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Happy Statehood Day

by on Feb. 14, 2010, under Life, Politics

98 years ago on February 14, 1912, Arizona became the 48th state, the last of the 48 contiguous states to be admitted to the United States of America.

State of Arizona flag

State of Arizona flag

Both Alaska (49th state) and Hawaii (50th state) were admitted quite a few years later in 1959 – January 3rd for Alaska, and August 21st for my home state of Hawaii.

Thus, in 2 years in 2012, Arizona will be celebrating 100 years of statehood! What an accomplishment despite the current economic woes.

In 2005 then Governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano, established a coordinating committee to honor Arizona’s centennial in 2012. The mission of the organization is to:

“Develop, encourage, and coordinate a statewide plan for Arizona’s centennial in 2012 including:

* advising the legislature and state agencies on centennial history and heritage, arts and culture;
* assisting the governor’s countdown to the centennial to support school children learning about Arizona’s history; and
* recommending activities and projects that will ensure lasting legacy accomplishments to commemorate the centennial”.

Today 1:00-2:00 p.m. at Agua Caliente Park, 12525 E. Roger Rd. is a talk on Arizona Statehood. Explore with David Levine the history and challenges that led Arizona to become the 48th state. For more information call 520-615-7855 or eeducation@pima.gov.

Current Governor Jan Brewer has an interesting website entitled “Facts about Arizona” (click here.) These include the state motto, flag, seal, flower, gem, official neckwear (?), tree, bird, fossil, mammal, reptile, fish, amphibian.

Only 2 years to go before the Centennial celebration. “Ditat Deus (God Enriches)”.

Happy Statehood Day today!

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  • http://pointmantucson.yuku.com/ mike_brewer

    Carolyn,
    As a bit of historical trivia, I understand that we forgot a rather important detail when we were granted our Statehood.
    We forgot to complete the acquisition of water rights from the native American tribal nations. It ended up in a lawsuit that went on for 44 years, and was just recently settled. Do you know any of the details of the settlement?

  • Carolyn Classen

    No sorry Mike I don’t, not having grown up here.  Hope you do find out the details.

  • Francine Shacter

    Mike, you mayh wish to check with Nancy Freeman in Green Valley.  She is, today, a very strong and knowledgeable advocate for water – it is possible she knows something about the history.
     
    Great article, Carolyn!!! Thank you so much!!!

    • Carolyn Classen

      Thanks for the info Francine, forwarded it on to blogger Mike Brewer. I appreciate your compliment too.

  • Thomas D.

    Heard that the state wants to open up a Centennial Museum in Phoenix. My god we cant even keep open the highway bathrooms on the interstate and are closing down the State Parks. So we need a museum? Lets just have a party and a couple of celebrations and some lectures and call it a day. The hundreds and hundreds of fired state employees will thank you as well as the taxpayers.

    • Carolyn Classen

      Yes, it is inconsistent for the State of Arizona to keep those rest stops closed on the I-10, and for the Governor to announce on Friday that news about a Centennial Museum.  Time will tell if this proposed museum reaches fruition by 2012. Thanks for commenting Thomas D.

      • Dick Zimmermann

        The Governor’s plan is a disaster.  The State mandates science instruction requirements and the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum currently helps teachers meet those requirements.   In effect, the Governor is saying history trumps science in education.  That is not good for the future economy of Arizona.

  • Thomas D.

    Thank you for the update. I went to the Governor’s website and checked it out further. Looks like the Mineral Museum is no more. They will use the building for these “new” exhibits. The exhibits are about the five “C”‘s Copper, cattle, etc. Its an old, old style of looking at Az History. The web site said that no tax money will be used. Well that settles it, it will be a huge success!!! LOL So what private money is there out there.? We can’t even keep the State Parks open but we get this boondoggle.

  • Thomas D.

    Carolynn:

    If you want to do something fun, why dont you contact the staff members of the Mining and Mineral Museum. They learned about this the same time the public did. This will be such a failure it will be funny.

  • Dick Zimmermann

    The Governor is moving in quickly for the kill.  The bill authorizing the closing of the mineral museum is  HR2617. The hearing is scheduled for 2:00 PM on Monday the 22. (Arizona law has to be changed to eliminate the historic educational facility began before statehood)

  • Raymond Grant

    The Centennial does present an opportunity to do some exciting things in Arizona. But one of them should not be to replace the really great Mining and Mineral Museum with another museum at a cost of 5 to 9 million dollars as proposed by the Governor. It had about 50,000 visitors last year. Why spend millions to replace it? There are many vacant buildings downtown and one of those could be a 5C Museum perhaps at a more reasonable cost and then we would have two great Museums.

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