Arizona’s “Rim Country” features lofty mountain peaks, trout-filled streams and thick ponderosa pine forests. The cooler temperatures in the mountain retreats of Payson, Pinetop-Lakeside, Greer and Springerville make them ideal summer vacation headquarters for hiking, fishing or exploring. The area is a popular retirement destination. To the South, the Old West comes alive in the historic towns of Bisbee and Tombstone, site of the gunfight at the OK Corral. Nearby, Tucson is home to posh resorts and lively western guest ranches.

For sports enthusiasts and sun worshippers, the waters of the Colorado River provide plenty of playgrounds. Havasu City, Bullhead City, Parker and Kingman (along old Route 66) play host to the avid boaters and water-skiers headed for Lake Mead, Lake Havasu and Lake Mojave, all created when the river was dammed at the turn of the century.

The name of the state is said to have derived from a combination of two words from the Papago Indian dialect of the Pima language; "Aleh" and "Zon" together as "Aleh-zon" meaning "little spring." The "little spring", located in Mexican territory, is near a large silver discovery made in Arizona Creek.

Arizona first became a state on Feb. 14, 1912, but it has a long and proud history. The first people to discover the area arrived over 15,000 years ago. These nomadic hunters settled into distinct cultures about AD 200-500. They were the Hohokam in the south deserts, Mogollon in the east uplands and the Anasazi in the north. They left mysteriously sometime between 1100 and 1540, when the Spanish explorers arrived. Navajo and Hopi also arrived in this period. Athabaskan-speaking people migrated to the Arizona-New Mexico region between 1300 and 1500 and some became classified as Navajo and Apache. In the 1600s, Franciscan missionaries arrived, followed by traders and trappers in the early 19th century. The last large group to settle was made up of prospectors after gold was discovered in 1857.