Untold Arizona
Arizona is a unique place full of stories, folklore and Wild West chicanery. From KJZZ’s Original Productions, Untold Arizona explores some of the stories you probably haven’t heard about the Grand Canyon State.
Untold Arizona: Season 3
Less than 20% of Arizona is privately owned. In a sense, it belongs to everyone. No one person can claim this land. But one man got awfully close — the Baron of Arizona. →
Many people in the Southwest claim they have seen La Llorona or the weeping woman, from the Rio de Flag in Flagstaff all the way down to the San Pedro River near Tucson. →
Arizona’s mountains, cinder cones and lava fields attest to the state’s wild geological youth. But those with an ear to the ground know the state’s seismic days are far from over. →
Three years ago, Bisbee artist Gretchen Baer opened a small art center just steps from the border in the quiet town of Naco, Sonora. Now, every Tuesday the little studio bursts into life. →
How can you live a frontier lifestyle long after the frontier has closed? In 2020, it involves solar panels, composting toilets, and rainwater harvesting. Meet some off-gridders in Cochise County.→
The town of is wedged between I-10 and Tempe. If you’ve never visited, you’ve most likely zoomed past it. This story is about the community, their history and their future. →
Ever since the U.S. won Olympic gold in 2018, the sport of curling has been gaining in popularity. But long before that, curling has thrived from a devoted following right here in the desert. →
Even in defeat, the University of Arizona team "fought like wildcats." The history of the wildcat name — and the mascots for Arizona’s two other state universities — are more than a century in the making. →
San Pedro de la Cueva is about as remote a corner of vast, sparsely populated Sonora as there is. Nevertheless, Arizona and other U.S. bass anglers have been heading there for decades. →
The story of a church in Phoenix with roots going back almost as far as Arizona’s statehood. It's a sanctuary built out of a history of hardship for Phoenix’s Hispanic community. →
Untold Arizona: Season 2
In the 1950s and '60s, Arizona tourists and Hollywood stars filled the stands to see some of the world’s most famous bullfighters. →
People of have been living in the Southwest for thousands of years. This is evident in the ground stones they left behind. →
The 1955 movie-musical "Oklahoma!" was actually filmed in the San Rafael Valley, a small patch of land in southern Arizona. →
In the mid-1960s, the waters of a massive dam in northern Mexico flooded three small towns in Sonora, displacing their residents. →
How one street artist commemorated the killing of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, a Mexican teenager who was shot by a Border Patrol agent. →
Hidden away in a dusty neighborhood just south of the Arizona border, a group of women are creating a sustainable community for themselves. →
The Verde, the Gila, the Salt — without these rivers, life in Arizona would be unthinkable. Scientists are still piecing together their mysterious origins. →
The largest collection of global children’s literature in the country and the second largest in the world is in Tucson →
Interstate 19 in southern Arizona is the country’s only continuous highway that lists distances in kilometers, not miles. →
A well known treat in Sonora — but not as well known outside of it — is the coyota, a flat, flaky pastry stuffed with sweet filling. →
“Rillito’s a good town, but it’s a forgotten town. It’s a good community. But if you on the freeway and you blink, and you driving by, you miss it." →
A historic school in Ajo has been preserved into affordable artists housing and creatives are flocking to the desert to live there. →
During Route 66’s heyday, families drove cross country on the "Mother Road" and took in a variety of roadside attractions. In Arizona, many stopped halfway between Flagstaff and Winslow at a spooky ghost town. →
Have an untold story of your own? Be part of the conversation — contribute using the hashtag #UntoldArizona on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, or join our Facebook group to hear from others who love the beauty and wonder of the Grand Canyon State.
Untold Arizona: Season 1
Historians have been uncertain whether the body of the famed Basque explorer for the Spanish Crown was actually who everyone assumed it to be. A single clerical error led to a centuries old mystery in northern Mexico. →
If you drive north from Benson long enough you’ll reach the tiny community of Cascabel. In recent years, hundreds of new residents have flocked there, to a haven for parrots in need of a home. →
Scout Troop 4 is made up of inmates at the Adobe Mountain School, a secured facility for juvenile offenders, just north of Phoenix. →
Arizona’s earliest residents grew teparies for thousands of years, but in recent history, the beans were at risk of shriveling into obscurity. →
We all know Hoover Dam, and you might know about the Imperial or other dams that manage the Colorado River. But the very first completed dam on the Colorado was the Laguna Dam. →
Skull Valley was originally settled as those going West came to find metals in the ground. Those mines helped build the towns, and all of them are long gone — except for one. →
To Arizonans turquoise is the stone of belt buckles, artists, galleries - and a rich Native American cultural heritage. Trace turquoise’s story from its archaeological past to it uncertain future. →
In Tucson’s Barrio Viejo evidence of the city’s Mexican heritage is everywhere. Visitors come to eat tacos, to admire adobe architecture, and if they know where to go, they can make a wish too at El Tiradito. →
The Pleasant Valley War exploded out of a feud between two families. Historians have tried to document exactly what happened, but ran into misinformation campaigns designed to protect those involved. →
About a mile from the Superstition Mountain sits a white, wooden chapel with a unique connection to the King of rock 'n' roll. →
If you have ever driven to San Diego, chances are you've seen billboards for the “world-famous date shakes” in the tiny town of Dateland. But Dateland is home to more than just date shakes. →
Almost two centuries ago, the United States fought a gruesome war against Mexico and annexed a vast territory that includes Arizona. What does Arizona mean to Mexico nowadays? →