AZ: The History of Arizona podcast

Phoenix saw phenomenal growth during the 1920s, with new homes and new neighborhoods rapidly expanding outward. Phoenicians also wanted to make sure that no one would mistake their tree-lined city for something as base as a desert.

With the cotton boom happening across Arizona in the late 1910s and the early 1920s, the demand for cheap labor during the harvest season increased exponentially. To meet that demand, large-scale farming operators turned to both Amerindian and Mexican labor to get the job done.

The demands of World War I included an insatiable hunger for cotton. Arizona farmers would cash in on this need, but they would wind up going a little too far in betting on this white, fluffy gold.

World War I may be one of America's more forgotten conflicts, but you don't have to look too hard to find Arizona's memorials to its famous, high-flying, balloon-busting native son.

In 1917, the U.S. went to war, and men and women across the country - including Arizona - jumped to do their part. However, when two brothers refused to be drafted, it set off the largest manhunt in state history.

In the waning years of the Mexican Revolution and after the outbreak of World War I, the international border with Mexico was transformed from the more open and lax line to the fenced, patrolled boundary we know today.

In 1916, Pancho Villa made the rash move of attacking the U.S. in order to get back into the revolutionary game. All this got him was a swift reprisal from the U.S. Army.

The second phase of the Mexican Revolution kicked off in 1913 after the death of President Francisco Madero. This meant a stronger - though still woefully deficient - presence of troops along the Arizona border and the rise of a certain famous bandit turned revolutionary.

In 1910, Mexico suddenly erupted in violence and chaos. Though it was (mostly) an internal rebellion, it definitely impacted the communities sitting just across the international boundary line.

The time has finally come to carry out my threat to do a whole episode about early state historian James H. McClintock, plus two other state historians, just for good measure.