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88-615: The Southwestern United States , also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest , is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico , along with adjacent portions of California , Colorado , Nevada , Oklahoma , Texas , and Utah . The largest cities by metropolitan area are Phoenix , Las Vegas , El Paso , Albuquerque , and Tucson . Before 1848, in

176-506: A central Federal Reserve Bank in each district. These twelve Federal Reserve Banks together form a major part of the Federal Reserve System , the central banking system of the United States. Missouri is the only U.S. state to have two Federal Reserve locations within its borders, but several other states are also divided between more than one district. The Federal Circuit is not a regional circuit. Its jurisdiction

264-544: A large oasis at the western end of the El Paso-Tucson corridor. The region between the two cities is a major transportation trunk with settlements serving both highway and railway needs. There are also large mining operations, ranches, and agricultural oases. Both El Paso and Tucson have large military installations nearby; Fort Bliss and White Sands Missile Range north of El Paso in New Mexico, and, near Tucson,

352-528: A settlement in Arizona in 1599, but were turned back by inclement weather. In 1610, Santa Fe was founded, making it the oldest capital in United States. In 1664 Juan Archuleta led an expedition into what is now Colorado, becoming the first European to enter. A second Spanish expedition was led into Colorado by Juan Ulibarrí in 1706, during which he claimed the Colorado territory for Spain. From 1687 to 1691

440-458: A sub-region of the South , which some consider southwestern in the general framework of the original application, meaning the "Western South." This is an area containing the basic elements of Southern history , culture , politics , religion , and linguistic and settlement patterns, yet blended with traits of the frontier West. While this particular Southwest is notably different in many ways from

528-605: A third of Colorado, and small portions of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. Texas current borders were set in the Compromise of 1850 , where Texas ceded land to the federal government in exchange for $ 10 million, which would go to paying off the debt Texas had accumulated in its war with Mexico. Following the Mexican Cession, the lands of what had been the Mexican territory of Alta California were in flux: portions of what

616-571: Is an escarpment defining the southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau . Its central and most spectacular portions are characterized by high cliffs of limestone and sandstone , namely the Kaibab Limestone and Coconino Sandstone cliffs. The escarpment was created by erosion and faulting , creating canyons such as Fossil Creek Canyon and Pine Canyon. The name Mogollon comes from Don Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollón ,

704-457: Is nationwide but based on the subject matter. In 1969, the Office of Management and Budget published a list of ten "Standard Federal Regions", to which federal agencies could be restructured as a means of standardizing government administration nationwide. Despite a finding in 1977 that this restructuring did not reduce administrative costs as initially expected, and the complete rescinding of

792-541: Is now New Mexico were claimed, but never controlled, by Texas. With the Compromise of 1850, the states of Texas and California were created (Texas as a slave state, and California as a free state), as well as the Utah Territory and New Mexico Territory . The New Mexico Territory consisted of most of Arizona and New Mexico (excluding a strip along their southern borders), a small section of southern Colorado, and

880-532: Is the Grand Canyon . But that is one of many dramatic vistas included within the Plateau, which includes spectacular lava formations, "painted" deserts, sand dunes, and badlands. One of the most distinctive features of the Plateau is its longevity, having come into existence at least 500 million years ago. The Plateau can be divided into six sections, three of which fall into the Southwest region. Beginning with

968-416: Is the most populous city often considered at the edge of this portion contained in the Southwest region, but Santa Fe, New Mexico and Flagstaff, Arizona, are also significant population centers. Phoenix , Tucson, and Las Vegas dominate the westernmost metropolitan areas in the Southwest, while Albuquerque - Santa Fe and El Paso - Las Cruces dominate the easternmost metropolitan areas. Human history in

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1056-582: Is the most populous city; other significant population centers include Laughlin and Pahrump in Nevada, St. George and Hurricane in Utah, and Lake Havasu City , Kingman , and Bullhead City in Arizona. The Mojave is the smallest, driest and hottest desert within the United States. The Mojave gets less than 6 in (150 mm) of rain annually, and its elevation ranges from 3,000 to 6,000 feet (900 to 1,800 meters) above sea level. The most prolific vegetation

1144-567: Is the tall Joshua tree , which grow as tall as 40 ft (12 m), and are thought to live almost 1000 years. Other major vegetation includes the Parry saltbush and the Mojave sage, both only found in the Mojave, as well as the creosote bush. The Colorado Plateau varies from the large stands of forests in the west, including the largest stand of ponderosa pine trees in the world, to the Mesas to

1232-475: Is viewed by modern Pueblo people as derogatory and is becoming more and more disused), began settling in the area in approximately 1500 BC. Eventually, they would spread throughout the entire northern section of the Southwest. This culture would go through several different eras lasting from approximately 1500 BC through the middle of the 15th century AD: the Basketmaker I , II , and III phases followed by

1320-620: The Arizona Organic Act , which officially created the U.S. Territory of Arizona , splitting the New Mexico Territory at the 107th meridian. Utah, as shown above, evolved out of the Utah Territory, as pieces of the original territory created in 1850 were carved out: parts were ceded to Nevada, Wyoming, and Colorado in 1861; another section to Nevada in 1862; and the final section to Nevada in 1866. In 1890,

1408-557: The Davis-Monthan Air Force Base . About 70 miles (110 km) to the southeast are the research facilities at Fort Huachuca . These military installations form a kind of hinterland around the El Paso-Tucson region, and are served by scientific and residential communities such as Sierra Vista , Las Cruces , and Alamogordo . El Paso's influence extends north into the Mesilla Valley , and southeast along

1496-589: The Gadsden Purchase in 1853. In 1851, San Luis became the first European settlement in what is now Colorado. Of the states of which at least a portion make up the Southwest, Texas was the first to achieve statehood. On December 29, 1845, the Republic of Texas was annexed, bypassing the status of becoming a territory, and immediately became a state. Initially, its borders included parts of what would become several other states: almost half of New Mexico,

1584-673: The Narváez expedition (1528–36) who had crossed eastern Texas on their way to Mexico City, led an expedition to discover the Seven Golden Cities of Cíbola. The 1582–3 expedition of Antonio de Espejo explored New Mexico and eastern Arizona; and this led to Juan de Oñate 's establishment of the Spanish province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in 1598, with a capital founded near Ohkay Oweenge Pueblo , which he called San Juan de los Caballeros. Oñate's party also attempted to establish

1672-831: The Organ Mountains , the Guadalupe Mountains , and the Chiracahua Mountains , plus many smaller mountain ranges contained in the area, namely the Animas , San Andres , and Doña Ana Mountains in New Mexico; and the Franklin , Hueco , and Davis Mountains in Texas. It also reaches up into the foothills of the higher ranges such as the Black Range and Oscura Mountains in New Mexico. High above

1760-548: The Patayan . Maize began to be cultivated in the region sometime during the early first millennium BC, but it took several hundred years for the native cultures to be dependent on it as a food source. As their dependence on maize grew, Pre-Columbian Indians began developing irrigation systems around 600 CE . According to archeological finds, the Ancestral Pueblo people, also known as the "Anasazi" (although that term

1848-531: The Phoenix metropolitan area . The city of Phoenix is the largest urban center, and located in the approximate center of the area that includes Tempe , Mesa , and many others. Meinig calls the third subregion "El Paso, Tucson, and the Southern Borderlands." While El Paso and Tucson are distinctly different cities, they serve as anchor points to the hinterland between them. Tucson occupies

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1936-584: The Pueblo I , II , III , and IV . As the Puebloans transitioned from a nomadic lifestyle to one based on both dry land and irrigated agriculture, their first domiciles were pithouses. The Mogollon culture developed later than the Puebloan, arising in the eastern area of the region at around 300 BC. Their range would eventually extend deep into what would become Mexico, and dominate the southeastern portion of

2024-737: The Rocky Mountains living on the top of the plateau, and species native to the Mexican Sierra Madre Occidental on the slopes below and in the Madrean Sky Islands (high, isolated mountain ranges) further south. The Mogollon Rim's limestones and sandstones were formed from sediments deposited in the Carboniferous and Permian Periods . Several of the Rim's rock formations are also seen on

2112-553: The San Luis Valley of southern Colorado to south of Socorro and including the Sandia-Manzano Mountains , with an east–west breadth in the north stretching from the upper Canadian River to the upper San Juan River . The area around Albuquerque is sometimes called Central New Mexico . "Central Arizona" is a vast metropolitan area spread across one contiguous sprawling oasis, essentially equivalent to

2200-595: The U.S. Census Bureau . The nine regions are: Some of Connecticut's informal regions include: Regions of Delaware include: "Slower Lower": Directional regions of Florida include: Local vernacular regions of Florida include: Regions of Georgia include: Physiographic regions of Georgia include: Regions of Guam include: Regions of Hawaii include: Regions of Idaho include: Regions of Illinois include: Regions of Indiana include: Regions of Iowa include: Regions of Kansas include: Regions of Kentucky include: Mogollon Rim The Rim

2288-1500: The U.S. Virgin Islands Office location: Philadelphia States: Delaware , Maryland , Pennsylvania , Virginia , Washington, D.C. , and West Virginia Office location: Atlanta States: Alabama , Florida , Georgia , Kentucky , Mississippi , North Carolina , South Carolina , and Tennessee Office location: Chicago States: Illinois , Indiana , Minnesota , Michigan , Ohio , and Wisconsin Office location: Dallas States: Arkansas , Louisiana , New Mexico , Oklahoma , and Texas Office location: Kansas City States: Iowa , Kansas , Missouri , and Nebraska Office location: Denver States: Colorado , Montana , North Dakota , South Dakota , Utah , and Wyoming Office location: San Francisco States: Arizona , California , Hawaii , Nevada , Guam , Northern Mariana Islands , and American Samoa Office location: Seattle States: Alaska , Idaho , Oregon , and Washington The Bureau of Economic Analysis defines regions for comparison of economic data. Regions of Alabama include: Regions of Alaska include: Regions of American Samoa include: Regions of Arizona include: Regions of Arkansas include: Regions of Colorado include: Connecticut has nine official planning regions, which operate as councils of governments and are recognized as county equivalents by

2376-496: The United States Census Bureau defines four statistical regions, with nine divisions. The Census Bureau region definition is "widely used ... for data collection and analysis", and is the most commonly used classification system. Puerto Rico and other US territories are not part of any census region or census division. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 divided the country into twelve districts with

2464-643: The core Southwestern U.S. includes only the states of Arizona and New Mexico; others focus on the land within the old Spanish and Mexican borders of the Nuevo México Province or the later American New Mexico Territory . Distinct elements of the Western lifestyle thrive in the region, such as Western wear and Southwestern cuisines , including Native American , New Mexican , and Tex-Mex , or various genres of Western music like Indigenous , New Mexico , and Tejano music styles. Likewise with

2552-556: The 1930s and 1940s, many definitions of the Southwest included all or part of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado, and Utah. As time has gone on, the definition of the Southwest has become more solidified and more compact. For example, in 1948 the National Geographic Society defined the American Southwest as all of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, and

2640-475: The American Southwest as parts of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. From this perspective, almost all of the region's physiographical traits, geological formations, and weather are contained within a box between 26° and 38° northern latitude, and 98° 30' and 124° western longitude. When looking at the fauna of the region, there is a broader definition of the American Southwest. The Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research defines

2728-675: The American Southwest is covered by the Mojave Desert. Bordered on the south by the Sonoran Desert and the east by the Colorado Plateau, its range within the region makes up the southeast tip of Nevada, the southwestern corner of Utah and the northwestern corner of Arizona. In terms of topography, the Mojave is very similar to the Great Basin Desert, which lies just to its north. Within the region, Las Vegas

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2816-716: The City of Tucson was founded when the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson was created, relocating the presidio from Tubac. In 1776, two Franciscan priests, Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, led an expedition from Santa Fe heading to California. After passing through Colorado, they became the first Europeans to travel into what is now Utah. Their journey was halted by bad weather in October, and they turned back, heading south into Arizona before turning east back to Santa Fe. In 1804 Spain divided

2904-649: The Exploration of the Columbia River of the West and Its Tributaries , which was later republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons . In 1877 silver was discovered in southeastern Arizona. The notorious mining town of Tombstone, Arizona was born to service the miners. The town would become immortalized as the scene of what is considered the greatest gunfight in the history of

2992-655: The Hohokam began to develop an extensive series of irrigation canals; of the three major cultures in the Southwest, only the Ancestral Puebloans of the Chaco culture and the Hohokam developed irrigation as a means of watering their agriculture. Not long after the Hohokam reached the height of their culture, all three major cultures in the Southwest began to decline for unknown reasons, although severe drought and encroachment from other peoples have been postulated. By

3080-652: The Jesuit priest Eusebio Kino established several missions in the Santa Cruz River valley; and Kino further explored southern and central Arizona in 1694, during which he discovered the ruins of Casa Grande. Beginning in 1732, Spanish settlers began to enter the region, and the Spanish started bestowing land grants in Mexico and the Southwest US. In 1751, the O'odham rebelled against the Spanish incursions, but

3168-535: The LDS church issued the 1890 Manifesto , which officially banned polygamy for members of the church. It was the last roadblock for Utah entering the Union, and on January 4, 1896, Utah was officially granted statehood, becoming the 45th state. In 1869, John Wesley Powell led a 3-month expedition which explored the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. In 1875, he would publish a book describing his explorations, Report of

3256-467: The Mogollon Rim include Payson , Sedona , Show Low , Alpine and Pinetop-Lakeside . The Mogollon Rim is practically bisected by Interstate 17 which runs north-to-south between Flagstaff and Phoenix . In June 2002, the eastern portion of the Mogollon Rim was the site of Arizona's second-largest wildfire , the 470,000-acre (1,900 km ) Rodeo–Chediski Fire . The Mogollon Rim was also

3344-645: The Mogollon was taken over by an unrelated tribe, the Apache . While it is unclear whether any of the modern Indian tribes are descended from the Mogollon, some archeologists and historians believe that they mixed with Ancestral Puebloans and became part of the modern Hopi and Zuni tribes. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Southwestern United States was inhabited by a very large population of American Indian tribes. The area once occupied by

3432-548: The Mojave and Colorado deserts in California. Other individuals who focus on Southwest studies who favored a more limited extent of the area to center on Arizona and New Mexico, with small parts of surrounding areas, include Erna Fergusson , Charles Lummis (who claimed to have coined the term, the Southwest), and cultural geographer Raymond Gastil , and ethnologist Miguel León-Portilla . Geographer D. W. Meinig defines

3520-654: The Navajo section forming the northern boundary of the Southwestern United States, which has shallower canyons than those in the Canyonlands section just to its north; the Navajo section is bordered to the south by the Grand Canyon section, which of course is dominated by the Grand Canyon; and the southeasternmost portion of the Plateau is the Datil section, consisting of valleys, mesas, and volcanic formations. Albuquerque

3608-536: The Old West, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral . Copper was also discovered in 1877, near Bisbee and Jerome in Arizona, which became an important component of the economy of the Southwest. Production began in 1880 and was made more profitable by the expansion of the railroad throughout the territory during the 1880s. The early 1880s also saw the completion of the second transcontinental railroad, which ran through

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3696-690: The Pecos, north of the [Mexican] Border, south of the Mesa Verde and the Grand Canyon, and east of the mountains which wall off Southern California and make it a land in itself." Texas has long been the focal point of this dichotomy, and is often considered, as such, the core area of "the South's Southwest." While the Trans-Pecos area is generally acknowledged as part of the desert Southwest , most of Texas and large parts of Oklahoma are often placed into

3784-549: The Provincia de las Californias, creating the province Alta California , which consisted primarily of what would become California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. In 1821 Mexico achieved its independence from Spain and shortly after, in 1824, developed its constitution , which established the Alta California territory, which was the same geographic area as the earlier Spanish province. In 1825, Arizona

3872-402: The Rio Grande into the Trans-Pecos region of Texas. The fourth subregion Meinig calls the "Northern Corridor and Navajolands," a major highway and railway trunk which connects Albuquerque and Flagstaff . Just north of the transportation trunk are large blocks of American Indian land. As the US expanded westward , the country's western border also shifted westward, and consequently, so did

3960-409: The Southwest as being only the states of Arizona, New Mexico, with parts of California, Nevada, Texas, and Utah; although they include all of those six states in their map of the region, solely for ease of defining the border. Lawrence Clark Powell, a major bibliographer whose emphasis is on the Southwest, defined the American Southwest in a 1958 Arizona Highways article as, "the lands lying west of

4048-409: The Southwest became embroiled in the Mexican–American War , partly as a result of the United States' annexation of Texas. On August 18, 1846, an American force captured Santa Fe, New Mexico. On December 16 of the same year, American forces captured Tucson, Arizona, marking the end of hostilities in the Southwest United States. When the war ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848,

4136-410: The Southwest begins with the arrival of the Clovis culture , a Paleo-Indian hunter-gatherer culture which arrived sometime around 9000 BC. This culture remained in the area for several millennia. At some point they were replaced by three great Pre-Columbian Indian cultures: the Ancestral Pueblo people , the Hohokam , and the Mogollon , all of which existed among other surrounding cultures including

4224-493: The Southwest in a very similar fashion to Reed: the portion of New Mexico west of the Llano Estacado and the portion of Arizona east of the Mojave - Sonoran Desert and south of the "canyon lands" and also including the El Paso district of western Texas and the southernmost part of Colorado. Meinig breaks the Southwest down into four distinct subregions. He calls the first subregion " Northern New Mexico ," and describes it as focused on Albuquerque and Santa Fe . It extends from

4312-431: The Southwest. Their settlements would evolve over time from pit-dwellings through pueblos and finally also incorporating cliff-dwellings. The Hohokam were the last of these ancestral cultures to develop, somewhere around AD 1, but they would grow to be the most populous of the three by AD 1300, despite being the smallest of the three in terms of area, covering most of the southwest portion. Beginning in approximately AD 600,

4400-441: The Spanish Governor of New Mexico from 1712 to 1715. Much of the land south of the Mogollon Rim lies 4,000 to 5,000 feet (1,200 to 1,500 m) above sea level , with the escarpment rising to about 8,000 ft (2,400 m). Extensive Ponderosa pine forests are found both on the slopes of the Rim and on the plateau to the north. The Mogollon Rim is a major floristic and faunal boundary, with species characteristic of

4488-445: The United States gained control of all of present-day California, Nevada and Utah, as well as the majority of Arizona, and parts of New Mexico and Colorado (the rest of present-day Colorado, and most of New Mexico had been gained by the United States in their annexation of the Republic of Texas). The final portion of the Southwestern United States came about through the acquisition of the southernmost parts of Arizona and New Mexico through

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4576-429: The ancestral Puebloans became inhabited by several American Indian tribes, the most populous of which were the Navajo , Ute , Southern Paiute , and Hopi. The Navajo, along with the Hopi, were the earliest of the modern Indian tribes to develop in the Southwest. Around AD 1100 their culture began to develop in the Four Corners area of the region. The Navajos migrated from northwestern Canada and eastern Alaska , where

4664-562: The ancestral Puebloans. The modern-day Zuni established a culture along the Zuni River in far-eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. Both major tribes of the O'odham tribe settled in the southern and central Arizona, in the lands once controlled by their ancestors, the Hohokam. The first European intrusion into the region came from the south. In 1539, a Jesuit Franciscan named Marcos de Niza led an expedition from Mexico City which passed through eastern Arizona. The following year Francisco Vázquez de Coronado , based on reports from survivors of

4752-489: The classic "Old South" or Southeast , these features are strong enough to give it a separate southwestern identity quite different in nature from that of the interior southwestern states to the west. List of regions of the United States This is a list of some of the ways regions are defined in the United States . Many regions are defined in law or regulations by the federal government; others by shared culture and history, and others by economic factors. Since 1950,

4840-422: The desert's most widely known inhabitant is the saguaro cactus , which is unique to the desert. It is bounded on the northwest by the Mojave Desert, to the north by the Colorado Plateau and to the east by the Arizona Mountains forests and the Chihuahuan Desert. Aside from the trademark saguaro, the desert has the most diverse plant life of any desert in the world, and includes many other species of cacti, including

4928-443: The desert, these forest-covered and sometimes snow-capped mountains form sky islands , with radically different flora and fauna than the surrounding desert below. The sky islands also supply the surrounding desert foothills with flowing water during the spring runoff and after the summer storms of the New Mexican monsoon season . The Chihuahuan is a "rain shadow" desert, formed between two mountain ranges (the Sierra Madre Occidental on

5016-459: The east. Although not called a desert, the Colorado Plateau is mostly made up of high desert. Within the Southwest U.S. region, the Colorado is bordered to the south by the Mogollon Rim and the Sonoran Desert, to the west by the Mojave Desert, and to the east by the Rocky Mountains , the Rio Grande Rift valley, and the Llano Estacado . The Plateau is characterized by a series of plateaus and mesas, interspersed with canyons. The most dramatic example

5104-403: The end of the 15th century, all three cultures had disappeared. The modern Puebloan tribes of the Isleta , Sandia , Cochiti , Kewa , Santa Ana , Taos , Jemez , Acoma , Laguna , and Zia , as well as the Hopi and Zuni peoples , trace their ancestry back to the Ancestral Puebloans, while the Akimel O'odham and Tohono O'odham claim descent from Hohokam. The area previously occupied by

5192-477: The establishment of Alta Ski Area , Utah's skiing began to be developed. Due to the ski conditions in the state, during WWII, the 10th Mountain Division established Camp Hale in Colorado to train elite ski troops. While this article deals with the core definition for the American Southwest, there are many others. The various definitions can be broken down into four main categories: Historical/Archeological; Geological/Topographical; Ecological; and Cultural. In

5280-413: The heart of the Southwest, called the "Santa Fe Route." It ran from Chicago, down through Topeka, then further south to Albuquerque, before heading almost due west through northern Arizona to Los Angeles. The repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893 led to the decline of the silver mining industry in the region. In 1901, the Santa Fe Railroad reached the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, opening

5368-428: The historical region of Santa Fe de Nuevo México as well as parts of Alta California and Coahuila y Tejas , settlement was almost non-existent outside of Nuevo México's Pueblos and Spanish or Mexican municipalities . Much of the area had been a part of New Spain and Mexico until the United States acquired the area through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and the smaller Gadsden Purchase in 1854. While

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5456-403: The last of the 48 contiguous United States on February 14, 1912. The 1930s saw the beginning of the ski industry in the Southwest. Resorts were established in Colorado in areas such as Estes Park , Gunnison , and on Loveland Pass . New Mexico's oldest ski area is Sandia Peak Ski Area at the eastern edge of Albuquerque , which opened to skiers in 1936. At the end of the decade, in 1939, with

5544-463: The location of the Southwestern and Northwestern United States . In the early years of the United States, newly colonized lands lying immediately west of the Appalachian Mountains were detached from North Carolina and given the name Southwest Territory . During the decades that followed, the region known as "the Southwestern United States" covered much of the Deep South east of the Mississippi River. However, as territories and eventual states to

5632-493: The majority of Athabaskan speakers reside. The Ute were found over most of modern-day Utah and Colorado, as well as northern New Mexico and Arizona. The Paiutes roamed an area which covered over 45,000 square miles of southern Nevada and California, south-central Utah, and northern Arizona. The Hopi settled the lands of the central and western portions of northern Arizona. Their village of Oraibi , settled in approximately AD 1100, is, along with Acoma Sky City in New Mexico, one of

5720-417: The oldest continuously occupied settlements in the United States. The Mogollon area became occupied by the Apaches and the Zuni. The Apache migrated into the American Southwest from the northern areas of North America at some point between 1200 and 1500. They settled throughout New Mexico, eastern Arizona, northern Mexico, parts of western Texas, and southern Colorado. The Zuni count their direct ancestry through

5808-489: The organ-pipe, senita, prickly pear, barrel, fishhook, hedgehog, cholla, silver dollar, and jojoba. The portion of the Sonora Desert which lies in the Southwestern United States is the most populated area within the region. Six of the top ten major population centers of the region are found within its borders: Phoenix, Tucson , Mesa , Chandler , Glendale , and Scottsdale , all in Arizona. Also within its borders are Yuma and Prescott, Arizona . The most northwest portion of

5896-507: The portion of western Texas included in the Southwest. While it is the second largest desert in the United States, only a third of the desert is within the United States, with the rest in Mexico. El Paso and Albuquerque are the major US cities in this desert, with other smaller cities being Las Cruces and Roswell in New Mexico and Willcox in Arizona. The elevation in the Chihuahuan varies from about 1,750 to 6,000 feet (500 to 1,800 meters), as there are several larger mountain ranges, such as

5984-440: The region are the Colorado River , running in the northern and western areas, and the Rio Grande , running in the east, north to south. Formed approximately 8000 years ago, the Chihuahuan Desert is a relatively dry desert, although it is slightly wetter than the Sonoran Desert to the west. The Chihuahuan Desert spreads across the southeastern portion of the region, covering from southeastern Arizona, across southern New Mexico, and

6072-428: The region is mainly made up of four features: the Mojave , Sonoran , and Chihuahuan Deserts , and the Colorado Plateau ; although there are other geographical features as well, such as a portion of the Great Basin Desert . The deserts dominate the southern and western reaches of the area, while the plateau (which is largely made up of high desert) is the main feature north of the Mogollon Rim . The two major rivers of

6160-435: The region's boundaries are not officially defined, there have been attempts to do so. One such definition is from the Mojave Desert in California in the west (117° west longitude) to Carlsbad, New Mexico , in the east (104° west longitude); another says that it extends from the Mexico–United States border in the south to the southern areas of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada in the north (39° north latitude). In another definition,

6248-420: The revolt was unsuccessful. In fact, it had the exact opposite effect, for the result of the rebellion was the establishment of the presidio at Tubac , the first permanent European settlement in Arizona. In 1768, the Spanish created the Provincia de las Californias , which included California and the Southwest US. Over approximately the next 50 years, the Spanish continued to explore the Southwest, and in 1776

6336-451: The site of the Dude fire that started on June 25, 1990. This fire grew to cover over 30,000 acres (120 km ) and killed six wildland firefighters. Other large fires have burned along the Mogollon Rim since 1990, and the area's Ponderosa pine forests remain vulnerable because of past fire-suppression efforts and the buildup of available dry fuel. Western novel author Zane Grey built

6424-603: The sought-after Southwestern architectural styles in the region inspired by blending Pueblo and Territorial styles, with Mediterranean Revival , Spanish Colonial architecture , Mission Revival architecture , Pueblo Deco , and Ranch-style houses in the form of the amalgamated Pueblo Revival and Territorial Revival architectures. This is due to the region's caballero heritage of the Native American (especially Apache , Pueblo , and Navajo ), Hispano , Mexican American , and frontier cowboy . The geography of

6512-518: The south the 37th parallel . In 1862 Nevada's eastern border shifted to the 38th meridian west from Washington , and finally to its current position at the 37th meridian west from Washington in 1866. The boundary modification in 1866 also included adding the southern triangular tip of the present-day state, taken from the Arizona Territory. From July 24–27, 1861 a Confederate force under the command of Lt. Colonel John Robert Baylor forced

6600-492: The southernmost sections of Oregon, Idaho, and Wyoming, as well as parts of southwest Nebraska, western Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. By 1977, the Society's definition had narrowed to only the four states of Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico; and by 1982 the portion of the Southwest in the United States, as defined by the Society, had shrunk to Arizona and New Mexico, with the southernmost strip of Utah and Colorado, as well as

6688-549: The standard region system in 1995, several agencies continue to follow the system, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development . Office location: Boston States: Connecticut , Maine , Massachusetts , New Hampshire , Rhode Island , and Vermont Office location: New York City States: New York , New Jersey , Puerto Rico , and

6776-528: The surrender of the small Union garrison stationed at Fort Fillmore , near Mesilla, New Mexico . On August 1, 1861, Baylor declared the creation of the Arizona Territory , and claimed it for the Confederacy, with Mesilla as its capital. The territory, which had been formed by the portion of the existing New Mexico Territory below the 34th parallel, became official on February 14, 1862. Nevada

6864-465: The ubiquitous presence of various cacti species. When people think of the desert southwest, the landscape of the Sonoran Desert is what mostly comes to mind. The Sonoran Desert makes up the southwestern portion of the Southwest; most of the desert lies in Mexico, but its United States component lies on the southeastern border of California, and the western 2/3 of southern Arizona. Rainfall averages between 4 and 12 in (100 and 300 mm) per year, and

6952-528: The very southern tip of Nevada; while the Utah Territory consisted of Utah, most of Nevada, and portions of Wyoming and Colorado. The New Mexico Territory was expanded along its southern extent, to its current border, with the signing of the Gadsden Purchase Treaty on December 30, 1853, which was ratified by the U.S. Congress, with some slight alterations, in April 1854. The Colorado Territory

7040-472: The very southernmost part of Utah, southwestern Colorado, the very tip of west Texas, and triangle formed by the southern tip of Nevada. This will be the defined scope that is used in this article unless otherwise specified in a particular area. Parts of the other states make up the various areas that can be included in the Southwest, depending on the source. The Learning Center of the American Southwest (LCAS) does not rely on current state boundaries, and defines

7128-573: The walls of the Grand Canyon . In many places, the Rim is capped or buried by the extensive basaltic lava flows. The uppermost sandstone stratum of the Mogollon Rim, called the Coconino Sandstone , forms white cliffs that sometimes reach several hundred feet high. This formation of the Permian Period is of aeolian (windblown) origin and is one of the thickest sand-dune-derived sandstones on earth. Cities and towns near

7216-445: The way for a tourism boom, a trend led by restaurant and hotel entrepreneur Fred Harvey . The last two territories within the Southwest to achieve statehood were New Mexico and Arizona. By 1863, with the splitting off of the Arizona Territory, New Mexico reached its modern borders. They became states within forty days of one another. On January 6, 1912, New Mexico became the 47th state in the Union. Arizona would shortly follow, becoming

7304-564: The west and the Sierra Madre Oriental on the east) which block oceanic precipitation from reaching the area. The Chihuahuan Desert is considered the "most biologically diverse desert in the Western Hemisphere and one of the most diverse in the world," and includes more species of cacti than any other desert in the world. The most prolific plants in this region are agave , yucca and creosote bushes , in addition to

7392-575: The west to Las Vegas, New Mexico in the East. Reed's definition is roughly equivalent to the western half of the Learning Center of the American Southwest's definition, leaving out any portion of Kansas and Oklahoma, and much of Texas, as well as the eastern half of New Mexico. Since this article is about the Southwestern United States, the areas of Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico will be excluded. The portion left includes Arizona and western New Mexico,

7480-490: The west were added after the Mexican–American War , the geographical "Southwest" expanded, and the relationship of these new acquisitions to the South itself became "increasingly unclear." However, archeologist, Erik Reed, gives a description which is the most widely accepted as defining the American Southwest, which runs from Durango, Colorado in the north, to Durango, Mexico, in the south, and from Las Vegas, Nevada in

7568-421: Was admitted to the Union on October 31, 1864, becoming the 36th state. This was followed by the admittance to the Union of Colorado, which became the 38th state on August 1, 1876. Confederate Arizona was short-lived, however. By May 1862, Confederate forces had been driven out of the region by union troops. That same month a bill was introduced into the U.S. Congress, and on February 24, 1863 Abraham Lincoln signed

7656-484: Was organized on February 28, 1861, created out of lands then currently in the Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, and New Mexico territories. The Nevada Territory was also organized in 1861, on March 2, with land taken from the existing Utah Territory. Initially, only the western 2/3 of what is currently the State of Nevada was included in the territory, with its boundary to the east being the 39th meridian west from Washington , and to

7744-563: Was visited by its first non-Spanish Europeans, English trappers. In 1836, the Republic of Texas , which contained the easternmost of the Southwest United States, won its independence from Mexico. In 1845 the Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States and immediately became a state, bypassing the usual territory phase. The new state still contained portions of what would eventually become parts of other states. In 1846,

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