WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.560 You know, when you step off a plane in Phoenix 00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:05.639 today, it honestly hits you like a physical wall. 00:00:05.740 --> 00:00:09.160 Oh, absolutely. Like that intense, just completely 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:12.140 dry heat. It immediately pulls the moisture right 00:00:12.140 --> 00:00:14.080 out of your skin. Yeah, you feel it instantly. 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:16.179 But then almost instantly, you walk through these 00:00:16.179 --> 00:00:19.679 sliding glass doors and boom, you are hit by 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:23.379 this blast of artificial freezing air conditioning. 00:00:23.579 --> 00:00:26.480 It's quite the contrast. It really is. And, you 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:28.760 know, you look out the window as you drive and 00:00:28.760 --> 00:00:32.299 there are sprawling green lawns, these massive 00:00:32.299 --> 00:00:35.200 blue swimming pools and just endless ribbons 00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:40.340 of concrete highway. It feels It feels so incredibly 00:00:40.340 --> 00:00:42.320 permanent. Right, right. Like we've totally conquered 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:44.560 the desert. Well, it definitely projects this 00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:47.219 illusion of ultimate control. You know, we look 00:00:47.219 --> 00:00:49.280 at all that modern infrastructure and we just 00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:51.359 assume we've taken one of the most unforgiving 00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:54.560 volatile landscapes in North America and essentially, 00:00:54.619 --> 00:00:57.320 well, paved over its harshness. Yeah. But if 00:00:57.320 --> 00:00:59.240 you actually look at the historical record, that 00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:02.240 control is... incredibly fragile. And that fragility 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:04.840 is exactly what we're getting into today. Welcome 00:01:04.840 --> 00:01:07.540 to the deep dive. Glad to be here. So we're taking 00:01:07.540 --> 00:01:10.599 a comprehensive historical overview of Arizona 00:01:10.599 --> 00:01:13.180 sourced directly from its Wikipedia history. 00:01:13.379 --> 00:01:15.920 And we've tailored it just for you, our listener. 00:01:16.060 --> 00:01:18.519 It's a wild ride. It really is. Our mission today 00:01:18.519 --> 00:01:20.900 is not to just, you know, rattle off a timeline 00:01:20.900 --> 00:01:23.340 of dusty dates and treaties. No, definitely not. 00:01:23.579 --> 00:01:26.980 We are exploring the epic relentless battle of 00:01:26.980 --> 00:01:29.459 human adaptation. We're looking at how people 00:01:29.459 --> 00:01:32.319 have constantly fought, engineered, and adapted 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:36.079 to try and survive in an environment that is 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:38.299 honestly constantly trying to push them out. 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:40.939 Yeah, that tension is the defining story of the 00:01:40.939 --> 00:01:43.390 region. I mean, the absolute limits of the natural 00:01:43.390 --> 00:01:47.109 world are constantly colliding with the boundless 00:01:47.109 --> 00:01:50.329 ambition of human engineering. Exactly. It is 00:01:50.329 --> 00:01:52.810 a dynamic that shapes literally everything in 00:01:52.810 --> 00:01:55.709 this territory from the earliest ancient indigenous 00:01:55.709 --> 00:01:58.530 cultures all the way up to our modern geopolitical 00:01:58.530 --> 00:02:01.109 crises. OK, let's unpack this. Because to really 00:02:01.109 --> 00:02:03.590 grasp modern Arizona, you have to go back long 00:02:03.590 --> 00:02:06.659 before the Wild West. Right. Way back. Long before 00:02:06.659 --> 00:02:08.639 the air conditioned retirement communities, you 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:12.300 know, I'm looking at our sources and human habitation 00:02:12.300 --> 00:02:15.659 here starts in the deep past. So who were the 00:02:15.659 --> 00:02:18.719 very first people trying to survive out there? 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:22.740 Well, we're talking 10 to 12000 years ago during 00:02:22.740 --> 00:02:25.860 what historians call the Paleo Indian period. 00:02:25.919 --> 00:02:29.580 OK. And to picture this, you have to imagine 00:02:29.580 --> 00:02:34.219 standing in what is now a desert. But back then, 00:02:34.219 --> 00:02:39.120 it was More of a vast grassland dotted with ancient 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:41.759 swamps and rivers swamps in Arizona. That's wild. 00:02:41.860 --> 00:02:44.419 Yeah And the people living there, they were tracking 00:02:44.419 --> 00:02:47.020 megafauna. Megafauna. I mean, just the word sounds 00:02:47.020 --> 00:02:48.860 intimidating. What are we actually talking about 00:02:48.860 --> 00:02:51.360 here? Giant animals, like they were hunting literal 00:02:51.360 --> 00:02:53.960 mammoths and mastodons. Wow. Yeah, these were 00:02:53.960 --> 00:02:56.259 highly mobile bands of extended families, maybe 00:02:56.259 --> 00:02:59.319 20 to 50 people using specialized stone tools 00:02:59.319 --> 00:03:01.479 to take on animals that were, you know, exponentially 00:03:01.479 --> 00:03:03.520 larger than them. That takes some serious skill. 00:03:03.620 --> 00:03:06.340 They were incredibly efficient hunters. But as 00:03:06.340 --> 00:03:09.020 we'll see repeatedly in this deep dive, the environment 00:03:09.020 --> 00:03:12.340 is the ultimate dictator of history. Right. of 00:03:12.340 --> 00:03:16.080 intense hunting and a rapid natural climate change 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:19.500 caused those big game populations to just drastically 00:03:19.500 --> 00:03:22.439 diminish. It honestly reminds me of like a technology 00:03:22.439 --> 00:03:25.659 tree in a survival video game. Oh, how so? Well, 00:03:25.740 --> 00:03:28.139 you know... You start out the game with these 00:03:28.139 --> 00:03:30.419 basic hunting skills. You're tracking mammoths. 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:32.919 But when the climate patch drops, making your 00:03:32.919 --> 00:03:35.639 environment significantly hotter and drier, all 00:03:35.639 --> 00:03:38.120 your megafauna disappear. Right. The game changes. 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:40.620 Exactly. You can't just keep hunting mammoths 00:03:40.620 --> 00:03:42.879 as if there aren't any left. You have to essentially 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:45.939 unlock new technologies just to stay alive in 00:03:45.939 --> 00:03:48.379 the game. That is a perfect way to put it. And 00:03:48.379 --> 00:03:50.759 that transition is what we call the archaic period. 00:03:50.819 --> 00:03:53.539 OK. And the major technological unlock you're 00:03:53.539 --> 00:03:56.039 talking about happened around 3 ,500 years ago. 00:03:56.080 --> 00:03:58.039 Which was agriculture, right? Yes, agriculture. 00:03:58.759 --> 00:04:00.919 Specifically, the introduction of corn, which 00:04:00.919 --> 00:04:03.680 made its way up from central Mexico. Shifting 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:06.240 from chasing wild game to cultivating calories 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:09.360 entirely changed how humans interacted with the 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:11.520 land. It changes everything. It really does. 00:04:11.539 --> 00:04:14.099 It allowed for a massive population boom and 00:04:14.099 --> 00:04:16.769 the rise of truly monumental cultures. Yeah, 00:04:17.009 --> 00:04:19.329 I see names in the sources like the ancestral 00:04:19.329 --> 00:04:22.850 Pueblons, the Mogollon, and the Senagua. I've 00:04:22.850 --> 00:04:26.129 heard those names, but what does unlocking agriculture 00:04:26.129 --> 00:04:28.870 actually allow them to build? Like, what does 00:04:28.870 --> 00:04:31.029 their society look like? It looks incredibly 00:04:31.029 --> 00:04:34.029 sophisticated. The ancestral Pueblons, for instance, 00:04:34.449 --> 00:04:36.550 possess this advanced knowledge of celestial 00:04:36.550 --> 00:04:39.089 science, aligning their architecture with solar 00:04:39.089 --> 00:04:42.069 and lunar cycles. Yeah, and they built these 00:04:42.069 --> 00:04:45.050 massive multi -story cliff dwellings tucked into 00:04:45.050 --> 00:04:48.430 the sheer rock faces of canyons. And right at 00:04:48.430 --> 00:04:49.990 the center of their communities they constructed 00:04:49.990 --> 00:04:52.910 kivas. What exactly is a kiva? Imagine a large 00:04:52.910 --> 00:04:55.910 subterranean circular room. Okay. You climb down 00:04:55.910 --> 00:04:57.689 a ladder through a hole in the roof into this 00:04:57.689 --> 00:05:01.290 cool enclosed space. It served as the spiritual, 00:05:01.529 --> 00:05:03.689 ceremonial, and political heartbeat of the community. 00:05:03.829 --> 00:05:06.269 That sounds incredible. It was. They were building 00:05:06.269 --> 00:05:09.069 these intricate congregational spaces while surviving 00:05:09.069 --> 00:05:11.269 in a harsh climate. But if we are talking about 00:05:11.269 --> 00:05:13.129 really engineering the desert, we have to look 00:05:13.129 --> 00:05:16.290 at the Hohokam. Yeah, the Hohokam are just mind 00:05:16.290 --> 00:05:18.170 -blowing to me. Our sources say they didn't just 00:05:18.170 --> 00:05:21.009 survive. They built entire towns with public 00:05:21.009 --> 00:05:23.949 ball courts and walled courtyards. How do you 00:05:23.949 --> 00:05:26.689 sustain that level of urban density in a desert? 00:05:27.209 --> 00:05:29.730 Well, what's fascinating here is the sheer scale 00:05:29.730 --> 00:05:32.470 of their terraforming. They weren't just passively 00:05:32.470 --> 00:05:35.689 existing out there. They built hundreds of miles 00:05:35.689 --> 00:05:38.750 of complex irrigation canals. Hundreds of miles? 00:05:38.889 --> 00:05:41.310 Hundreds. And remember, they did this without 00:05:41.310 --> 00:05:44.610 metal tools. Wait, really? No metal tools, without 00:05:44.610 --> 00:05:47.610 wheels, and without beasts of burden. Just by 00:05:47.610 --> 00:05:50.129 hand? Exactly. They were digging these trenches 00:05:50.129 --> 00:05:53.209 by hand with wooden sticks and stone, moving 00:05:53.209 --> 00:05:56.250 thousands of tons of dirt and calculating the 00:05:56.250 --> 00:05:58.889 exact gradient needed to make water flow smoothly 00:05:58.889 --> 00:06:01.699 across miles of desert. That is just wow. They 00:06:01.699 --> 00:06:04.639 sustain dozens to thousands of people in monumental 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:06.959 stone structures. But then comes the really chilling 00:06:06.959 --> 00:06:08.980 part of the timeline, I think, because in the 00:06:08.980 --> 00:06:12.500 15th and 16th centuries, these massive interconnected 00:06:12.500 --> 00:06:15.439 civilizations mysteriously disappear. Yeah, they 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:17.800 do. They just vanish, leaving behind countless 00:06:17.800 --> 00:06:20.480 ruins and empty canals. It's a stark reminder, 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:23.379 honestly. You can build the most advanced society 00:06:23.379 --> 00:06:25.819 around, you can master the hydrology, but the 00:06:25.819 --> 00:06:28.139 desert always gets a vote. The desert always 00:06:28.139 --> 00:06:30.420 gets a vote. I like that. And when it decides 00:06:30.420 --> 00:06:33.639 to change, whether through prolonged mega droughts 00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:36.519 or resource depletion, the margins for human 00:06:36.519 --> 00:06:40.439 error are basically zero. Because those monumental 00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:43.839 ancient civilizations faded, it leaves this immense, 00:06:44.139 --> 00:06:47.399 harsh landscape seemingly open. And that primes 00:06:47.399 --> 00:06:51.220 the region for a completely new era. So who rushes 00:06:51.220 --> 00:06:53.500 in to fill that void? Well, you see a parade 00:06:53.500 --> 00:06:55.720 of empires attempt to claim it. The Spanish. 00:06:55.959 --> 00:06:57.899 then the Mexicans, and eventually the Americans. 00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:00.420 But notice the fundamental shift in mindset here. 00:07:00.600 --> 00:07:02.620 OK, what kind of shift? For the ancient cultures 00:07:02.620 --> 00:07:05.180 we just discussed, this was a homeland to be 00:07:05.180 --> 00:07:07.759 nurtured and deeply understood. But for the European 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:10.420 and American empires arriving later, the desert 00:07:10.420 --> 00:07:12.800 was initially viewed as an obstacle. Just something 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:14.920 in the way. Right. It was considered a strategic 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:16.939 transit route, a buffer zone to protect more 00:07:16.939 --> 00:07:19.339 valuable assets rather than a place to actually 00:07:19.339 --> 00:07:21.670 settle down and build a life. You see that transit 00:07:21.670 --> 00:07:24.689 mindset perfectly with the Spanish in the 1680s. 00:07:24.930 --> 00:07:27.269 Father Eusebio Aquino establishes these remote 00:07:27.269 --> 00:07:29.610 missions along the rivers and later the Spanish 00:07:29.610 --> 00:07:32.509 build presidios or forts in places like Tucson. 00:07:32.779 --> 00:07:35.339 Exactly. They aren't building massive cities. 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:38.319 They're just trying to maintain tenuous footholds. 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:41.339 And then following Mexican independence, the 00:07:41.339 --> 00:07:43.819 United States swoops in. Right. After the Mexican 00:07:43.819 --> 00:07:46.839 -American War in 1848. Yeah. The U .S. claims 00:07:46.839 --> 00:07:49.360 the northern 70 percent of modern Arizona. But 00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:51.240 I have a question about what happens next. Sure. 00:07:51.500 --> 00:07:54.819 Just five years later. In 1853, the U .S. goes 00:07:54.819 --> 00:07:57.120 back to Mexico for the Gadsden purchase to buy 00:07:57.120 --> 00:08:00.060 the southern strip. Wait, why did the U .S. want 00:08:00.060 --> 00:08:02.279 to buy the southern strip of a brutal desert 00:08:02.279 --> 00:08:04.680 in the Gadsden purchase? It all comes down to 00:08:04.680 --> 00:08:07.060 topography. Really? Yeah. The U .S. didn't want 00:08:07.060 --> 00:08:09.259 that southern land for farming or for building 00:08:09.259 --> 00:08:11.019 settlements. They bought it strictly because 00:08:11.019 --> 00:08:13.680 the landscape there offered a relatively flat, 00:08:13.860 --> 00:08:15.980 snow -free route to build a transcontinental 00:08:15.980 --> 00:08:19.240 railroad connecting Yuma to El Paso. Oh, so it 00:08:19.240 --> 00:08:22.500 was just about the trains. Entirely. The entire 00:08:22.500 --> 00:08:24.720 geopolitical maneuver was about moving through 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:26.680 the territory as quickly as possible, not living 00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:29.500 in it. And when you view a landscape purely as 00:08:29.500 --> 00:08:32.879 a strategic corridor, it leads to some incredibly 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:35.259 dark chapters, especially when the American Civil 00:08:35.259 --> 00:08:38.039 War breaks out. It really does. Because the territories 00:08:38.039 --> 00:08:41.299 literally split in half. You have secessionists 00:08:41.299 --> 00:08:44.779 establishing a Confederate Tucson and Union troops 00:08:44.779 --> 00:08:47.419 marching in from California. They even fought 00:08:47.419 --> 00:08:50.059 a battle, the Battle of Picacho Pass out in the 00:08:50.059 --> 00:08:52.840 desert dust. They did, but... You know, while 00:08:52.840 --> 00:08:54.759 the Civil War skirmishes get a lot of attention, 00:08:55.419 --> 00:08:57.700 the true devastation of this era fell on the 00:08:57.700 --> 00:08:59.700 Native Americans who actually called this land 00:08:59.700 --> 00:09:02.580 home. Yeah. To secure these transit routes, the 00:09:02.580 --> 00:09:05.220 U .S. military built a series of outposts, like 00:09:05.220 --> 00:09:08.179 Freq Defiance, strictly to control and pacify 00:09:08.179 --> 00:09:11.019 the indigenous populations. And the tactics they 00:09:11.019 --> 00:09:13.639 used were just... absolute warfare. Looking at 00:09:13.639 --> 00:09:16.200 the sources, warfare almost feels like an understatement. 00:09:16.620 --> 00:09:18.779 You have Colonel Kit Carson unleashing scorched 00:09:18.779 --> 00:09:20.740 earth tactics against the Navajo. What does scorched 00:09:20.740 --> 00:09:23.419 earth even look like in a desert ecosystem? It 00:09:23.419 --> 00:09:26.960 means total systemic destruction. Carson's troops 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:29.720 weren't just fighting warriors. They were destroying 00:09:29.720 --> 00:09:32.779 the Navajos' ability to exist. That's horrifying. 00:09:32.919 --> 00:09:34.980 They burned thousands of ancient peach orchards. 00:09:35.399 --> 00:09:37.960 They slaughtered livestock. They poisoned precious 00:09:37.960 --> 00:09:40.779 water wells. They systematically starved the 00:09:40.779 --> 00:09:42.899 population into submission. Which culminated 00:09:42.899 --> 00:09:46.080 in the long walk. Yes. Roughly 9 ,000 Navajos 00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:48.559 were forced to march hundreds of miles at gunpoint 00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:51.559 to a reservation at Bosque Redondo in New Mexico. 00:09:51.820 --> 00:09:53.700 And that reservation was a complete disaster, 00:09:53.799 --> 00:09:56.610 wasn't it? A complete failure. The soil was highly 00:09:56.610 --> 00:09:58.909 alkaline and wouldn't grow crops. The water was 00:09:58.909 --> 00:10:02.409 brackish and disease ran rampant. It was an atrocity 00:10:02.409 --> 00:10:05.129 born of poor planning and immense cruelty. Right. 00:10:05.549 --> 00:10:07.970 So the American era in Arizona didn't begin with 00:10:07.970 --> 00:10:10.870 a peaceful pioneer settling of the land. It began 00:10:10.870 --> 00:10:14.029 with aggressive militarized attempts to control 00:10:14.029 --> 00:10:16.590 movement across the landscape and subjugate the 00:10:16.590 --> 00:10:18.399 people who had mastered surviving there. But 00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:20.659 at a certain point, that mentality has to shift, 00:10:20.820 --> 00:10:22.759 right? When do people stop looking at Arizona 00:10:22.759 --> 00:10:24.940 as a place to just pass through and start looking 00:10:24.940 --> 00:10:27.559 at it as a destination? That pivot happens in 00:10:27.559 --> 00:10:30.120 the 1880s, when the railroads finally arrive 00:10:30.120 --> 00:10:33.000 in force. The infrastructure is there, and the 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:35.700 mindset flips completely from transit to extraction. 00:10:35.860 --> 00:10:38.039 Ah, extraction. Suddenly, it's not about how 00:10:38.039 --> 00:10:40.220 fast you can get through Arizona. It's about 00:10:40.220 --> 00:10:43.519 what you can dig up, cut down, or graze upon. 00:10:44.299 --> 00:10:47.669 This brings us to the boom towns. The sources 00:10:47.669 --> 00:10:50.330 highlight a massive cattle boom starting in the 00:10:50.330 --> 00:10:53.350 1870s. You have Texans bringing their massive 00:10:53.350 --> 00:10:57.090 herds and open range methods west. But does a 00:10:57.090 --> 00:11:00.269 delicate desert ecosystem actually support millions 00:11:00.269 --> 00:11:02.789 of grazing cattle? It absolutely does not. I 00:11:02.789 --> 00:11:04.950 didn't think so. Yeah, the ecological mechanisms 00:11:04.950 --> 00:11:08.029 of the desert are just too slow to recover. Inexperienced 00:11:08.029 --> 00:11:10.190 ranch management led to severe overstocking. 00:11:10.240 --> 00:11:12.700 The cattle ate the native grasses down to the 00:11:12.700 --> 00:11:15.320 roots, which destroyed the topsoil. So it's basically 00:11:15.320 --> 00:11:18.799 a ticking time bomb. Exactly. So when a devastating 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:22.220 drought hit in 1891, the ecosystem just collapsed. 00:11:22.679 --> 00:11:24.820 Over half the herds starved to death and the 00:11:24.820 --> 00:11:26.919 rains land was turned into blowing dust. It was 00:11:26.919 --> 00:11:30.840 an ecological disaster so profound that the federal 00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:33.220 government eventually had to step in with the 00:11:33.220 --> 00:11:35.809 Taylor Grazing Act. which strictly regulated 00:11:35.809 --> 00:11:38.509 who could graze animals on public lands just 00:11:38.509 --> 00:11:41.009 to prevent the complete desertification of the 00:11:41.009 --> 00:11:43.509 territory. So the surface of the land is literally 00:11:43.509 --> 00:11:46.429 dying from drought and overgrazing. Was there 00:11:46.429 --> 00:11:49.210 any other way to make money or did the territory 00:11:49.210 --> 00:11:51.570 just go broke? They looked beneath the ground. 00:11:51.690 --> 00:11:54.899 Mining. Exactly. While the cattle industry busted, 00:11:55.440 --> 00:11:58.120 the copper boom exploded in places like Jerome 00:11:58.120 --> 00:12:01.480 and Bisbee. The entire United States is electrifying 00:12:01.480 --> 00:12:04.179 at this exact moment telegraphs, telephones, 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:06.659 electric lighting, and they desperately need 00:12:06.659 --> 00:12:09.899 copper wire. So the money just pours in? Massive 00:12:09.899 --> 00:12:12.379 corporate money floods into the territory. You 00:12:12.379 --> 00:12:14.850 also have silver strikes. like in Tombstone in 00:12:14.850 --> 00:12:17.809 1877, which spawned a boomtown of 10 ,000 people 00:12:17.809 --> 00:12:19.470 almost overnight. Here's where it gets really 00:12:19.470 --> 00:12:21.269 interesting, because when I think of Tombstone, 00:12:21.509 --> 00:12:24.370 I immediately picture John Wayne. I picture Wyatt 00:12:24.370 --> 00:12:27.549 Earp, his brothers, the gunfight at the OK Corral. 00:12:28.070 --> 00:12:30.570 Hollywood made an absolute fortune packaging 00:12:30.570 --> 00:12:34.110 this as a stark, lawless, black -and -white morality 00:12:34.110 --> 00:12:38.129 tale of cowboys and outlaws. Was it really just 00:12:38.129 --> 00:12:40.879 lawless cowboys running these towns? The Hollywood 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:43.840 version is incredibly sanitized. The reality 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:46.100 of the Arizona frontier was highly corporate, 00:12:46.820 --> 00:12:50.059 fiercely opportunistic and demographically complex. 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:52.059 OK, let's talk about Jenny Botters, for example. 00:12:52.659 --> 00:12:55.000 Our sources show she operated brothels in the 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:58.340 territory from 1896 to 1905. Right. But if you 00:12:58.340 --> 00:13:00.299 look closely at the historical record, you shouldn't 00:13:00.299 --> 00:13:02.299 picture a saloon girl from a movie. You should 00:13:02.299 --> 00:13:05.379 picture a ruthless modern real estate mogul who 00:13:05.379 --> 00:13:07.519 just happened to use brothels for her cash flow. 00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:09.899 She was brilliant. She was an astoundingly sharp 00:13:09.899 --> 00:13:12.799 businesswoman. She understood real estate appreciation. 00:13:13.220 --> 00:13:15.820 She actively manipulated town councils to adjust 00:13:15.820 --> 00:13:18.779 taxes. And she fought restrictive zoning ordinances 00:13:18.779 --> 00:13:21.639 in Jerome. She was a major economic power player 00:13:21.639 --> 00:13:23.639 in the region before she was tragically murdered. 00:13:24.139 --> 00:13:27.179 She represents the true unvarnished opportunistic 00:13:27.179 --> 00:13:30.279 spirit of the boon towns. And you see that complexity 00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:33.210 in the demographics too. When the Southern Pacific 00:13:33.210 --> 00:13:36.309 Railroad arrived in Tucson in 1880, it brought 00:13:36.309 --> 00:13:38.590 a significant Chinese population who had been 00:13:38.590 --> 00:13:40.789 working on the tracks. And they stayed. They 00:13:40.789 --> 00:13:42.570 didn't just leave when the work was done. They 00:13:42.570 --> 00:13:45.669 built a thriving community with laundries, groceries, 00:13:45.830 --> 00:13:47.870 and restaurants. Did they isolate themselves 00:13:47.870 --> 00:13:50.110 in these towns? To take it a step further, they 00:13:50.110 --> 00:13:52.830 actively integrated. The Chinese merchants and 00:13:52.830 --> 00:13:55.570 farmers formed what are known as Guangxi. Wait, 00:13:55.590 --> 00:13:58.509 what is that? Guangxi. These are deep, traditional 00:13:58.509 --> 00:14:01.820 networks of friendship, trust, and mutual obligation. 00:14:02.100 --> 00:14:04.799 They formed these with the local Mexican populations. 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:07.279 Oh, that's really interesting. They leased agricultural 00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:09.460 land from Mexican owners. They helped each other 00:14:09.460 --> 00:14:12.200 navigate the complex racial borders of the territory. 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:15.480 And successful Chinese merchants in Tucson even 00:14:15.480 --> 00:14:18.299 secured lucrative contracts to supply General 00:14:18.299 --> 00:14:21.179 John Pershing's army. Wow. So they were highly 00:14:21.179 --> 00:14:25.500 connected. Yes. This deep cross -cultural integration 00:14:25.500 --> 00:14:28.799 completely shatters that traditional Wild West 00:14:28.799 --> 00:14:32.039 myth. It was a highly integrated frontier society 00:14:32.039 --> 00:14:34.919 built on mutual survival. But you can't sustain 00:14:34.919 --> 00:14:39.340 these wild, exploding, diverse boom towns in 00:14:39.340 --> 00:14:42.759 the middle of a desert without massive centralized 00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:44.919 infrastructure. You need order. You need a formal 00:14:44.919 --> 00:14:48.019 government. You need engineering. And the story 00:14:48.019 --> 00:14:51.480 of Arizona getting its statehood in 1912 is honestly 00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:54.860 hilarious to me. It is a legendary geopolitical 00:14:54.860 --> 00:14:57.440 bait and switch. It perfectly encapsulates the 00:14:57.440 --> 00:14:59.230 stubborn independent streak of of the region. 00:14:59.649 --> 00:15:01.590 So Arizona wants to become a state, and they 00:15:01.590 --> 00:15:04.470 draft this super progressive state constitution. 00:15:04.830 --> 00:15:06.929 It includes things like the right for citizens 00:15:06.929 --> 00:15:09.309 to recall judges and the initiative process to 00:15:09.309 --> 00:15:11.450 bypass the legislature. Very progressive for 00:15:11.450 --> 00:15:13.750 the time. And the US Congress and President Taft 00:15:13.750 --> 00:15:15.909 look at it and say, absolutely not. This is way 00:15:15.909 --> 00:15:18.450 too radical. We are vetoing your statehood. So 00:15:18.450 --> 00:15:21.110 what do the Arizonans do? They capitulate. Nope. 00:15:21.370 --> 00:15:23.289 They literally sigh, cross out the progressive 00:15:23.289 --> 00:15:25.450 parts, hand the document back, and say, OK, fine. 00:15:25.509 --> 00:15:27.879 How about now? And it works. Congress approves 00:15:27.879 --> 00:15:30.539 it. President Taft signs the bill making them 00:15:30.539 --> 00:15:34.960 the 48th state on February 14, 1912. And then 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:37.580 the literal second they are officially a state 00:15:37.580 --> 00:15:40.460 with constitutional protections. Arizonans vote 00:15:40.460 --> 00:15:43.059 all those progressive provisions right back into 00:15:43.059 --> 00:15:45.519 their constitution. It's amazing. Including women's 00:15:45.519 --> 00:15:47.279 suffrage, by the way, which they passed eight 00:15:47.279 --> 00:15:49.460 full years before the rest of the country. I 00:15:49.460 --> 00:15:51.620 mean, imagine pulling off a think out of the 00:15:51.620 --> 00:15:54.220 federal government on that scale. It was brilliant 00:15:54.220 --> 00:15:57.029 political maneuvering. But once they had statehood, 00:15:57.429 --> 00:16:00.409 they faced a harsh reality. That ambition to 00:16:00.409 --> 00:16:03.850 grow required water. Always comes back to water. 00:16:04.149 --> 00:16:06.389 Always. And this defines the career of their 00:16:06.389 --> 00:16:09.330 first congressman, Carl Hayden. He's been a record 00:16:09.330 --> 00:16:12.529 56 years in Congress and his entire life's work 00:16:12.529 --> 00:16:15.429 was a 41 -year legislative battle to enact the 00:16:15.429 --> 00:16:18.309 Central Arizona Project. 41 years. He understood 00:16:18.309 --> 00:16:20.309 that to sustain a modern economy they had to 00:16:20.309 --> 00:16:22.730 engineer water delivery on a massive scale, moving 00:16:22.730 --> 00:16:25.250 it uphill across hundreds of miles of desert. 00:16:25.409 --> 00:16:27.870 And that thirst for massive engineering kicks 00:16:27.870 --> 00:16:30.350 into overdrive during the Great Depression. The 00:16:30.350 --> 00:16:32.409 federal government steps in and builds the Hoover 00:16:32.409 --> 00:16:35.279 Dam. A massive undertaking. It is a marvel of 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:38.039 concrete and willpower. And practically speaking, 00:16:38.279 --> 00:16:41.399 it operationalized a legal compact that secured 00:16:41.399 --> 00:16:44.460 19 percent of the mighty Colorado River's water 00:16:44.460 --> 00:16:47.120 exclusively for Arizona. And we connect this 00:16:47.120 --> 00:16:50.080 to the bigger picture. The Great Depression and 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:52.539 World War Two were the ultimate catalysts for 00:16:52.539 --> 00:16:55.039 modern Arizona. How so? The federal government 00:16:55.039 --> 00:16:57.080 essentially bankrolled the taming of the desert. 00:16:57.419 --> 00:17:00.940 Because Arizona had incredibly clear skies and 00:17:00.940 --> 00:17:03.960 cheap, vast expanses of land, the military built 00:17:03.960 --> 00:17:06.420 massive training bases all over the state. Places 00:17:06.420 --> 00:17:08.920 like Davis -Monthan Field in Tucson, which trained 00:17:08.920 --> 00:17:12.039 bomber pilots, and Fort Huachuca, which was expanded 00:17:12.039 --> 00:17:15.359 specifically to house 24 ,000 predominantly black 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:18.420 soldiers from the 92nd and 93rd Infantry Divisions. 00:17:18.539 --> 00:17:20.599 Exactly. And the mobilization wasn't just on 00:17:20.599 --> 00:17:23.220 the bases. The home front transformed entirely. 00:17:23.680 --> 00:17:25.940 You had Mexican -American women organizing the 00:17:25.940 --> 00:17:28.180 Spanish -American Mother and Wives Association, 00:17:28.680 --> 00:17:31.220 raising thousands of dollars, selling war bonds, 00:17:31.660 --> 00:17:33.740 and reinforcing their vital cultural role while 00:17:33.740 --> 00:17:35.980 supporting the troops. The war fundamentally 00:17:35.980 --> 00:17:38.779 industrialized the state. High -tech manufacturing 00:17:38.779 --> 00:17:41.059 firms moved in to support the military supply 00:17:41.059 --> 00:17:43.680 chains, and after the war, they decided to stay. 00:17:43.799 --> 00:17:47.339 Right. So as we enter the post -war era, you 00:17:47.339 --> 00:17:50.000 have this incredibly potent combination. You 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:53.019 have massive federal water projects, widespread 00:17:53.019 --> 00:17:56.259 electrification, a new industrial base, and most 00:17:56.259 --> 00:17:59.119 importantly, a new consumer technology that changed 00:17:59.119 --> 00:18:02.630 everything. Air conditioning. Affordable residential 00:18:02.630 --> 00:18:04.750 air conditioning, yes. Which brings us to the 00:18:04.750 --> 00:18:07.829 creation of the modern artificial oasis. The 00:18:07.829 --> 00:18:09.990 population growth numbers in our sources are 00:18:09.990 --> 00:18:13.630 staggering. In 1950, Arizona had about 700 ,000 00:18:13.630 --> 00:18:17.069 people. By the year 2000, it had exploded to 00:18:17.069 --> 00:18:20.609 over 5 million. And a huge driver of this demographic 00:18:20.609 --> 00:18:23.450 shift was the invention of a brand new real estate 00:18:23.450 --> 00:18:25.970 concept. the modern retirement community. In 00:18:25.970 --> 00:18:28.869 1960, a developer named Del Webb opened Sun City 00:18:28.869 --> 00:18:31.849 near Phoenix. It was a gated utopia designed 00:18:31.849 --> 00:18:34.009 specifically for active adults. Right, I've heard 00:18:34.009 --> 00:18:37.109 of it. It featured golf courses, recreation centers, 00:18:37.269 --> 00:18:41.069 and crucially, no schools. They literally engineered 00:18:41.069 --> 00:18:44.230 a lifestyle to attract pensions, savings, and 00:18:44.230 --> 00:18:46.950 retirees from the freezing Northeast and Midwest, 00:18:47.490 --> 00:18:49.630 promising them endless summers in air -conditioned 00:18:49.630 --> 00:18:52.029 comfort. So what does this all mean for the environment? 00:18:52.269 --> 00:18:54.789 You cannot explode a population by millions in 00:18:54.789 --> 00:18:57.349 a desert without facing severe systemic crises. 00:18:57.930 --> 00:18:59.849 Look at the water statistics leading up to the 00:18:59.849 --> 00:19:02.890 1980 Groundwater Management Act. They're pretty 00:19:02.890 --> 00:19:05.289 shocking. According to our sources, at that time, 00:19:05.589 --> 00:19:08.410 agriculture was consuming 89 % of the state's 00:19:08.410 --> 00:19:11.509 strictly limited water supply. 89%. While generating 00:19:11.509 --> 00:19:14.849 only 3 % of the state's economic income. It is 00:19:14.849 --> 00:19:17.710 an absolute absurdity to use nearly 90 % of your 00:19:17.710 --> 00:19:20.589 most precious scarce resource for just 3 % of 00:19:20.589 --> 00:19:22.589 your output. Yeah, the math does it. It forced 00:19:22.589 --> 00:19:24.710 the state to pass laws that led to a massive 00:19:24.710 --> 00:19:27.230 decline in the heavily subsidized cotton industry, 00:19:27.789 --> 00:19:30.190 just so the rapidly growing cities wouldn't literally 00:19:30.190 --> 00:19:33.029 run dry. And it isn't just the invisible aquifers, 00:19:33.150 --> 00:19:35.150 you know. The environment on the surface pushes 00:19:35.150 --> 00:19:38.029 back violently, too. The logistics of living 00:19:38.029 --> 00:19:40.509 in this extreme terrain come with a heavy cost. 00:19:40.849 --> 00:19:43.430 We saw this tragically in 2013 with the Yarnell 00:19:43.430 --> 00:19:46.529 Hill fire. Because of the complex microclimates 00:19:46.529 --> 00:19:49.849 and erratic high -speed desert winds, a wildfire 00:19:49.849 --> 00:19:52.569 rapidly changed direction and trapped 19 members 00:19:52.569 --> 00:19:54.569 of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. That was such 00:19:54.569 --> 00:19:58.289 a tragedy. All 19 firefighters were killed. The 00:19:58.289 --> 00:20:00.450 extreme, volatile nature of the landscape is 00:20:00.450 --> 00:20:03.049 always present, no matter how much concrete is 00:20:03.049 --> 00:20:06.039 poured. And those intense pressures. the extreme 00:20:06.039 --> 00:20:09.640 heat, the explosive population growth, the proximity 00:20:09.640 --> 00:20:12.599 to the international border, they inevitably 00:20:12.599 --> 00:20:15.680 boil over into political and social friction. 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:18.819 Definitely. Looking purely at the primary historical 00:20:18.819 --> 00:20:21.759 sources, you can track how these demographic 00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:25.099 shifts directly inform state policy. A clear 00:20:25.099 --> 00:20:27.339 example in the historical timeline is the passage 00:20:27.339 --> 00:20:29.940 of Senate Bill 1070 in 2010. Right. And I want 00:20:29.940 --> 00:20:32.869 to be clear to you, the listener, we are... Just 00:20:32.869 --> 00:20:34.750 looking at the historical facts here. We aren't 00:20:34.750 --> 00:20:36.529 taking any political sides. Just looking at what 00:20:36.529 --> 00:20:38.710 happened. Exactly. We're strictly reviewing the 00:20:38.710 --> 00:20:41.450 historical record. The massive population influx 00:20:41.450 --> 00:20:44.369 and the state's location made illegal immigration 00:20:44.369 --> 00:20:47.170 a prime concern for voters at that time. The 00:20:47.170 --> 00:20:50.529 resulting bill was, back then, the most thorough 00:20:50.700 --> 00:20:53.420 anti -illegal immigration measure in decades 00:20:53.420 --> 00:20:56.880 in the U .S. Analyzing it purely as a historical 00:20:56.880 --> 00:20:59.799 document, it is a direct reflection of the immense 00:20:59.799 --> 00:21:02.240 demographic pressures cooking in the state. And 00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:05.380 you see those same systemic limits tested to 00:21:05.380 --> 00:21:07.599 the absolute breaking point during the COVID 00:21:07.599 --> 00:21:10.519 -19 pandemic. The data from our sources notes 00:21:10.519 --> 00:21:13.819 that by July 8th, 2020, Arizona was reporting 00:21:13.819 --> 00:21:17.460 as many new daily cases of COVID -19 as the entire 00:21:17.460 --> 00:21:19.960 European Union. That's a staggering statistic. 00:21:20.009 --> 00:21:21.950 And they were doing that with 1 -60th of the 00:21:21.950 --> 00:21:23.930 population. Again, just reporting the data here. 00:21:24.109 --> 00:21:26.430 Right. The virus exposed the deep vulnerabilities 00:21:26.430 --> 00:21:28.950 in the state's infrastructure. It took a particularly 00:21:28.950 --> 00:21:31.089 devastating toll on the Navajo Nation. Why was 00:21:31.089 --> 00:21:33.710 it so bad there? Well, the sheer logistics of 00:21:33.710 --> 00:21:36.150 surviving there. Systemic issues like a lack 00:21:36.150 --> 00:21:38.670 of indoor plumbing for hand washing, vast food 00:21:38.670 --> 00:21:41.130 deserts requiring long travel, and underfunded 00:21:41.130 --> 00:21:43.369 health infrastructure. All of that acted as a 00:21:43.369 --> 00:21:45.670 catalyst for the virus. It's heartbreaking. It 00:21:45.670 --> 00:21:47.869 demonstrates how incredibly vulnerable populations 00:21:47.869 --> 00:21:51.000 are. when a modern crisis hits an extreme environment. 00:21:51.400 --> 00:21:54.059 So to bring this all full circle, from the archaic 00:21:54.059 --> 00:21:57.059 period to the COVID -19 pandemic, the fundamental 00:21:57.059 --> 00:22:00.119 theme of Arizona has remained remarkably consistent. 00:22:00.700 --> 00:22:03.519 It is a place where rapid human growth and boundless 00:22:03.519 --> 00:22:07.079 ambition inevitably collide with harsh environmental 00:22:07.079 --> 00:22:09.859 and systemic limits. It's an incredible journey 00:22:09.859 --> 00:22:11.980 of adaptation, honestly. Think about what we've 00:22:11.980 --> 00:22:14.769 covered today. You followed the earliest people 00:22:14.769 --> 00:22:17.950 hunting mastodons with specialized stone tools. 00:22:18.609 --> 00:22:21.230 You've explored how the Hohokam moved mountains 00:22:21.230 --> 00:22:24.789 of dirt by hand to build intricate canals. You've 00:22:24.789 --> 00:22:27.230 walked through the violent drawing of borders, 00:22:27.769 --> 00:22:30.089 the ecological collapse of the cattle boom, and 00:22:30.089 --> 00:22:32.490 the real history of people like Jenny Bodders 00:22:32.490 --> 00:22:34.730 and the Chinese merchants forming networks of 00:22:34.730 --> 00:22:37.400 trust in Tucson. You've seen Arizonans fake out 00:22:37.400 --> 00:22:39.400 the federal government for statehood, and you've 00:22:39.400 --> 00:22:41.519 seen the building of the Hoover Dam and the explosive 00:22:41.519 --> 00:22:44.980 air -conditioned rise of Sun City. It is a profound 00:22:44.980 --> 00:22:47.380 testament to human ingenuity. But looking at 00:22:47.380 --> 00:22:50.539 this entire timeline raises a final crucial question 00:22:50.539 --> 00:22:52.539 for you to ponder. Oh, what's that? In our first 00:22:52.539 --> 00:22:54.819 section, we discussed how the ancient Holhocum 00:22:54.819 --> 00:22:58.039 civilization engineered hundreds of miles of 00:22:58.039 --> 00:23:01.380 canals, built massive, complex societies, and 00:23:01.380 --> 00:23:03.380 seemed to have completely mastered the desert. 00:23:03.519 --> 00:23:06.240 Right. They were thriving. Yet, when the environment 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:09.740 shifted, they still mysteriously vanished. Given 00:23:09.740 --> 00:23:12.539 modern Arizona's precarious balancing act with 00:23:12.539 --> 00:23:15.819 shrinking water supplies, extreme heat, and explosive 00:23:15.819 --> 00:23:18.779 population growth, are we absolutely sure that 00:23:18.779 --> 00:23:21.200 our modern concrete and air conditioning will 00:23:21.200 --> 00:23:23.839 permanently save us from the exact same fate? 00:23:23.980 --> 00:23:26.440 Oh, wow. That is a thought that will definitely 00:23:26.440 --> 00:23:28.140 stick with you the next time you step out of 00:23:28.140 --> 00:23:30.319 a freezing airport into that wall of desert heat. 00:23:31.279 --> 00:23:32.779 Thank you so much for joining us on this deep 00:23:32.779 --> 00:23:34.980 dive. Keep questioning the world around you, 00:23:35.059 --> 00:23:36.019 and we'll see you next time.