Tag Archives: Arizona historian

Pre-World War I “Border Trouble”

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border trouble, Arizona history, Arizona historian, AZHistorian, John Larsen Southard, John Southard, Southard, Camp Naco, Pancho Villa, 1916

Camp Naco, an encampment of American troops along the Mexican border during the period of “border trouble,” in 1916.
Image Credit: Library of Congress

I discussed the 1934 Parker Dam controversy and the resultant birth of the ‘Arizona Navy’ with Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez of KJZZ’s “The Show” last week (clip accessible here: http://kjzz.org/content/11126/did-you-know-arizona-navy-deployed-1934). While Arizona’s short-lived two-boat naval force (or is it farce?) makes for a good story, Governor Benjamin B. Moeur’s deployment of the Arizona National Guard was a far more effective display of power. However, this border service, although notable for taking place along an interstate border, was not the first time the Guard received a call to mobilize along a border.

The Arizona National Guard, originally known as the Arizona Volunteer Infantry Regiment, or the Arizona Volunteers, was first organized in early 1865. As described in a 1955 Guard-issued history, the Volunteers were raised to “fight the Indians who were pillaging and marauding among the settlers and friendly Indian tribes” of the territory. Since that time, the Arizona National Guard has served with distinction both internationally, as was the case in World Wars I and II, and domestically.

The Guard’s 1934 deployment to the California border may well be the Guard’s most-discussed domestic service, but its 1916 mobilization along the Mexican border involved risks far more dire than those faced along the banks of the Colorado River. Indeed, the decade-long Mexican Revolution that began in 1910 brought great risks to towns along the international border, as evidenced by Pancho Villa’s March 9th, 1916 raid of Columbus, New Mexico. Villa’s excursion onto American soil resulted in the death of eighteen U.S. citizens and prompted President Wilson to send General John “Black Jack” Pershing into Mexico in an unsuccessful attempt to capture or kill Villa. In response to rising tensions along the international boundary, American authorities mustered the Arizona National Guard and other border state forces into federal service. Arizona National Guard troops were federalized on May 9th, 1916 and sent to serve at Camp Harry J. Jones near Douglas and nearby Camp Naco, among other locations in the state. The Arizona National Guard’s “border trouble” era service ended with their call to train for, and eventually deploy to, France as part of America’s World War I forces.

JFK in Arizona

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JFK in Arizona, Arizona history, Arizona historian, AZHistorian, John Larsen Southard, John Southard, Southard, Castle Hot Springs, historic preservation

Page from a 1959 Castle Hot Springs brochure touting the history and amenities of the springs and resort.

Fifty years ago on this day, as reported by a November 23rd, 1963 Arizona Republic headline, “3 Shots Plunged [the] U.S. Into Grief.”

President John F. Kennedy, the charismatic young leader cut down by gunfire in Dallas five decades ago today, has a little-known connection to our state. This link is not through electoral results (he lost Arizona to Richard Nixon in 1960 and likely would have lost the state to native son Barry Goldwater in the 1964 campaign), but instead as a result of his recuperative visits to Arizona’s warm, sunny climate.

After suffering severe injuries while commanding his now-famous Navy vessel, PT-109, Kennedy convalesced at Castle Hot Springs, a resort destination northwest of Phoenix normally frequented by moneyed elites bearing names such as Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Wrigley. However, the posh hotel and spa served an entirely different purpose during World War II, when it was used as an Army Air Forces recuperation facility. Having already experienced the restorative powers of our year-round sunshine during a 1930s stint as an Arizona ranch hand, JFK and his family saw potential in the state’s warm winter weather and the “health-giving effects” of the resort’s namesake hot springs.

The hot springs were long-known by inhabitants of the land that would become Arizona, with Native Americans reputedly enjoying the health benefits of the 122-degree water long before any European nation controlled the area. The commercial appeal of the natural attraction proved irresistible by 1896, when the first resort opened at the site. Mid-century advertising for the Castle Hot Springs Hotel boasts of spring water “most palatable and wonderfully relaxing to bathe in.” Excluding a brief break in operations during the Second World War, the facility welcomed guests seeking the supposed revitalizing power of its waters for a full eighty years, closing in 1976 after falling victim to a catastrophic fire. The grand desert destination later served as an ASU-owned conference center, but is now all but abandoned, existing only as a handful of shuttered buildings awaiting a renewal akin to the those experienced by so many of its aching guests.

Arizona Organic Act Sponsor James Mitchell Ashley’s Birthday

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Arizona Organic Act, 1863, Ohio, Abraham Lincoln, James Ashley, James Mitchell Ashley, Civil War, Arizona history, Arizona historian, AZHistorian, John Larsen Southard, John Southard, Southard

Ohio Congressman James Ashley sponsored the 1863 Arizona Organic Act. After winning passage in both houses of Congress, Ashley’s bill was signed by President Lincoln, at which point Arizona Territory was carved out of New Mexico Territory.
Image Credit: Library of Congress

James Mitchell Ashley, a nineteenth-century abolitionist, Republican politician, and railroad executive, was born on this day in 1824. Though best known by historians and political scientists as the initiator of President Andrew Johnson’s impeachment, the five-term Ohio Congressman is significant to our state’s history as the sponsor of the Arizona Organic Act.

Signed into law by President Lincoln on February 24th, 1863, Ashley’s bill carved the Arizona Territory out of land once belonging to New Mexico Territory. Notably, Ashley’s legislation established the Arizona-New Mexico border that is in place to this day – a border drawn to separate the former New Mexico Territory in two along a north-south line. In so doing, the federal government effectively neutralized the would-be Confederate Territory of Arizona that had been organized along an east-west line along the 35th parallel to split New Mexico Territory into a Union-held northern section and a Confederate southern portion. Confederate influence in the newly-formed territory was further weakened when officials selected Prescott as the new capital, thus shifting the base of power from what is now Mesilla, NM, then the center of Confederate territorial government.

Following a ten year career in Congress, Ashley moved west to serve as governor of Montana Territory. Outside of his life in politics, Ashley founded and managed the now-defunct Ann Arbor Railroad, a venture boasting track in the states of Ohio and Michigan.

The 1917 Zimmerman Telegram

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Zimmerman Telegram, Mexico, Arizona history, Arizona historian, AZHistorian, John Larsen Southard, John Southard, Southard, 1917, World War I, WWI, Germany, Texas, New Mexico

A 1917 Clifford K. Berryman political cartoon depicting a personified Germany carving up the United States after a never-to-materialize victory over America and its allies.
Image Credit: Library of Congress

“make war together, make peace together… and an understanding… that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.”
– Excerpt from the 1917 Zimmerman Telegram

Veterans Day originated as a remembrance of those who fought in World War I, once known as “The War to End All Wars.” While America eventually mobilized more than 4.5 million soldiers for the conflict, strong isolationist sentiment delayed U.S. involvement for some time. However, popular resistance to the war softened following the loss of 128 American lives when a German U-boat sank the British ocean liner Lusitania in 1915. Further provocation came in the form of an upsetting German diplomatic cable promising Mexico, a potential Allied foe, a sizable swath of American land as a spoil of war.

The words quoted at the top of this post were included in the controversial January 1917 telegram sent by German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman to his country’s diplomatic delegation in Mexico. This correspondence, an attempt to draw Mexico into warfare with its northern neighbor should the United States join the fray in Europe, sparked nationwide outrage and helped to bring about American participation in the Great War.

Having enjoyed statehood for just five years, many Arizonans understandably reacted to Germany’s proposal with great alarm, as evidenced by statewide press coverage of the matter. An article from the March 1st, 1917 Bisbee Daily Review newspaper announcing the Mexican government’s supposed preference for war with the U.S., the possibility of German U-boat bases, armaments, and troops having already been placed in Mexico, and what was reported as the likelihood of Mexico ending oil sales to the United States typifies the fear and excitability found in Arizona papers at the time. Ultimately, the United States did enter World War I against Germany, but did not have to contend with the military force of its southern neighbor – although American forces were then engaged in numerous skirmishes along our border with Mexico, albeit for unrelated reasons. Allied victory in the First World War ensured that Mexico would not regain its former territory in the southwest U.S., even if it had chosen to join forces with the Kaiser’s once-mighty army.

Arizona and Daylight Saving Time

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Daylight Saving Time, Arizona history, Arizona historian, AZHistorian, John Larsen Southard, John Southard, Southard, DST

An anti-Daylight Saving Time quote included in a March 11th, 1968 Tucson Daily Citizen article entitled “3-1 Margin: Poll Shows Most Favor DST Death”

Why Doesn’t Arizona Observe Daylight Saving Time?

While residents of 47 of the 48 contiguous states started this week by setting their clocks back one hour in observance of Daylight Saving Time (Indiana joined the party in 2006), Arizonans have not had to heed the advice “spring forward, fall back” for nearly half a century. How did this come to be the case?

Until the late nineteenth century, most Americans used the sun’s position in the sky to determine their local time, with noon being the point in the day when the sun was seen directly overhead. Although this practice meant that localities within the same state might observe slightly different times based upon their respective locations, the solar-based timekeeping system generally worked well for communities prior to the advent of relatively rapid intercity transportation.

America’s growing rail network necessitated a more uniform and precise system of measuring time. As there were then no federal laws regarding time standards, railroad companies joined forces to craft a uniform system, resulting in the railroads and many municipalities voluntary adopting a five-zone time system known as standard time. This privately-devised system was the precursor to the World War I-era Standard Time Act that formally introduced both standard time and daylight saving time in an effort to save electricity during the war effort.

Press reports indicate that daylight saving time, a system designed to permit more everyday activities to be conducted at times when electric lighting would not be needed, initially proved popular in Arizona. The October 11th, 1918 Coconino Sun reported that the law resulted in “a saving in bills for artificial lighting,” with many residents “[noticing] that their electric light bills at home were less than in former summer months.”

Though effective for reducing energy usage, Daylight Saving Time was widely unpopular, resulting in it being repealed shortly after Armistice Day, although Standard Time has remained the law of the land from 1918 onward. The Daylight Saving Time policy returned on a nationwide basis during World War II, but was a state-by-state decision following the war. Piecemeal retention of the Daylight Saving Time system prompted railroads and other transportation concerns to advocate for a federal solution to the growing problem of state-legislated time standards, resulting in the Uniform Time Act of 1966. This law mandated use of the Daylight Saving system, although it did permit states to opt out of the scheme. Arizona observed Daylight Saving Time in 1967, although the widespread usage of air conditioning units led to Arizonans being less enthused about the policy than their 1918 counterparts.

While the Daylight Saving standard helped Arizonans to reduce energy consumption during World War I and World War II, a new set of concerns emerged by the late 1960s. Parents complained that it was difficult to convince children to go to bed during daylight hours, moviegoers voiced displeasure at the idea of another summer of later than normal drive-in films, and nearly all objected to the idea of an extra hour of heat during their activity-filled days. Arizonans concerned about the aforementioned issues, as well as matters not listed, called upon their legislators to pass an exemption from the federal law, which state solons did in time to preclude their constituents from springing forward in early 1968. A March 10th, 1969 Arizona Republic editorial highlighted the value of this exemption by reminding readers that under the Daylight Saving system, summer sunsets would occur at approximately 9 p.m., at which point, “it’s still hot as blazes!”