Wheeling, dealing, brawling in Arizona’s Legislature

Clay Thompson is off today. Enjoy this “Classic Clay” column from Jan. 7, 2008:

Today we are going to discuss one of Arizona’s most notorious Legislatures: the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature of 1885. It went down in history as the Thieving Thirteenth. Some people also called it the Bloody Thirteenth because some of its members tended to brawl, and not just in Prescott’s bars. The main target of the legislators’ chicanery was a list of goodies — the site of the state capital, a prison, a normal (teachers) school, an insane asylum — to be doled out to various cities around the territory. The good people of Tucson raised $500 for their guy, one C.C. Stevens, to grease the skids so the capital could be moved from Prescott to their city.

However, Stevens couldn’t get across the flooded Gila River to reach Prescott. So he took a Southern Pacific train to California, a Santa Fe train back to Ash Fork, and then a stagecoach to Prescott.

By the time the unlucky Stevens showed up with his $500, the wheeling and dealing was done: The capital remained in Prescott.

Most of the other prizes also had been doled out. Phoenix got the insane asylum. Tempe got the normal school, which became Arizona State University. Yuma got to keep its prison. Tucson got $25,000 to open a territorial college, which grew into the University of Arizona.

Tucson had to come up with 40 acres for the school within a year. At first, no one provided any land. Finally, as the deadline neared, two gamblers and a saloonkeeper agreed to provide a tract.