Pre-European contact ruins at
Chaco Canyon Human history in the Southwest begins with the arrival of the
Clovis culture, a
Paleo-Indian hunter-gatherer culture which arrived sometime around 9000 BC. This culture remained in the area for several millennia. At some point they were replaced by three great
Pre-Columbian Indian cultures: the
Ancestral Pueblo people, the
Hohokam, and the
Mogollon, all of which existed among other surrounding cultures including the
Patayan. Maize was first cultivated in the region sometime during the early first millennium BC, but it took several hundred years for the native cultures to become dependent on it as a food source. As their dependence on maize grew,
Pre-Columbian Indians began developing irrigation systems around 600
CE. Archaeological evidence suggests the Ancestral Pueblo people, sometimes referred to as the Anasazi, began settling the area in approximately 1500 BC. However, the term "Anasazi" is viewed by modern
Pueblo people as derogatory and is increasingly disused. Eventually, the Ancestral Pueblo would spread throughout the entire northern section of the Southwest. This culture would go through several different eras lasting from approximately 1500 BC through the middle of the 15th century AD: the
Basketmaker I,
II, and
III phases followed by the
Pueblo I,
II,
III, and
IV. As the Puebloans transitioned from a nomadic lifestyle to one based on both dry land and irrigated agriculture, Their range would eventually extend deep into what would become Mexico, and dominate the southeastern portion of the Southwest. Their settlements would evolve over time from pit-dwellings through pueblos and ultimately incorporate cliff-dwellings. The
Hohokam were the last of these ancestral cultures to develop, somewhere around AD 1, but became the most populous of the three by AD 1300, despite occupying the smallest territory of the three, covering most of the southwest portion. Beginning in approximately AD 600, the Hohokam began to develop an extensive series of irrigation canals; of the three major cultures in the Southwest, only the Ancestral Puebloans of the
Chaco culture and the Hohokam developed irrigation as a means of watering their agriculture. while the
Akimel O'odham and
Tohono O'odham claim descent from Hohokam. The area previously occupied by the Mogollon was taken over by an unrelated tribe, the
Apache. While it is unclear whether any of the modern Indian tribes are descended from the Mogollon, some archeologists and historians believe that they mixed with Ancestral Puebloans and became part of the modern Hopi and Zuni tribes. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Southwestern United States was inhabited by a very large population of
American Indian tribes. The area once occupied by the ancestral Puebloans became inhabited by several American Indian tribes, the most populous of which were the
Navajo,
Ute,
Southern Paiute, and Hopi. The Navajo, along with the Hopi, were the earliest of the modern Indian tribes to develop in the Southwest. Around AD 1100 their culture began to develop in the
Four Corners area of the region. The Navajos
migrated from northwestern Canada and eastern
Alaska, where the majority of
Athabaskan speakers reside. The Ute were found over most of modern-day Utah and Colorado, as well as northern New Mexico and Arizona. The Paiutes roamed an area which covered over 45,000 square miles of southern Nevada and California, south-central Utah, and northern Arizona. The Hopi settled the lands of the central and western portions of northern Arizona. Their village of
Oraibi, settled in approximately AD 1100, is, along with
Acoma Sky City in New Mexico, one of the oldest continuously occupied settlements in the United States. The Mogollon area became occupied by the Apaches and the Zuni. The Apache migrated into the American Southwest from the northern areas of North America at some point between 1200 and 1500. They settled throughout New Mexico, eastern Arizona, northern Mexico, parts of western Texas, and southern Colorado. The Zuni count their direct ancestry through the ancestral Puebloans. The modern-day Zuni established a culture along the
Zuni River in far-eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. Both major tribes of the O'odham tribe settled in the southern and central Arizona, in the lands once controlled by their ancestors, the Hohokam.
Arrival of Europeans The first European intrusion into the region came from the south. In 1539, a Jesuit Franciscan named
Marcos de Niza led an expedition from Mexico City which passed through eastern Arizona. The following year
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, based on reports from survivors of the
Narváez expedition (1528–36) who had crossed eastern Texas on their way to Mexico City, led an expedition to discover the Seven Golden Cities of Cíbola. The 1582–3 expedition of
Antonio de Espejo explored New Mexico and eastern Arizona; and this led to
Juan de Oñate's establishment of the Spanish province of
Santa Fe de Nuevo México in 1598, with a capital founded near
Ohkay Oweenge Pueblo, which he called San Juan de los Caballeros. Oñate's party also attempted to establish a settlement in Arizona in 1599, but were turned back by inclement weather. In 1610,
Santa Fe was founded, making it the oldest capital in United States. In 1664 Juan Archuleta led an expedition into what is now Colorado, becoming the first European to enter. A second Spanish expedition was led into Colorado by Juan Ulibarrí in 1706, during which he claimed the Colorado territory for Spain. From 1687 to 1691 the Jesuit priest
Eusebio Kino established several missions in the
Santa Cruz River valley; and Kino further explored southern and central Arizona in 1694, during which he discovered the ruins of Casa Grande. In 1776, two Franciscan priests, Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, led an
expedition from Santa Fe heading to California. After passing through Colorado, they became the first Europeans to travel into what is now Utah. Their journey was halted by bad weather in October, and they turned back, heading south into Arizona before turning east back to Santa Fe. (Upper California) in pink. In 1804 Spain divided the Provincia de las Californias, creating the province
Alta California, which consisted primarily of what would become California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. In 1821 Mexico achieved its independence from Spain and shortly after, in 1824, developed its
constitution, which established the Alta California territory, which was the same geographic area as the earlier Spanish province. In 1825, Arizona was visited by its first non-Spanish Europeans, English trappers. In 1836, the
Republic of Texas, which contained the easternmost of the Southwest United States, won its independence from Mexico. In 1845 the Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States and immediately became a state, bypassing the usual territory phase. The new state still contained portions of what would eventually become parts of other states. In 1846, the Southwest became embroiled in the
Mexican–American War, partly as a result of the United States' annexation of Texas. On August 18, 1846, an American force captured Santa Fe, New Mexico. On December 16 of the same year, American forces captured Tucson, Arizona, marking the end of hostilities in the Southwest United States. When the war ended with the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848, the United States gained control of all of present-day California, Nevada and Utah, as well as the majority of Arizona, and parts of New Mexico and Colorado (the rest of present-day Colorado, and most of New Mexico had been gained by the United States in their annexation of the Republic of Texas). The final portion of the Southwestern United States came about through the acquisition of the southernmost parts of Arizona and New Mexico through the
Gadsden Purchase in 1853.
Becoming states Of the states of which at least a portion make up the Southwest, Texas was the first to achieve statehood. On December 29, 1845, the Republic of Texas was annexed, bypassing the status of becoming a territory, and immediately became a state. Initially, its borders included parts of what would become several other states: almost half of New Mexico, a third of Colorado, and small portions of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. Texas current borders were set in the
Compromise of 1850, where Texas ceded land to the federal government in exchange for $10 million, which would go to paying off the debt Texas had accumulated in its war with Mexico. Following the Mexican Cession, the lands of what had been the Mexican territory of Alta California were in flux: portions of what is now New Mexico were claimed, but never controlled, by Texas. With the Compromise of 1850, the states of Texas and California were created (Texas as a slave state, and California as a free state), as well as the
Utah Territory and
New Mexico Territory. The New Mexico Territory consisted of most of Arizona and New Mexico (excluding a strip along their southern borders), a small section of southern Colorado, and the very southern tip of Nevada; while the Utah Territory consisted of Utah, most of Nevada, and portions of Wyoming and Colorado. The New Mexico Territory was expanded along its southern extent, to its current border, with the signing of the Gadsden Purchase Treaty on December 30, 1853, which was ratified by the U.S. Congress, with some slight alterations, in April 1854. The
Colorado Territory was organized on February 28, 1861, created out of lands then currently in the Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, and New Mexico territories. The
Nevada Territory was also organized in 1861, on March 2, with land taken from the existing Utah Territory. Initially, only the western 2/3 of what is currently the State of Nevada was included in the territory, with its boundary to the east being the
39th meridian west from Washington, and to the south the
37th parallel. In 1862 Nevada's eastern border shifted to the
38th meridian west from Washington, and finally to its current position at the
37th meridian west from Washington in 1866. The boundary modification in 1866 also included adding the southern triangular tip of the present-day state, taken from the Arizona Territory. From July 24–27, 1861 a Confederate force under the command of Lt. Colonel John Robert Baylor forced the surrender of the small Union garrison stationed at
Fort Fillmore, near
Mesilla, New Mexico. On August 1, 1861, Baylor declared the creation of the
Arizona Territory, and claimed it for the Confederacy, with Mesilla as its capital. The territory, which had been formed by the portion of the existing New Mexico Territory below the 34th parallel, became official on February 14, 1862. Nevada was admitted to the Union on October 31, 1864, becoming the 36th state. This was followed by the admittance to the Union of Colorado, which became the 38th state on August 1, 1876. Confederate Arizona was short-lived, however. By May 1862, Confederate forces had been driven out of the region by union troops. That same month a bill was introduced into the U.S. Congress, and on February 24, 1863
Abraham Lincoln signed the
Arizona Organic Act, which officially created the U.S.
Territory of Arizona, splitting the New Mexico Territory at the 107th meridian. Utah, as shown above, evolved out of the Utah Territory, as pieces of the original territory created in 1850 were carved out: parts were ceded to Nevada, Wyoming, and Colorado in 1861; another section to Nevada in 1862; and the final section to Nevada in 1866. In 1890, the LDS church issued the
1890 Manifesto, which officially banned polygamy for members of the church. It was the last roadblock for Utah entering the Union, and on January 4, 1896, Utah was officially granted statehood, becoming the 45th state. In 1869,
John Wesley Powell led a 3-month expedition which explored the
Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. In 1875, he would publish a book describing his explorations,
Report of the Exploration of the Columbia River of the West and Its Tributaries, which was later republished as
The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons. In 1877 silver was discovered in southeastern Arizona. The notorious mining town of
Tombstone, Arizona was born to service the miners. The town would become immortalized as the scene of what is considered the greatest gunfight in the history of the Old West, the
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Copper was also discovered in 1877, near
Bisbee and
Jerome in Arizona, which became an important component of the economy of the Southwest. Production began in 1880 and was made more profitable by the expansion of the railroad throughout the territory during the 1880s. The early 1880s also saw the completion of the second transcontinental railroad, which ran through the heart of the Southwest, called the "Santa Fe Route." It ran from Chicago, down through Topeka, then further south to Albuquerque, before heading almost due west through northern Arizona to Los Angeles. The repeal of the
Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893 led to the decline of the silver mining industry in the region. In 1901, the
Santa Fe Railroad reached the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, opening the way for a tourism boom, a trend led by restaurant and hotel entrepreneur
Fred Harvey. The last two territories within the Southwest to achieve statehood were New Mexico and Arizona. By 1863, with the splitting off of the Arizona Territory, New Mexico reached its modern borders. They became states within forty days of one another. On January 6, 1912, New Mexico became the 47th state in the Union. Arizona would shortly follow, becoming the last of the 48 contiguous United States on February 14, 1912.
Since statehood Ski industry The 1930s saw the beginning of the ski industry in the Southwest. Resorts were established in Colorado in areas such as
Estes Park,
Gunnison, and on
Loveland Pass. New Mexico's oldest ski area is
Sandia Peak Ski Area at the eastern edge of
Albuquerque, which opened to skiers in 1936. At the end of the decade, in 1939, with the establishment of
Alta Ski Area,
Utah's skiing began to be developed. Due to the ski conditions in the state, during WWII, the
10th Mountain Division established
Camp Hale in Colorado to train elite ski troops. ==Origins of the term and historical/cultural variations==