Arizona Fun Facts and Figures

Know Arizona History, Climate and Other Information before Traveling

Aug 31, 2007

Greater Roadrunner in Arizona, www.morguefile.com; photo by Dawn M. Turner

Suprising facts about Arizona: its forests, golf courses, mountains, illegal activity, temperature records, sunshine, cactus, and the Gunfight Not at the OK Corral

In Arizona there's a bird that can run faster than it can fly. The roadrunner you find in Arizona is the Greater Roadrunner and it can run at speeds of up to 15mph – faster than it can fly! There is also a smaller Lesser Roadrunner, which is found in Mexico and Central America.
In Arizona there are flowers that only bloom at night.
Arizona is home to the largest species of cactus in the world.
In Arizona there is more sunshine than there is in Hawaii, even more sunshine than there is in the Sunshine State!
People think of Arizona as a desert state, yet it would be more accurate to think of it as a tree-covered state. It has the largest contiguous strand of ponderosa pine trees in the United States and over half the state is made up of mountains and plateaus. One-quarter of Arizona is made up of forest land, including 11.2 million acres of National Forest.
Arizona's highest recorded temperature was 128 degrees at Lake Havasu City, June 29, 1994.
Arizona has been known to have both the hottest and the coldest temperatures in the nation on the same day.
Arizona is the sixth largest state in the United States. It is about the same size as Italy. It has more mountains than Switzerland and more golf courses than Scotland.
Arizona is one of the Four Corners states, the only place in the USA where a person can be in four different states at the same time.
Only 15% of Arizona is privately owned. The rest is made up of government and state-owned land, such as National Forests, National Parks and recreation areas, as well as Native American reservations. Arizona is the state with the largest proportion of its area made up of Native American land.
Arizona does not observe Daylight Savings Time – except within the confines of the Navajo Nation in the extreme northeast of the state.
In Arizona it is illegal for donkeys to sleep in bathtubs. It is also illegal to refuse a person a glass of water if they request it, and illegal to ride a horse up the stairs of the county court house in Prescott.
The Gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone did not take place at the OK Corral but on a nearby vacant lot, and it only lasted about thirty seconds. The legend, however, has lasted since 1881.
Finally, Arizona has more boat owners per head of population than any other state in the USA.

The copyright of the article Arizona Fun Facts and Figures in Arizona Travel is owned by Donna Dailey. Permission to republish Arizona Fun Facts and Figures in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.