Arizona’s observance of time demonstrates considerable weirdness. This article isn’t about time, however, although it’s about Arizona. I think of Arizona at least twice a year, in Spring and in Autumn when the United States toggles between standard and daylight saving time. A disconnected memory triggered by the upcoming time change floated back into to my mind.
I recalled a comment left on 12MC several months ago by “Page” that referenced the curious “Arizona Strip.” The contributor left only one other comment ever, on that same day, so I don’t know if this was a random fly-by or a regular reader who mostly lurks. Either way, I found the topic fascinating and I tucked it away for further examination later.
Geographical Definition
The Arizona Strip isn’t a high desert variation of a burlesque show. Rather it refers to the northwestern corner of the state above the Colorado River (map). It is almost completely cut off from the remainder of Arizona by the Grand Canyon. It’s not quite a practical exclave because two roads on the far eastern end connect the Strip to the larger portion of Arizona — Route 89 at Glen Canyon and Route 89a at Marble Canyon (map) — although it has similar characteristics in a general sense because one has to swing around the Grand Canyon regardless.
For instance:
- A drive from Grand Canyon Lodge on the north rim to Bright Angel Lodge on the south rim will take 213 miles (343 km) over nearly five hours (map). The air distance between those points is probably about a dozen miles.
- A resident of Colorado City who wishes to visit the Mohave County seat in Kingman will need to drive more than 250 miles (400 km). That person would likely have to drive into Utah and Nevada first to do that, and swing all the way out to Las Vegas using the most logical route (map).
- People living in the towns of Littlefield or Scenic where Interstate 15 clips the corner of the state are effectively cleaved from the rest of Arizona (map) unless they wish to leave the state first or traverse a dangerous and hellish 4-wheel drive track instead.
My Visits
I’ve been to the the Arizona Strip twice although I didn’t recognize it as such at the time. One involved the aforementioned stretch of Interstate 15 between St. George, Utah and Mesquite, Nevada. I remember those two points clearly. I can’t seem to recall anything about my 30-mile crossing of the Arizona Strip except that I know I must have been there because I took I-15.
The other one involved a visit to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Most visitors go to the south rim which by itself is an excellent reason to consider heading into the Arizona Strip to see the north rim instead. It’s much less crowded and considerably more relaxed. It was here that I infamously (embarrassingly) found an hour so obviously I have very conscious memories of the Arizona Strip from that time. Plus it was the Grand Canyon! Who could ever forget about that?
An Artifact of Slavery
One might wonder why a state would be created with such an obvious anomaly. Geography implies that it would make much more sense to include the Strip as a southern extension of Utah.
The early Latter Day Saints pioneers thought likewise. They expanded southward into the Arizona Strip starting in the 1850’s and founded several settlements including Littlefield and Fredonia. The Strip was included in the Mormon’s ambitious 1849 State of Deseret proposal that the U.S. Congress rejected. Lawmakers were wrestling with a larger issue at the time. A delicate balance of places that allowed slavery and those that did not was beginning to unravel with the absorption of new territory in the wake of the 1848 Mexican-American War victory.
The Compromise of 1850 reset the balance, albeit temporarily. One provision created territorial boundaries for Utah and New Mexico (with Arizona later cleaved from New Mexico) and established Utah’s southern border. Thus an argument over slavery, not the logic of geography, created the Arizona Strip. It became somewhat of a “no-man’s land,” not a part of Utah and far removed from Arizona’s civic reach.
An Artifact of Polygamy
The United States would not accept Utah as as state until the Latter Day Saints disavowed polygamy. This happened in the Manifesto of 1890. This same prohibition also had to be written into the Utah constitution as a condition of statehood. With those hurdles cleared, Congress accepted Utah’s application and it became a state in 1896.
The polygamy disavowal was not acceptable to certain Mormons who formed breakaway sects in response. Some of them moved to the Arizona Strip where Utah’s laws did not apply to them and where they were left largely alone by Arizona authorities located too far away to bother. Even today Colorado City, AZ and the adjoining town of Hildale on the Utah side of the border are essentially controlled by a polygamist sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS):
Colorado City is the largest town in the Arizona Strip with 5,000 of the Strip’s 8,000 residents. The situation has devolved in recent years and it’s attracted the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice. Steps have also been taken by the State of Arizona to wrestle control of the town away from the FLDS. A geographic anomaly created in an attempt to deal with issues of slavery reverberates more than a century and a half later.
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