Everybody knows that February 14 is Valentine's Day, but Arizonans can celebrate something else today as well. On this day back in 1912, the state was admitted into the union.
Governor Doug Ducey issued a statement today in honor of Arizona Statehood Day: “On this day 110 years ago, President William Howard Taft made Arizona the 48th state of the Union. As he signed the Arizona Statehood Bill, President Taft said ‘I hope to see the valleys of the new state teeming with prosperity and afford homes to many thousands of people.'
Arizona was formerly part of the Territory of New Mexico. The U.S. acquired the region under the terms of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the 1853 Gadsden Purchase. It was a rural economy primarily based on cattle, cotton, citrus, and copper.
The ancestral Puebloan, Hohokam, Mogollon and Sinagua cultures inhabited the region long before statehood. Paleo-Indians settled in what is now Arizona about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.
Arizona is not the only state to celebrate the anniversary of their state's admission into the union on February 14. Oregon was made the 33rd state on Valentine's Day in 1859.