Arizona’s State Song – No, It’s Not That One by Mark Lindsay

Text of the 1919 bill naming "The Arizona March Song" our state anthem.

Text of the 1919 bill naming “The Arizona March Song” our state anthem.

200 years ago today, Francis Scott Key penned a four-stanza poem titled “Defense of Fort M’Henry.” a four-stanza poem that would later be set to music and retitled “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The first stanza of Key’s poem was quickly set to music using the tune of an eighteenth-century British number called “The Anacreontic Song,” and was renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner.” President Herbert Hoover signed a congressional resolution designating the song our nation anthem in 1931 — thus creating a challenge for all future amateur crooners selected to sing the musically complex song at baseball games and other public events.

While you’ll hear the national anthem at many types of public gatherings, you’re less likely to hear one of our two state songs. That’s right… two; one official state song and one alternate state song — neither of which are Mark Lindsay’s 1969 single.

Margaret Rowe Clifford wrote “The Arizona March Song” in 1915. The Arizona legislature selected Clifford’s prose, accompanied by the music of Maurice Blumenthal, as our state song in 1919. Not satisfied with just one state song, a legislature more than sixty years in the future chose Rex Allen, Jr.’s “Arizona” (often known as “I Love You, Arizona”) as our alternate state song. While Allen’s song is fairly well-known today, Clifford’s 1915 piece is rarely heard. Links to renditions of both songs can be found below.

Do you have a preference?

Arizona’s State Songs

“Arizona March Song,” sung by Hannes Kvaran: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws5dbNx3EVU

“Arizona,” sung by Rex Allen, Jr.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7xedmvJTzk

Arizona and the Moon Landing

 

moon landing, Apollo 11, NASA, Arizona, Meteor Crater, Grand Canyon, Kitt Peak, Arizona history, Arizona historian, AZHistorian, John Southard, John Larsen Southard, Southard, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, astronaut, astronauts, lunar landing, lunar training, moonscape, 1969, July 1969

The front page of the July 25th, 1969 Arizona Republic, which featured a headline announcing the safe return of the triumphant Apollo 11 crew.

The front page headline of the July 25th, 1969 Arizona Republic announced, “They’re back and safe,” they being the three Apollo 11 astronauts who had splashed down in the Pacific Ocean the day prior, thus completing their heroic “giant leap for mankind.” Terrestrial sites most often associated with the July 1969 moon landing include the Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida, from which the Moon-bound rocket blasted off on July 16th, and NASA’s Houston, Texas Mission Control Center. However, several Arizona locations number among the lesser known sites tied to the overall success of the Apollo 11 mission specifically and astrogeology in general.

moon landing, Apollo 11, NASA, Arizona, Meteor Crater, Grand Canyon, Kitt Peak, Arizona history, Arizona historian, AZHistorian, John Southard, John Larsen Southard, Southard, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, astronaut, astronauts, lunar landing, lunar training, moonscape, 1969, July 1969

A postcard showing Arizona’s Meteor Crater, one of the many sites visited by NASA astronauts in preparation for the Apollo moon missions of the 1960s and 1970s.

While training for lunar missions including Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong and other astronauts visited the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Sunset Crater, and Kitt Peak National Observatory. Cinder Lake and Sunset Crater proved to be important locations for testing technology such as cameras and vehicles to be deployed on the Moon and Flagstaff proudly served as home to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Center of Astrogeology, a significant contributor to NASA’s successful Apollo program. Though now little-known for its role in putting men on the Moon, the Flagstaff area did receive widespread recognition during the historic mission. Notably, CBS assigned several journalists to report on-location from the Flagstaff area during the network’s Apollo 11 coverage.

For more information on Arizona’s contributions to the field of astrogeology, please visit http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2005/1190/of2005-1190.pdf.