Arizona Fun Facts
Arizona’s flag has thirteen alternating rays across the top half representing the original 13 colonies of the United States. The rays show a setting sun to represent that Arizona is a western state. The rays are alternating red and yellow referring to the colors in the Spanish flags carried by the Spaniards when they first came to Arizona in 1540. The bottom half of the flag is the same color blue as the blue in the US flag and there is a copper star in the center of the flag referring to Arizona as the largest producer of copper in the US. The flag was designed by Col. Charles W. Harris in 1910 and adopted as the Arizona flag in 1917.
- Known as The Grand Canyon State
- 48th state in the United States
- Capital is Phoenix
- Abbreviation AZ
- Spanish explorers first arrived in the 1530s
- Was part of Mexico through the 1840s
- US gained control of the land after winning the Mexican-American War in 1848
- Arizona became a US territory in 1863 and then a state in 1912
- State flower – saguaro cactus blossom
- State bird – cactus wren
- State tree – palo verde
- Some of the animals that reside in Arizona: black bears, desert bighorn sheep, mountain lions, coatimundi, javelina, jaguarundi
- Some of the birds that reside in Arizona: raptors, California condors, falcons
- Some of the reptiles that reside in Arizona: gila monsters, ornate box turtles, desert tortoises, rattlesnakes
- Some of the plants and trees in Arizona: pinon pines, junipers, deserts, mesquite trees, flowering cacti, sagebrush, creosote bushes
- Natural resources: silver, gold, copper, lumber
