Southwestern United States

The Southwestern United States, also called the American Southwest, is a special area in the United States. It includes the states of Arizona and New Mexico, plus parts of California, Colorado, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. Big cities in this area are Phoenix, Las Vegas, El Paso, Albuquerque, and Tucson.

Long ago, before 1848, not many people lived here except in places like New Mexico's pueblos and small Spanish or Mexican municipalities. This land used to belong to New Spain and later Mexico, until the United States got it through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and the Gadsden Purchase in 1854.

Today, the Southwest is known for its special style of living. You can see this in the way people dress, called Western wear, and in the tasty foods like Southwestern cuisines that mix Native American, New Mexican, and Tex-Mex flavors. The music here also has its own feel, with types like Western music and Tejano styles. The buildings in the Southwest often look beautiful too, with designs inspired by old Pueblo and Spanish Colonial architecture. All of this comes from the area's rich history with Native American groups like the Apache, Pueblo, and Navajo, as well as Hispano, Mexican American, and cowboy traditions.

Regional geography

The Southwestern United States has many different landscapes. It includes the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts, as well as the Colorado Plateau. Other areas include part of the Great Basin Desert. The deserts cover most of the southern and western parts, while the plateau lies to the north of the Mogollon Rim. The main rivers are the Colorado River in the north and west, and the Rio Grande in the east.

The Chihuahuan Desert formed about 8000 years ago. It is dry but a bit wetter than the Sonoran Desert. It stretches from southeastern Arizona through New Mexico into western Texas. El Paso and Albuquerque are major cities here. The desert has many mountains and changes in height. Some mountains have forests and snow, which are very different from the desert below. These special places are called sky islands. The Chihuahuan Desert has many types of plants, especially cacti.

The Sonoran Desert is in the southwest, mostly in Mexico but also in southeastern California and southern Arizona. Its most famous plant is the saguaro cactus. Many people live in this desert, including in Phoenix, Tucson, and other cities.

The Mojave Desert is the smallest, driest, and hottest desert in the United States. It is in southeastern Nevada, southwestern Utah, and northwestern Arizona. Las Vegas is its largest city. The Joshua tree is a well-known plant here.

The Colorado Plateau has many different landscapes, from forests to canyons. The Grand Canyon is its most famous feature. The plateau is very old, formed over 500 million years ago. Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Flagstaff are some of the cities here.

History

Main articles: History of New Mexico, History of Arizona, History of Utah, History of Nevada, History of Colorado, History of Texas, Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico, and Oasisamerica

Pre-European contact

See also: Indigenous peoples of the North American Southwest

People first lived in the Southwest around 9000 BC. They were hunter-gatherers and stayed for many years. Later, three big groups lived there: the Ancestral Pueblo people, the Hohokam, and the Mogollon. These groups grew crops like maize and built systems to help their farms.

The Ancestral Pueblo people began living there around 1500 BC. They built homes and farmed the land. The Mogollon culture came later, around 300 BC, and built homes in cliffs. The Hohokam developed around AD 1 and built canals to water their crops.

Eventually, these cultures declined and disappeared by the end of the 15th century. Today’s tribes like the Navajo, Ute, Southern Paiute, Hopi, Apache, and Zuni come from these ancient groups.

Arrival of Europeans

The first Europeans came from Mexico. In 1539, Marcos de Niza passed through eastern Arizona. The next year, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado searched for gold. Later, Juan de Oñate created the Spanish area of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in 1598.

More Spanish people came to the area. In 1764, Spain made a province that included California and the Southwest. By 1821, Mexico became independent from Spain and controlled this area.

In 1846, the United States went to war with Mexico, partly because of Texas. American forces took control of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Tucson, Arizona. The war ended in 1848, and the United States gained control of much of the Southwest.

Becoming states

Texas was the first to become a state in 1845. Nevada joined in 1864, followed by Colorado in 1876. Utah became a state in 1896.

New Mexico and Arizona were the last to become states. New Mexico joined on January 6, 1912, and Arizona followed on February 14, 1912, completing the 48 contiguous states.

Origins of the term and historical/cultural variations

The American Southwest has many different definitions. In the 1930s and 1940s, some maps included parts of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado, and Utah. By 1948, the National Geographic Society said the Southwest included California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, plus parts of Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. By 1977, they narrowed it down to just Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. By 1982, they said the Southwest in the United States was mostly Arizona and New Mexico, plus a small part of Utah and Colorado and the Mojave and Colorado deserts in California.

Some experts think the Southwest should focus more on Arizona and New Mexico, with just small parts of the states around them. One expert, D. W. Meinig, split the Southwest into four parts. The first is Northern New Mexico, centered around Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The second is Central Arizona, a big area around Phoenix, including cities like Tempe and Mesa. The third part is El Paso, Tucson, and the Southern Borderlands, which includes cities like El Paso and Tucson. The fourth part is the Northern Corridor and Navajolands, which connects Albuquerque and Flagstaff and includes large areas of land belonging to Native American tribes.

As the United States grew, the idea of where the Southwest was changed. At first, the Southwest was a place east of the Mississippi River. But after the country added new lands from Mexico, the Southwest moved west. This area includes Arizona, western New Mexico, a small part of southern Utah, southwestern Colorado, a tiny part of west Texas, and a triangle shaped area from southern Nevada. This is the area we will talk about in this article.

Different groups define the Southwest in different ways. One group looks at the natural features and weather and includes parts of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. Another group looks at the plants and animals and includes Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of California, Nevada, Texas, and Utah.

When thinking about the culture, some say the Southwest is the land west of the Pecos River, north of the border with Mexico, south of the Mesa Verde and the Grand Canyon, and east of the mountains that separate Southern California. Texas is often seen as a special part of the South. While the area in far west Texas is part of the desert Southwest, most of Texas and parts of Oklahoma are seen as part of the South. This is because the history, culture, and ways people settled there are more like the South than the West. Most people in Texas and Oklahoma think of themselves as southerners, not westerners.

Vegetation and terrain

The Southwest has many special plants, like yucca, saguaro cactus, barrel cactus, prickly pear cactus, desert spoon, creosote bush, sagebrush, and greasewood. These cacti grow in places such as Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and west Texas. The area also has steppe lands in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. The mountains in the Southwest have tall trees on them.

The landscape of the Southwest includes mountains, deep valleys called canyons, flat top mountains called mesas, and isolated hills called buttes. There are also wide basins, flat areas called plateaus, deserts, and some plains. The land in this area is dry, with some parts being very dry. In the Texas Hill Country, there are tall, rocky hills made of limestone and granite. In South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley, the land is mostly flat with scrubby plants and bare soil, similar to deserts further west.

Wildlife

The Southwestern United States has many different birds. In the Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona, you can see over 400 kinds of birds. Some well-known birds are the roadrunner, New Mexico’s state bird, and birds of prey like the red-tailed hawk, golden eagle, and osprey.

The area also has many mammals, such as the bobcat, coyote, black bear, and mountain lion. There are snakes here too, including several kinds of rattlesnakes. You can also find lizards like the Gila monster and many turtles. In wetter spots, there are frogs, toads, and salamanders. Fish such as the Apache trout and desert pupfishes live in the region’s isolated water places.

Climate

The southwestern United States has a dry climate, ranging from semi-arid to arid. Much of this area is desert, but the mountains have cooler climates with snow. Cities like Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, and El Paso are in desert areas and rarely see snow. Albuquerque gets some snow in winter, but it usually melts quickly.

Nevada and Arizona are mostly desert with mountains that get snow at higher elevations. New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado are also dry, with deserts and mountains that receive snow, especially at higher elevations. West Texas is dry but gets less snow compared to other areas. The region is often called the "High Desert," which includes places like the Mojave Desert and the Colorado Plateau. This high desert can get cold at night in winter and receives some snow that melts fast. Rain mainly comes in the summer during the North American Monsoon season.

The Southwest can go through long periods of drought.

National parks, monuments and forests

The southwestern United States has many famous national parks. Some of these parks are Grand Canyon in Arizona, Death Valley in California, and Great Sand Dunes in Colorado. There are also many other parks in states like Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and more.

Arizona has parks such as Monument Valley, Petrified Forest, and Saguaro. California includes Joshua Tree, and Colorado features Mesa Verde. Nevada has Great Basin, and New Mexico has Carlsbad Caverns. Texas has Big Bend, and Utah includes Zion and Bryce Canyon. Each of these places offers special landscapes and natural wonders to see.

Demographics

Hispanic Americans live in many big cities in the Southwest, such as El Paso, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, and Mesa. Many Latino people in the Southwest are Mexican American.

There are also Hispanic Americans in smaller cities like Eagle Pass, Las Cruces, Yuma, Blythe, Pueblo, Santa Fe, and Glendale. Small towns in the Southwest have large Latino communities too.

Large Asian American groups are in California and Texas, with some in Phoenix. The biggest American Indian groups live in New Mexico and Arizona. Many Native Americans live in the Southwest.

Cities and urban areas

The Southwestern United States has many big cities and areas where lots of people live, even though some parts are not very crowded. Phoenix is the fifth biggest city in the country. Albuquerque and Las Vegas have been growing very fast. The region has seen a lot of growth. Utah was the fastest-growing state in America around 2008–2009. By 2010, Nevada was growing the fastest. Other states like Arizona, Texas, Utah, and Colorado were also growing quickly.

The biggest areas where lots of people live are around Phoenix, Las Vegas, Tucson, Albuquerque, and El Paso. Together, these areas have more than 9.6 million people. Most live in Phoenix and Tucson in Arizona.

Sports

Professional

Phoenix and Las Vegas are the only big cities in the Southwest with major sports teams. Las Vegas has the Las Vegas Raiders football team and the Vegas Golden Knights hockey team. Phoenix has the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team, the Arizona Cardinals football team, and the Phoenix Suns basketball team. The area also hosts many important sports events.

The Southwest has racing events, big marathons, and special races for police teams. Las Vegas is famous for big boxing matches.

College

The Southwest has many college sports teams. Schools like Arizona State and the University of Arizona are part of big college sports groups. Las Vegas is a popular place for college basketball tournaments. The area also has several college football bowl games, like the Fiesta Bowl and the Las Vegas Bowl.

Politics