It is a Big, Big, Big Land

It is a Big, Big,

It is a big land, but not as big as it appeared to those who first came into it. The prehistoric people found it big and good and they stayed and prospered in the generous land and they lived in peace for centuries before the hostile elements made their lives unendurable and they moved on to other places, no one knows where, and the big land remained empty for a long time. Then wandering tribes drifted in from the north hundreds of years ago and they found theland good and they remained. They respected, almost deified, the elements and revered the land. Today, hundreds of years later, their descendants live in the big land and they bear such names as Navajo, Hopi, Pima, Papago, Hualapai, Mohave, Cocopah, Apache, Havasupai, among others.

Big Land

In the late 1500's there came from the south a new breed of men, some bearing crosses, some bearing firearms, and they sought in the big land mineral riches for their king, a haughty person who lived in a castle in Spain and coveted the whole world. The big land was jealous of its riches, though, and the early Spaniards found in it only suffering and despair. Little did they realize what they had missed.

The tide of conquest continued from the south and more men came, some with crosses, some with firearms and some others with seeds and cattle and horses and the land itself theyfound good, but by this time Apaches, fearing for the loss of their land, killed and raided and burned and the big land became a stage of human conflict that lasted for decades. Intruders, Spaniards and later Americans alike, found the Apaches, always with unrelenting fury, an obstacle for the conquest of the big land. First there came from the east trappers, mountain men, soldiers, surveyors and in increasing numbers, cattlemen and sturdy settlers and this tide of immigration was as relentless as the Apaches and eventually the big land was conquered, history was written, and Old Glory became the proud and cherished symbol under which all the people in the big land gathered together for their mutual benefit and for the desire to fulfill their manifest destiny as part of a great people in a great land.Eventhe most visionary of the prophets back

Even in the late 1800's could not have foreseen what would come to pass in the big and empty land. That was when Geronimo, valiant Apache leader, surrendered and peace came forever to the harsh and forbidding frontier.

Dams were built to store what little water was available because the land was not only big and empty but arid, and in building these dams men achieved one of the most impressive victories over Nature that has ever been achieved since primitive man stalked out of his cave to elevate himself above the status of an animal emerging from the darkness to walk high and proud as lord of all creation. With these stored waters came the plow to turn the forbidding and useless desert lands into a lush garden and more and more men came with more plows to farm the rich lands and reap the rich harvest. In the mountains where early Spaniards found only

barren hostility and where they left only their discouraged and sullen footprints other men found copper in deposits so rich even the haughty King of Old Spain would have been astounded beyond his most avaricious dreams. A river of red wealth flowed from the mountains and man prospered in the big land, and the big land was glad and even in spite of all the mineral riches which the land has produced to this very minute more and more millions will be produced in the future because man, even with his inquiring ways, has much, much to learn about the big land.

Men dreamed big dreams in the big land and worked with prodigous purpose to make those dreams come true. The big land was conquered at last.

Villages became towns, towns became cities. The big land welcomed all who came, welcomed their talents and dreams, respected their hopes and needs, gave them opportunities to prosper and grow. So men and women, almost in astronomical proportions, have come in recent decades to the big land. And the years and the decades to come will see more and more and more people with all men's aspirations and ambitions and hopes and fears and resolutions.

The big land seems to say, not as the poet said, "Send me men to match my mountains!" but to say, "Send me men to match my deserts and my mountains!"

And so, as we said in the beginning, the big land is not as big as it was. Fine highways have shattered the awesomeness of its vast, lonely and empty spaces. Man's ingenuity has tempered its harshness, softened the propelling image of its immensity, gentled its outward appearances in many ways.

But it is still the big land. It is so big that people, no matter in what numbers they come, can never essentially change its character or its personality. It will always be the big, empty and lonely land offering man the desired privacy he needs in an increasingly hurried and crowded world. Fly over it some time! East to west, north to south! You will exclaim aloud as to its seemingly endlessness, its emptiness!

It seems to say, as it welcomes its new sons and daughters, "I am the land, the big land. Do not use me improperly, or abuse me, because if you do you will perish, but I shall remain forever. My largess for you and those who will come is beyond measure. I give freely of what I have to offer. It depends on you to use it well! Respect me and revere me as the Indians did from the very beginning!"

This big, big, big land is a place called Arizona. Look it up on the map sometime!