This Valentine’s Day marked the 101st anniversary of Arizona gaining statehood. Numerous people don’t know too much about the state, and there are some very interesting things about this wondrous state.

Did you know that tourism and travel to Arizona started because of illnesses like Tuberculosis? It was said that the intense heat of the Arizona sun would help kill the viruses plaguing people, and so the very first hotels were built in Arizona specifically for keeping people trying to get better. These pricy hotels were called sanatoriums, and they brought mostly the wealthy.

Arizona is the location of some of the biggest events in Western American history. Geronimo led his people against the frontiersmen taking their land in the area around Skeleton Canyon, and the historic gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place in Tombstone, Arizona. There is also some very interesting history in towns within Arizona.

Jerome, a small town built on a mountain range, is filled with buildings held up by wooden boards. About half of the buildings seem extremely unstable, but people continue to live there. The town’s population dwindled to about 50 after their copper mines closed in 1953, and only 446 people live there today. Recently, the town has grown as a tourist site and the population is now around 400. Bisbee, known as the queen of the copper mines, was the largest city between Saint Louis and San Francisco in its heyday.

Despite the intense soul-shriveling heat, Arizona is a beautiful and fascinating place to live in, full of cool towns and great stories. This state has got a lot of history inside it, and there are a lot of cool places to see here. Arizona has played an important part in the growth of the West, and its history is interesting and cool to learn.