Favorite Fun Facts

So I don't know if you know this about me, but I kinda love pieces of information, trivial tidbits, knowledgeable knowhow...in other words little known facts.

In honor of Arizona's centennial, I have decided to post my 10 favorite facts about Arizona as found at az100years.org. The site posted 100 facts - and I of course read them all - but some of them aren't that fun or fascinating and therefore did not make my top 10.

Since it is president's day I will start with this one:

1) In 1912, President William Howard Taft was ready to make Arizona a state on February 12, but it was Lincoln’s birthday. The next day, the 13th, was considered bad luck so they waited until the following day. That’s how Arizona became known as the “Valentine State.”

2) Santa Cruz County (1,237 sq. miles) is the smallest of Arizona’s 15 counties, but is larger than more than 72 countries.

AND

3) The state of Massachusetts could fit inside Maricopa County (9,922 sq. miles).

AND

4) All New England, plus the state of Pennsylvania would fit inside Arizona.

5) Arizona has 3,928 mountain peaks and summits—more mountains than any one of the other Mountain States (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming).
This reminds me of a comment Grandma said once about visiting Oklahoma and having a gentleman tell her she must be so excited to see real mountains. She laughed and said 'oh, I don't think you can go anywhere in Arizona and not see a mountain'

6) Arizona grows enough cotton each year to make more than one pair of jeans for every person in the United States

AND

7) Yuma, Arizona is the country’s highest producer of winter vegetables, especially lettuce

8) Jerome, Arizona was named for Eugene Jerome of New York City, who never visited the town

9) More copper is mined in Arizona than all the other states combined, and the Morenci Mine is the largest copper producer in all of North America

10) Arizona has the largest contiguous stand of ponderosa pines in the world stretching from near Flagstaff along the Mogollon Rim to the White Mountains region.


Now for a few of the LEAST fun or fascinating facts - can some of these even be considered 'facts about Arizona'?

1) Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, two of the most prominent movie stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, were married on March 18, 1939, in Kingman, Arizona.

2) The world’s largest to-scale collection of miniature airplane models is housed at the library at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.

3) Many of the founders of San Francisco in 1776 were Spanish colonists from Tubac, Arizona.

4) The world’s tallest Kachina doll, measuring 39 feet tall and fashioned of concrete, is located in Carefree, Arizona.

5) World War II brought many military personnel to train at Luke and Thunderbird airbases in Glendale.