The Grand Canyon State - almost

The Arizona House today approved the state nickname to be the "Grand Canyon State," something that everyone thought was already a done deal. But although it is on our license plates and elsewhere, it had not been formally adopted. Now, the legislation goes to the State Senate, where they are not hearing bills until the FY10 budget is resolved. So, there is the chance that Arizona will continue on without a legal nickname.


Arizona Revised Statutes Title 41, Chapter 4.1, Article 5 prescribes the following as official state emblems:

State fossil: Petrified wood, or araucarioxylon arizonicum

State bird: The cactus wren, otherwise known as Coues' cactus wren or heleodytes brunneicapillus couesi (Sharpe)

State flower: The pure white waxy flower of the cereus giganteus (giant cactus) or Saguaro

State tree: The Palo Verde (genera cercidium)

State neckwear: The Bola tie

State gemstone: Turquoise

State animals: The ringtail or bassariscus astutus, the Arizona ridgenose rattlesnake or crotalus willardi, the Arizona trout or salmon apache and the Arizona tree frog or hyla eximia shall be known respectively as the state mammal, reptile, fish and amphibian

State butterfly: The papilionidae papilio multicaudata, two-tailed swallowtail