jesuit priest who was born in Tyrolean Italy and educated in Austria and Germany. He was a true Renaissance man - a cartographer, mathematician, astronomer, farmer, rancher, diplomat, linguist and a deeply religious and humane man. Padre Kino was 40 years old when he arrived in the area of northern Mexico and southern Arizona in 1687 to work as a missionary, and over the next 24 years, he would explore most of the region while establishing over 20 missions. The detailed maps he made of the region were used for over a century, and he was the first person to document that Baja California was a peninsula, not an island as the Spanish believed. His travels in Arizona took him at least as far north as Casa Grande (about 50 miles/80 km south of Phoenix), where he became the first non-native to view the Casa Grande ruins. Padre Kino died from illness in 1711 in Magdalena, Mexico (about 60 miles/97 km south of Nogales, a city on the Arizona/Mexico border); the chapel that contained his grave had been destroyed over the years, but his grave was rediscovered in the 1960s and a memorial was built there.

Although Padre Kino established famous missions such as San Xavier del Bac and San José de Tumacácori, the current buildings at these sites were actually constructed by Franciscans after his death. The beautiful San Xavier del Bac south of Tucson, for example, was built in the late 17th century and is still a functioning Catholic church. Apparently, none of the original buildings from Padre Kino's time still exist; they were destroyed (mainly due to attacks by Apaches) or fell into disrepair after the Jesuits were expelled from the area in 1767.

Answer: It's Basque for "Good Oak".

The name "Arizona" came from a ranch or settlement called Real de Arissona or Real de Arizonac or El puesto del Arizona (different variations are listed on documents from that era) south of the Mexican border town of Nogales. The area became important to the Spanish when large slabs of silver were discovered nearby in 1736.

The source of the word "Arizona" is disputed; the possibility of it just being a version of the Spanish term "zona arida" (arid zone) is largely discounted. For many years, the assumption was the name came from the Tohono O'odham words "ali shonak", meaning "place of the small spring", but in recent years, it has been proposed that the name came from the Basque words "aritz ona", meaning "good oak".

The latter theory is based on the facts that the owner of the property was Basque, a large number of the settlers in the area were Basque and that the name Arissona or Arizona shows up as a place name in Latin American countries with Basque settlements, such as Honduras and Costa Rica.

Answer: Tubac

Tubac is located about twenty miles north of the Mexican border and fifty miles south of Tucson. The settlement was essentially a ghost town by the time the United States took possession of it a century after its founding due to numerous raids by neighboring tribes. Tubac was resettled after the Gadsden Purchase, and the "Weekly Arizonian", the first newspaper in Arizona, was printed there in 1859. Mining brought in a new population that resulted in Tubac reportedly being the largest town in Arizona in 1860 (according to the Arizona State Parks website).

However the mining boom was short lived and only a small population remained in Tubac from then on. The town of Tubac evolved into an artist's colony in the 1940s and had a population of over 1,000 residents at the turn of the 21st century.

The Tubac Presidio State Historic Park was designated as Arizona's first State Park, and the ruins of the original Spanish presidio can be viewed there.

Answer: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The Spanish era in the future state of Arizona ended in 1821 when Mexico achieved independence from Spain. The Mexican era in Arizona was short-lived, however. As a result of the 1846-1848 Mexican-American war (or the U.S. Invasion of Mexico, as it is known south of the border), Mexico was forced to cede the northern half of its territory to the U.S.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war, also called for the U.S. to pay $15 million in compensation to Mexico. More than two-thirds of present day Arizona was included in the area ceded.

The remaining portion constituting southern Arizona (including the city of Tucson) was purchased from Mexico in 1853 as part of the Gadsden Purchase (named for soldier/diplomat/railroad executive James Gadsden who negotiated the deal). Gadsden had pushed for the purchase because he wanted to run the Southern Pacific railroad through the area.

Answer: The westernmost battle of the American Civil War

The lower half of Arizona became a Confederate territory in 1861 during the U.S. Civil War. This occurred largely because of the diversion of the Overland Mail from the territory. The mail route ran through southern Arizona, and the troops that protected the mail also protected the settlers in the area. When the U.S. troops left, confederate troops moved in. Arizonans had felt abandoned by the U.S. government, so the confederate troops met little resistance in Arizona. During the U.S. Civil War, Tucson was the western capital of the Confederate Arizona New Mexico Territory, so four flags have flown over Tucson: Spain, Mexico, the Confederate U.S. and the U.S. flag.

The Battle of Picacho Peak was fought on April 15, 1862. More of a skirmish, the battle consisted of 14 union troops versus 10 confederate troops, and the union troops retreated after suffering three fatalities. Shortly after that, U.S. cavalry troops from California recaptured Tucson in May of 1862 and drove the confederates out of Arizona. Naturally, we hold annual reenactments of the battle.

Interesting note: the Confederate Territory of Arizona was officially declared by Confederate president Jefferson Davis on February 14, 1862 - fifty years to the day before Arizona officially became a U.S. state.

Answer: Prescott

When the area now known as Arizona joined the United States following the Mexican-American War and the Gadsden Purchase, it became a part of the New Mexico Territory which had been established in 1850. Charles Poston, who has been called the "Father of Arizona", lobbied to have a separate territory, and in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the legislation to establish the Arizona Territory. Poston became the first territorial delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.

The capital of the Arizona Territory was temporarily at Fort Whipple, an army post located near present-day Prescott in central Arizona until the capital was formally established at Prescott in 1864.

At the time, Tucson was the largest "city" in Arizona, with a population of 915 people as of the 1860 census. Prescott was largely built specifically to be the capital rather than the existing city of Tucson because the latter city was part of the Confederacy during the Civil War.

In 1867, the capital was moved to Tucson before being returned to Prescott in 1877.

In 1889, the capital was permanently moved to Phoenix.

Answer: Canals

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the area that is now Phoenix had been inhabited by the Hohokam people. They had built canals to irrigate fields surrounding the Salt River (the main river which flowed through Phoenix prior to it being dammed). The Hohokam disappeared from the area around 1400 C.E., and it wasn't until the 1860s that the area was resettled. Jack Swilling, a prospector and entrepreneur, reportedly saw the remains of the canals in the valley while he was crossing the White Tank Mountains; he started an irrigation company to supply water from the Salt River to the surrounding lands, as the Hohokam had done hundreds of years earlier.

The town was briefly called Pumpkinville because of the wild gourds that grew along the river, but ultimately it was given the moniker of Phoenix because it had been reborn out of the ruins of the Hohokam civilization. "Lord" Darrell Duppa, an English expatriate, has been credited with giving Phoenix its name; he also named the city of Tempe, claiming that the area reminded him of the Vale of Tempe in Greece.

Answer: Tombstone

Tombstone is located southeast of Tucson about thirty miles north of the Mexican border. Originally a "town", Tombstone was founded by silver prospector Edward Schieffelin who had been told that all he would find in those hills was his tombstone. But he did find silver, and Tombstone has been inhabited ever since, although tourism has replaced mining as its main enterprise. Tourists flock to Tombstone every April to see and smell what is allegedly the world's largest rose bush, a "Lady Banksia" rose bush that was planted in 1885.

It covers 9,000 square feet and is held up by a massive arbor. Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard is another tourist favorite, with its quirky and detailed epitaphs. But what Tombstone is most known for is the Gunfight at the OK Corral, a thirty-second battle that is now re-enacted for tourists.

Answer: Rough Riders

Alexander Brodie, William "Buckey" O'Neill, and James McClintock were credited with forming the group in Prescott, Arizona, after Brodie sent a telegraph to President McKinley asking permission to establish the regiment in anticipation of hostilities with Spain. McKinley replied that only two hundred men could be accepted as the decision had been made to allocate troops by region, with Oklahoma, New Mexico, "Indian Territories" and eastern cities/colleges each contributing forces.

The Arizona troops were designated as Troops A, B and C, and Buckey O'Neill was tasked with leading Troop A and McClintock with Troop B. Brodie was a senior regimental officer and at the end of the war was elected president of the Rough Riders' Association by the men in the unit. Roosevelt must have thought highly of Brodie because in 1902, as president, he appointed Brodie to be the Arizona Territorial Governor. Arizona provided the regimental U.S. flag and mascot for the Rough Riders.

The mascot was a mountain lion cub who was left behind in Tampa, Florida, when the Rough Riders sailed for Cuba. According to "The Story of the Rough Riders, 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry" published in 1899, "The flag was the first to be raised by the army during the war... and was gallantly borne through every engagement in Cuba". Both the lion cub and the flag were returned to Arizona, and the flag (with a few bullet holes in it) now resides at the Arizona State Capitol museum.

Answer: Taft

Arizona first submitted a constitution for approval to become a state in 1891, but it was rejected. Several reasons have been suggested for the rejection. Political reasons include Arizona's involvement with the Confederacy during the Civil War and the monetary standard; the constitution called for "bimetallism" (gold and silver) while the Cleveland administration was supporting the gold standard.

Some sources merely put it down to the belief that Arizona was a lawless wasteland and not suitable to be a state.

After the Spanish-American War, there was another push for statehood. Arizonans had figured prominently during the war, and their loyalty to the union, which had taken a bruising during the Civil War, was not in question anymore; the tombstone for Colonel Buckey O'Neill of the Rough Riders who died in Cuba read "Who would not die for a new star on the flag".

The first serious consideration to admitting Arizona to the union came during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency, when a "jointure" idea was floated of admitting the New Mexico and Arizona territories as one state. New Mexico apparently liked the idea, but feisty Arizona didn't. Arizonans overwhelmingly voted down the 1906 referendum and protested by changing the name of Roosevelt Street in downtown Phoenix to Cleveland Street (it was eventually changed back). Finally in 1910, the U.S. Congress requested that Arizona again submit a constitution for approval, which it did but the constitution included a provision for the recall of judges. President William Howard Taft had warned the Arizona Constitutional Convention that he would veto the constitution if it included the provision, and he did just that. So the convention had to revise the constitution and get it approved by the voters; the delay postponed Arizona's approval for statehood and allowed New Mexico to be approved as the 47th state a month earlier than Arizona. Arizona finally became a state on the 50th anniversary of its joining the Confederacy during the Civil War.

It was the last of the 48 contiguous states to join the Union.