Here's The Most Important Historical Event In Arizona

GRAND CANYON, AZ – America is relatively young compared to other nations at 242 years, but that doesn’t mean it’s short on historical contributions. And just as the U.S. has played a key role in shaping the world, Arizona has helped shape America into what it is today.

The website 24/7 Wall St., a Delaware-based company that covers financial news and offers opinions, looked over state historical information, research sources and media reports of major events throughout U.S. history to come up with what it calls the “most important” event for each state, including disasters — due to Mother Nature or people —important legislation and scientific breakthroughs. See if you agree.

In Arizona, the site says designation of Grand Canyon National Park in 1919 was the the single most significant event in the history of the state.

It wasn't an easy road.

As a senator, Benjamin Harrison introduced legislation to make the Grand Canyon the country's second national park after Yellowstone. Three times.

In 1893, after being elected president, he established the Grand Canyon Forest Reserve.

Ten years later, President Theodore Roosevelt, visited the park and left no doubt the power that it had held over him.

"The Grand Canyon fills me with awe," he wrote. "It is beyond comparison – beyond description; absolutely unparalleled through-out the wide world. Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is. Do nothing to mar its grandeur, sublimity and loveliness.

"You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is to keep it for your children, your children's children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see."

In 1906, Roosevelt added to its designation the title of "Grand Canyon Game Preserve.

Still, the idea of making it a National Park met resistance.

Bills were introduced again in 1910 and 1911.

Both were defeated.

It wasn't until 1919 that it finally passed Congress and was signed by President Wilson.

The Canyon is the result of millions of years of work by the Colorado River. It is 277 river miles long, as many as 18 miles wide, and one mile deep.

Nearly 5 million people visit the park every year.

Other major events you may recognize from around the country include the opening of The United States Billion Depository at Fort Knox 1937, the desegregation of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957 and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City.

“Many of the events on our list are tragic, including the forced removal of Native Americans from their lands — the Trail of Tears in the South — as well as attacks from domestic and foreign terrorists,” the site says.

“In the case of several states, fighting between white settlers and Native Americans ranked as the most important historical event. The treatment of indigenous people shaped America in many ways, and often occurred in frontier states.”

Some events technically happened before the area was formally established as a state, but those events were still considered due to the prominence of that event, such as the founding of the Jamestown settlement in present-day Virginia. Also of note, the site ignored events that simply happened in a state that could’ve happened anywhere else and had the same impact, such as an international treaty signing.

To see the full list of events that shaped the nation, with pictures, to boot, click here.

Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

Photo via Colin Miner.