Arizona, Land of Wide Open Spaces

Man, in many ways, is a complicated person. Essentially, he is gregarious and loves to mix with other people, but at times he wants to be alone. On this planet of ours, becoming increasingly more populated year after year, in our own country for instance, things are getting more crowded and more crowded. The individual, not necessarily a philosopher or a nut, feels hemmed in by lack of room to flex his lungs or his muscles. This is not an anti-social trait. It is just a simple desire to be alone, with his own thoughts and dreams to keep him company. Lonely, indeed, and to be pitied, is the person who for a short while cannot live by himself. Wide, open spaces is the object of his search. That may account, in some ways, for our state's growth in the past decade or so. Folks just get tired of the hurry and scurry of more populous areas. They come looking for a place where there is room in which to relax, to find a semblance of solitude and peace where they are not hermits in caves, but, at least, have a quiet part of the world which they cherish as their very own, a private world in which there are no intruders.

That growth in our state has been phenomenal since World War II is not the figment or the pigment of some starry-eyed drum beater's imagination, lucratively employed in the more starry-eyed labor of creating fetching advertisements proclaiming the many virtues and attractions of Arizona as a perfect place to visit, to move to or in which to settle down. Proclaiming these virtues and attractions has been our mission in life for many years and, we can assure you, our zest for the job has never lessened.

When we apply the adjective "phenomenal" to this state's growth in the two decades from 1948 through 1968 we could not properly be accused of understatement, if we can trust figures supplied by very authoritative figurefinders, the Valley National Bank Research Dept., figures which we trust completely. From them we learn our population in 1948 was 616,000 but in 1968 it had leaped to 1,692,000, a leap of 175%, a handsome leap in anyone's figures. At this rate, according to much more learned prognostigators than we could ever hope to be, our state should have a population of between 2,581,000 and 2,847,000 in 1985, indicating, of course, expected growth cannot be denied or stopped, no matter what happens.

One government agency tells us the population of Arizona at the end of this year will be 1,741,000, a considerable jump over the figures we quoted you above for 1968.

We are further apprised by statistical experts that our state's growth in population centered in Maricopa County (from 331,770 in 1950 to an estimated 930,000 as of July 1, 1969) and Pima County (from 141,216 in 1950 to an estimated 343,200 as of July 1, 1969). Our two largest cities have truly blossomed in people-growth Phoenix from 106,818 in 1950 to an estimated 546,000 as of July 1, 1969, and Tucson from 45,454 in 1950 to an estimated 255,000 as of July 1, 1969. One thing we know: new folks coming our way do not just sit in the sun and let the world go by. They pitch in and help get things done. Note: personal income in Arizona in 1946 was $669,000,000; in 1968 it was $5,034,000,000. That, as they say, is a lot of new-mown hay!

But please don't let these figures disturb you. If you come our way we promise you you'll find a lot of wide open spaces to roam around in and where you'll be unfettered by what can be a stifling civilization and too little elbow room. As our planet gets more crowded, open spaces are becoming more appreciated.