AZ: The History of Arizona podcast

14 years before his nationwide electoral defeat, Barry Goldwater was a successful businessman, city councilor, and Republican organizer who decided to take a bold swing and run for the U.S. Senate.

To finally get the Central Arizona Project through Congress in 1968, it took more than a few tries, a mountain of compromises, dramatic changes, and no small amount of political chicanery.

Carl Hayden’s push to get the Central Arizona Project approved started to clear the hurdles in Congress, only to run straight into two particularly hard obstacles - environmentalists and Amerindian interests.

Following the state’s Supreme Court victory, Carl Hayden expected to pass a bill authorizing the Central Arizona Project immediately. Unfortunately, his plans ran up against those of the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, who had his own ideas, and a powerful congressman from Colorado who was wary of any project downstream of him.

It took 11 years, $5 million and hundreds of experts and witnesses, but in 1963, Arizona finally managed a major court win against its sworn enemy - at least when it came to water - to the west.

Del Webb started off the 1960s by introducing Arizona to a new type of community, one that would forever alter how we view retirement. His affordable, amenity-rich, age-restricted community of Sun City became the model for active adult communities nationwide for decades.

In 1956, two planes collided midair over the Grand Canyon. This tragedy and the 128 people lost would change commercial air travel in the United States forever.

Governor J. Howard Pyle’s push to end polygamy on the Utah border not only fizzled, but it would create a massive political backlash against him. Even worse, it caused the fundamentalists to become more isolated and insular, which allowed the rise of Warren Jeffs and some of the worst abuses of plural marriage.

Following the raid on Short Creek, the men found themselves facing trial, while their wives and children were divvied up and sent to live in foster homes across the state. However, within four years every single one of them would be home again.

After all the planning and buildup, at 4 a.m. on Sunday, July 26, 1953, hundreds of law enforcement officers, social workers, and others converge on Short Creek and took dozens of men and women into custody.