80 Awesome, Fun, Interesting & Cool Facts About Arizona

Absorb these alluring affectations of Arizona, and you will be smarter than you were before you read this article! If this list isn’t enough for you, then check out Kentucky, Iowa, Delaware, Alabama, and Hawaii!

What is Arizona known for?

1. Arizona also goes by a couple of nicknames, like the Copper State and the Grand Canyon State. It’s also sometimes known as the Valentine State, since it was admitted to the Union on that date in 1912.

2. Phoenix! Located in the southwestern part of Arizona, the state capital is also one of the most populous cities in the United States whose sprawl is supported by neighboring Scottsdale, Mesa, and Chandler to create the Metro Phoenix area. All of the action you’d expect to find in a big city like Chicago and Seattle can also be found in Phoenix, with professional sports teams and a significant corporate presence.

3. The Old West! Pretty much any major figure from the Old West era passed through Arizona, including Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Cochise, Geronimo, and Billy the Kid.

4. Nature! The Grand Canyon is one of the breathtaking and majestic scenes one can see in this world. It’s one mile deep, like 18 miles wide, and 277 miles long, and was carved out by millions of years of the Colorado River that once flowed through. And the Grand Canyon is the most obvious pick of all of Arizona’s scenic wonders, with no less than 24 National Park Services to explore. From the red rocks of Sedona to man-made lakes and the Arizona Trail, there’s enough nature space to wander throughout for a lifetime.

Official Arizona state symbols

5. There are more than a dozen species of rattlesnakes that can be found in Arizona, but it’s the Arizona ridge-nosed rattlesnake is the official state reptile.

6. In 1974, Arizona named turquoise as the official gemstone of the state.

7. The ring-tailed cat is the official mammal of Arizona, and it was named as such in 1986.

8. There is actually a state amphibian and it’s the Arizona tree frog.

9. There is even an official neckwear of Arizona! It’s the bolo tie. That designation happened in 1973. Victor Cedarstaff of Wickenburg claims to have invented it, and patented the slide design. Although only three states have an official state neckwear, Texas and New Mexico also claim the bolo tie.

10. The official state tree of Arizona is the palo verde. It was designated in 1954 and it is Spanish for “green stick.” Which is pretty much what a tree is, right?

11. The Apache trout is the state fish of Arizona. Unfortunately, it’s classified as critically endangered. To learn more about the fish, check out this video from the OdySea Aquarium in Scottsdale.

12. The Arizona state flag was designed and adopted in 1917, and with just four solid colors, it’s simple, fresh, minimalistic, and bold. The red and yellow colors represent the landscape, and gold star in the center represents the state’s relationship to copper. Here is a picture of it!

13. In 1988, Arizona named petrified wood as the official fossil of the state. Not terribly imaginative, tbh.

14. Do you know what wulfenite is? It’s the official mineral of Arizona.

15. The state flower of Arizona was designated in 1931, and it’s the blossom of the giant saguaro cactus that blooms in May and June each year. Blink and you’ll miss it: it blooms in the middle of the night and closes after just 18 hours, just enough time to be pollinated by local bats.

16. The cactus wren is the state bird of Arizona. It’s named as such because they nest in cacti. This sounds uncomfortable, but it protects them from predators.

17. Arizona has two state songs. “The Arizona March Song” was the first, written by Margaret Rowe Clifford and composed by Maurice Blumenthal in 1915. An alternate anthem — simply called “Arizona” – was adopted in 1981. It was written and performed by Rex Allen, Jr., whose father was a singing cowboy and television actor known for narrating Disney productions. Allen the younger followed in his footsteps, and even narrated Me, Myself & Irene, the 2000 Farrelly Brothers comedy starring Jim Carey and Renée Zellweger.  

18. In 2018, Arizona named an official state dinosaur and it was the sonorasaurus.

19. The two-tailed swallowtail butterfly is the state butterfly, though it’s not exactly exclusive to Arizona. It can be found from southern Canada all the way to Guatemala.

20. Do you enjoy lemonade? So does Arizona! In fact, Arizona enjoys it so much that they made it the official state drink in 2019.

21. If you’ve gotten this far down the list, it probably comes as no surprise that copper is the official state metal of Arizona. What may come as a surprise is that it took until 2015 for this designation to be made.

Early History of Arizona Timeline

22. Paleo-Indians settled in present-day Arizona around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.

23. The first white guy to explore present-day Arizona was the Spanish Franciscan Marcos de Niza in 1539.

24. Explorer Francisco Coronado and his party were the first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon in the 16th century.

25. Arizona was actually a part of Mexico beginning in 1822, until Mexico lost the Mexican-American War in 1848.

26. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was established in 1848, and Mexico ceded their Arizona land to the United States.

27. For awhile starting in 1850, Arizona was actually a part of the New Mexico Territory.

28. In 1854, cooper was discovered! This was the start of the copper mining boom that would be Arizona’s biggest industry for the next 100 years.

29. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Arizona Organic Act on February 24, 1863 that established a provisional government for the new Arizona territory.

30. Arizona became the 48th state on February 14, 1912 — the last of the contiguous states to be admitted to the Union.

Arizona Nature, Topography & Geography

31. The capital of Arizona is Phoenix, which is also the largest city.

32. Other notable cities in Arizona include Tucson, Scottsdale, Flagstaff, Glendale, and Mesa.

33. Arizona is the 6th-biggest state in the United States in terms of area at 113,990 square miles.

34. Want to drive all across Arizona from east to west? That’ll be a 310-mile car trip. North to south is exactly 400 miles.

35. There is only one point in the United States where you can be in four states at once, and that’s the intersection of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.

36. There are 15 counties in Arizona.

37. With an elevation of 12,637 feet, Humphreys Peak is the highest natural point in the state. It was named in around 1870 after Arizona General Andrew A. Humphreys, who was a Union general in the Civil War. It’s also a beautiful trail to hike.

38. The lowest point in Arizona is at the Colorado River, which is just 70 feet above sea level.

39. Arizona is the home of the saguaro cactus, which can be found exclusively in the Sonoran desert. They can live to be up to 200 years old, and grow up to 40 feet tall. This cactus a veritable symbol of the American southwest, and can be found on the Arizona license plate. In fact, it’s so protected that cutting one down can result in a jail term for up to 25 years.

40. Designated a National Natural Landmark in 1967, the Meteor Crater is located near Winslow, and was formed around 50,000 years ago in the Pleistocene epoch, during a time when the area was populated by giant ground sloths and mammoths.

41. The Arizona Trail is one of the 11 National Scenic Trails, and extends for exactly 800 miles from Utah to Mexico. It covers the entire state of Arizona from north to south.

42. The famous Grand Canyon is just one of the 24 National Park Service places in Arizona. The list also includes the Petrified Forest National Park, Saguaro National Park, and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument.

43. Lake Mead and Lake Powell are the two largest man-made lakes in the United States — and they’re both located in Arizona.

44. The outstanding Havasu Falls is located in Arizona, and the 100-foot high waterfall is such an achingly beautiful sight that it was featured in the video for Beyoncé’s “SPIRIT.” 

45. The sandstone cliffs at Red Rock State Park are truly a sight to behold for any nature lover. Officially opened in 1991, the park first came to be in 1980, when Bruce Babbitt (who was the governor of Arizona at the time), was hiking with friends and informed he was trespassing on private property. After some research, he was able to pull off a complicated land exchange that laid the groundwork for development of a full-fledged park.

46. At over 17.5 million acres, the Navajo Nation is the largest Native American Reservation.

Where should I visit in Arizona?

47. Though there is no actual and official consensus list of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, the Grand Canyon in Arizona is often featured among them. Everyone who has the means should totally go visit the Grand Canyon at some point in their lives.

48. Dozens of popular western movies and television shows have been filmed at Old Tucson Studios, including Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Little House on the Prairie, Tombstone, Rio Bravo, Young Guns II, and the 1957 version of 3:10 to Yuma. All told, more than 300 westerns have been filmed at Old Tucson Studios, which is open to visitors during non-pandemic times.

49. The Raptor Ranch in Williams, Arizona makes for a great stop if you’re coming to and/or from the Grand Canyon. In addition to experiencing encounters with big-ass raptors, there is also Bedrock City, where visitors can meet the Flintstones and enjoy recreations of the iconic cartoon. Fun for the whole family! And probably fun if you’re single, too.

50. Famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright has at least 11 buildings in the greater Phoenix area, including The Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium at Arizona State University and the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix. Fans of interesting and distinctive architecture should definitely make a point of visiting these buildings.

51. Believe it or not, the original London bridge is now located in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The same London Bridge that oversaw the River Thames was dismantled in 1967 and relocated to Arizona brick by brick to create a new bridge that was completed in 1971.  

52. In 2009, the city of Phoenix commissioned artist Janet Echelman to create the public art installation Her Secret Is Patience. Taken from a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, layers of netting that hover 38 feet off the ground supported by poles more than 100 feet tall create a wormhole-like image that reflects the cumulus clouds of Arizona. Colors change through out the season and at night, adding a lot of personality to Phoenix.

Fun, Cool & Weird Arizona Facts

53. You may think of Arizona as nothing but deserts but believe it or not, there are ski resorts in Alpine and Flagstaff.

54. They don’t call Arizona the Copper State for nothing. Copper mining has been a big business in the state since its discovery in 1854 and in 2007, Arizona produced over $5 billion worth of the mineral. Not million. Billion.

55. The very first fast food drive-thru opened at a McDonald’s in Sierra Vista in 1975. Soldiers who were stationed at Fort Huachuca were not allowed to leave their vehicles while wearing fatigues, so the owner of the local McDonald’s knocked out enough of a wall to install a sliding glass window, and the rest is fast food restaurant history.

56. Along with Hawaii, Arizona is one of two states that do not observe Daylight Savings Time.

57. The film Oklahoma! was not actually filmed in Oklahoma because apparently the state’s many oil wells would’ve been too prominent for exterior shots. Instead, in was filmed on location in Arizona, with scenes shot in Nogales, Green Valley, and Elgin. 

58. The village of Supai is located at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and it’s the only place in the country where mail is delivered by a mule.

59. Flagstaff is home to the Lowell Observatory, where Pluto was discovered in 1930 by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965, it was named one of the World’s 100 Most Important Places in 2011 by Time magazine.

60. You won’t find any dinosaur fossils in the Grand Canyon because the rocks are way older than dinosaurs.

61. There are three 4-year public colleges in Arizona: Arizona State University, University of Arizona, and Northern Arizona University.

62. The stars shine clearly and brightly in Tuscan, which is known as the Astronomy Capital of the World because of its isolation from pollution and city lights.

63. There is a Why, Arizona. The town got its name because two major highways — State Routes 85 and 86 — originally met and created a Y-intersection. However, state law required that city names should have at least three letters, so it couldn’t simply be called Y, Arizona.

64. There is also a Nothing, Arizona. It’s a ghost town in eastern Mohave County and unsurprisingly, no one lives there.

65. Surprise, Arizona was named as such because after Flora Mae Statler founded it based on a square mile of farmland in 1938, she commented that she would be surprised if the town would ever amount to much.

66. Arizona is represented in the four major professional American sports: the Arizona Diamondbacks in baseball, the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL, Arizona Coyotes in hockey, and the Phoenix Suns in the NBA, as well as the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA. They all play their home games in Phoenix, but only the two basketball teams are named for Phoenix. 

67. Speaking of Arizona sports, the Phoenix Suns joined the NBA as an expansion team in 1968. For some reason, their mascot is a gorilla.

What Famous People are From Arizona?

68. Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor grew up on a ranch near Duncan, Arizona.

69. Famous filmmaker Steven Spielberg spent his formative years in Arizona, and made his first films while attending Arcadia High School in Phoenix.  

70. Some fantastic rock-n-roll music has come out of Arizona, including the Meat Puppets, Jimmy Eat World, and Gin Blossoms.

71. Other famous musicians with Arizona connections Linda Ronstadt (born in Tucson), jazz musician Charles Mingus (who was born in Nogales), Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington (born in Phoenix), rock-n-roll singer Alice Cooper (whose act originated in Phoenix), and pop singer Jordin Sparks (born in Phoenix).

72. More famous people with Arizona connections that you may have seen on television include Cheers star Ted Danson (raised in Flagstaff), Freaks and Geeks actor Busy Philipps (attended high school in Scottsdale), comedian David Spade (who was raised in Scottsdale), and Orange is the New Black actor Taryn Manning (who was raised in Tucson).

73. Twilight author Stephenie Meyer was raised in Phoenix, and her character Bella Swan from the wildly popular books is also from Arizona. Bella is a fictional character so doesn’t really count but yeah.

74. Baseball players that were born in Arizona include Ian Kinsler (Tucson), Cody Bellinger (Scottsdale), and Andre Ethier (Phoenix).

75. A few successful NFL quarterbacks were born in Arizona, including Ryan Fitzpatrick (Gilbert), Danny White (Mesa), and Rodney Peete (also Mesa).

What Animals Live in Arizona?

76. There are some unusual animals in Arizona. One is the javelina, also known as the peccary or skunk pig. Being small-hoofed mammals with long snouts, they certainly resemble pigs, but have subtle differences, like a much shorter tail than pigs and a single fused dewclaw (as opposed to a pig’s two).

77. There are 13 different species of rattlesnakes in Arizona. They include:

• Arizona black rattlesnake
• Western rattlesnake
• Western diamond-backed rattlesnake
• Twin-spotted rattlesnake
• Tiger rattlesnake
• Massasauga
• Mohave rattlesnake
• Black-tailed rattlesnake
• Sidewinder
• Prairie rattlesnake
• Speckled rattlesnake
• Ridge-nosed rattlesnake
• Rock rattlesnake

The biggest is the Western diamond-backed, which can grow up to 66” long. It’s also responsible for the most bites (and unfortunately deaths) than any other kind of rattlesnake in the United States.

78. The coatimundi is another strange animal found in Arizona. Though they mostly inhabit South America, Central America, and Mexico, these relatives of raccoons can be found wandering the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan Desert.

79. Chuckwallas can be found all over southwestern Arizona, in addition to Utah, California, and Nevada. They are big stout lizards that kinda resembles fat iguanas that are typically over a foot long, with some particular species that can grow to be 2-and-a-half feet long.

80. Other more common animals that can be found in Arizona wildlife include roadrunners, deer, skunks, raccoons, coyotes, and black bears.

Cover Image Credit: Image via Pixabay

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