152 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES 
The name Arizona is supposed to have been taken from Papago 
words that signify place of small springs. According to Cavat and 
Mora, however, it is derived from an ancient Pima name first applied 
to a mining camp in Sonora. It was used by the Spaniards as early 
as 1736. The capital has been ively at Fort Whipple, Prescott, 
Tucson, again at Prescott, and since 1889 at Phoenix. Statehood 
was attained February 14, 1912. The Southern Pacific Railroad 
was built through Arizona in 1880 and the Atlantic & Pacific (now a 
part of the Santa Fe system) in 1883. The first train entered the 
State at Yuma in September, 1877. (See p. 292.) 
As the tracks wind down grade from Steins Pass, there are in view 
many plants of the curious-looking ocotillo (0-co-tee’yo), Fouquieria 
splendens (see pl. 41, A), which prefers the rocky soil of the foothills. 
It consists of a cluster of nearly straight, slender stems diverging 
upward, covered with thorns and bearing very small leaves during 
part of the year. In early summer each branch is tipped by a plume 
of bright-crimson flowers. A stalk thrust in the ground will usually 
grow, yet the wood is dry enough to make a torch. Mesquite occurs 
in places, especially along the arroyos and lower flats. The creosote 
bush (Covillea tridentata), named for the famous botanist F. V. Coville, 
is abundant here and throughout much of the desert region. It 
grows from 2 to 6 feet high and is rather widely spaced, after the 
habit of desert plants, so that the wide-spreading roots may gather 
the moisture from an ample area. For most of the year its leaves 
are covered with a resin that protects them against evaporation and 
also renders them very unpalatable to animals. Its small yellow 
flowers are conspicuous during part of the summer. The common 
name is due to a tarry odor given off when the plant is burned. 
Ten miles beyond the State line is San Simon, the center of a small 
irrigation district using water from artesian wells. It is in the 
Sax Bima bottom of the wide San Simon Valley, which lies 
gore between the Peloncillo Mountains on the east, the 
Population 300.* Chiricahua and Dos Cabezas Range (dose ca-bay’sas) 
ot : 
___ the area in which artesian flows are obtained extends about 18 miles 
the lower part of the San Simon Valley above and below San 
