President William H. Taft signs Arizona into statehood, Feb 14, 1912. Photo courtesy Arizona Historical Society #17714
Statehood’s really got nothing on Tucson’s history. One hundred years is a drop in the bucket compared to the 4,000-plus-years this area has been occupied. But, there certainly have been some fascinating characters since Arizona was brought into the U.S. fold as the nation’s 48th state on February 14, 1912.
Zócalo’s coverage of the last century in Tucson is certainly not all encompassing. In fact, we didn’t include some major names and events. We’re just offering snapshots into the last ten decades, mostly focusing on Downtown. We’ll make it up in future issues. Drop me a line with what you’d like to see covered – Jamie@zocalotucson.com
We hope you enjoy learning about a few of Tucson’s scrappy characters. Some things never change. We’ll have to fill you in on how Tucson’s Centennial Celebrations came about for the weekend of Feb 10-12. But that’s a story for another time.
A big thank you to the ladies at the Arizona Historical Society Library: Kate, Alexandria, Jill (and the other ladies who’s names I missed, my apologies), for your patience and help as I sought out images for the February 2012 issue.
