Chapter 4: Megalopolis

Although Arizona is not included in the Megalopolis, it still manages to hold it's own to other states. The Megalopolis can be found along the northeastern coast of the United States by large, independent metropolitan areas such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. The main theme of Megalopolis is it's urbanness.







 Besides its large buildings, apartments on every corner, small shops, huge shopping centers, factories etc.,  Megalopolis also contains parks and other land available for recreational and agricultural use.

Chapter 3: Foundations of Human Activity

Arizona was the 48th state in the United States. It became a state in February 14, 1912. According to the website below, The word Arizona comes from one of the following: the Aztec Indian word "arizuma," that means "silver-bearing". 

According to Wikipedia, The first Native Americans arrived in Arizona between 16,000 BC and 10,000 BC, while the history of Arizona as recorded by Europeans began when Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan, explored the area in 1539. Coronado's expedition entered the area in 1540–1542 during its search for Cíbola. All of present-day Arizona became part of the Mexican State of Vieja California upon the Mexican assertion of independence from Spain in 1822. The United States took possession of most of Arizona at the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848. In 1853, the land below the Gila River was acquired from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase. Arizona was administered as part of the Territory of New Mexico until it was organized into a separate territory on February 24, 1863.

Between 1940 and 1960, Arizona's population increased more than 100%, and since then growth has continued. By the 2000 census the cumulative increase since 1940 amounted to more than 1000%, and Arizona was ranked among the fastest growing states in the nation. Over 80% of the people are Caucasian and nearly 20% are Hispanic.

There were 203,527 Native Americans in Arizona in 1990 (or almost 6% of the people), the third highest such population in the United States. In addition to the Navajo, they include Mohave, Apache, Hopi, Paiute, Tohono O'Odham, Pima, Maricopa, Yavapaí, Hualapai, and Havasupai.

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/us/A0856703.htmlhttp://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/arizona/

Chapter 2: Geographic Patterns of the Physical Environment

The topographic features of Arizona include the following:– Arizona covers 113,909 square miles, with about 350 square miles of water surface.  The state has three main topographical areas:  (1) a high plateau  in the northeast;  (2) a mountainous region oriented southeast to northwest; and (3) low mountain ranges and desert valleys in the southwestern portion of the state.
 The Climate and Economy– There are more than one million acres of land devoted to agriculture in the state. Yuma County is the third largest agricultural county, with about 18% of the total acreage in the state.
 Luckily, in Arizona flood conditions occur infrequently. The climate here is desert like temperatures from June to August  and they can hit temperatures like 120*F. I know from personal experience many of times when we get in our car after a long day on the lake and the temperature in the car reads 125*F. You have to adapt to this kind of weather of course! Many people can not handle this dry, hot temperatures. My family and I happen to love it. The floods I have also encountered first hand in Lake Havasu City. In the months of December-April they experience storms. A lot worse then we do in California. It gets very windy and wet. I definitely prefer the summer months there.

 










Some information from this post was helped out by this webpage/
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/narratives/ARIZONA.htm