Arizona Has Always Been A Cantankerous Place

Frebruary 10, 2011

Here's more on the Thieving Thirteenth:

The Thieving Thirteenth Sets the Bar
On the table at the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature (1885) were two plums: an insane asylum and a university. The delegates from south of the flooding Salt River could not make it to Prescott by road, so they had to take the train to LA then back across on the Santa Fe and down to Prescott, then the state capitol. By the time they got there all the good pork was taken and Tucson got the paltry university ("Who ever heard of a professor buying a drink?" went the local logic) while Phoenix got the coveted insane asylum. Fistfights and padded expense accounts ensued, proving that Arizona has always been a cantankerous place.

And how did the residents of the Old PUeblo take this news? Not well:

When the delegate from Tucson returned home with the news he was allegedly pelted with eggs, rotten vegetables and a dead cat.

"Bear down Arizona. . ."
—University of Arizona Deadcat, I mean Wildcat, fight song