AZ: The History of Arizona podcast

If it’s true that amateurs study tactics while professionals study logistics, then Arizona Governor J. Howard Pyle resolved to be a thorough professional before trying his hand at stamping out polygamy in the community of Short Creek.

In which we blame the migraine from Hades for there being no new episode this week.

The polygamy of the fundamentalists living at Short Creek was always going to ensure that they were going to run afoul of the law. In the 1930s and 1940s first the state of Arizona, then the U.S. government decided they simply could not abide these scofflaws any longer. Unfortunately, the way they went about it had very mixed results.

To understand the 1953 raid on polygamous families living in Short Creek, we have to go back even further and understand where the community of Short Creek came from, and the theological controversies that led fundamentalist Mormon families to settle there.

The Korean War tends to be one of America’s more forgotten conflicts, but as the fighting waged during the early 1950s it would have several impacts on the state. And it was a Marine veteran from Tucson whose story made sure Korean veterans had access to the same benefits as all other servicemen.

After more than two decades of radio, television took off in Phoenix in 1949. And just five years later, an Arizona TV icon would first walk in front of the camera, kicking off a 35-year career of making children laugh.

Along with its population explosion, Arizona in the 1950s dealt with the proliferation of cars on its roads and highways. As part of its efforts to keep up, the state would upgrade one particular highway that became a paved connection between the Valley of the Sun and the Rim country to the north.

The 1950s was a period of explosive growth and development for Arizona, especially for Phoenix, which not only rapidly expanded its population, but city boundaries and economy. But the unsung hero of this development was the one thing that makes the desert a tolerable place to live - air conditioning.

The Central Arizona Project became a reality within our lifetimes and today delivers water to Maricopa and Pinal counties. But the genesis for such an idea actually goes back nearly a century. And the real fight to get the thing built would start in the latter end of the 1940s, as Carl Hayden made it his mission to bring Colorado River water to central Arizona.