WI: Arizona has a coast and keeps the Southern part of Nevada

Basically as the tin says, what if the southern border of Arizona and New Mexico were farther south, giving Arizona a coastline along the Gulf of California/Sea of Cortez.

This would give Arizona an even longer border with the Colorado River, as the mouth of the river would now be partly Arizonan.

Additionally, for the purposes of this WI, the southern portion of Nevada that exists from extending AZ’s northern border to California is never severed from the state.

How does the territory of Arizona develop in its enlarged state? Would Phoenix remain the capital?

What happens with the Colorado River Compact now that AZ has even more boundaries with the river and a coastline?
 
There's no reason Phoenix wouldn't still be the state capital in this scenario. OTL it was originally Tucson but that city had too many Mexican residents for the liking of the territorial government so they relocated to the growing city of Phoenix, which is the most centrally located of all state capitals in the United States. Nogales would anchor the southernmost portion of a larger Phoenix-Tucson-Nogales population corridor.

Agriculture would be bigger in Arizona with more Colorado River access but this would come at the expense of the river itself which today has severe problems associated with overuse by AZ, NV and CA. The compact remains the same with CA getting preferred rights due to its much larger population and economy.

Puerto Penasco on the coast of the Sea of Cortez is popularly known as Arizona's Beach and would be bigger and more popular today as a vacation destination for Southwesterners if it were American territory.
 
Map
Arizona.png
 
I wonder if gambling would be legal in this TL in AZ and if Vegas would be a thing as a result

Not likely since Arizona doesn't have the economic need for gambling the way Nevada did when they legalized it in the 1930s. Looking at that map I doubt Las Vegas would exist as we know it today although Kingman-Lake Havasu-Laughlin might still be popular with vacationers because of their location on the Colorado River.
 
Not likely since Arizona doesn't have the economic need for gambling the way Nevada did when they legalized it in the 1930s. Looking at that map I doubt Las Vegas would exist as we know it today although Kingman-Lake Havasu-Laughlin might still be popular with vacationers because of their location on the Colorado River.

I’d imagine some town would pop up along a future dam built at the spot around Hoover Dam.
 
Perhaps another state would legalize ore heavily invest in gambling to meet the demand instead of nevada. Such as Louisiana, Washington, Florida, Wyoming, South Dakota?

Second point would the Nevada even be viable as a state without the Vegas area. Best case would it be another Wyoming
 
Why couldn't Arizona fight the compact, they did try otl and here they're bigger and control more of the river.

Not to mention if an alt Hoover Dam were still built in its OTL location, it would be entirely within Arizona as would the corresponding Lake/Reservoir.
 

TruthfulPanda

Gone Fishin'
Second point would the Nevada even be viable as a state without the Vegas area.
Wasn't it made into a State only because the Republicans needed two Senate seats?
Once made into a State it stays a State ... look at Rhode Island or Delaware ...
 
Perhaps another state would legalize ore heavily invest in gambling to meet the demand instead of nevada. Such as Louisiana, Washington, Florida, Wyoming, South Dakota?

Second point would the Nevada even be viable as a state without the Vegas area. Best case would it be another Wyoming

When Nevada became a state present-day Clark County was not included. Nevada and Missouri are the only two states to have expanded their territory after achieving statehood.
 
When Nevada became a state present-day Clark County was not included. Nevada and Missouri are the only two states to have expanded their territory after achieving statehood.

Wikipedia says it happened because of gold being discovered in the area... maybe we just delay gold being discovered
 
On the Colorado River Compact, I think Arizona does end up getting a bigger share of the water, but not at California's expense. It's entirely possible Nevada will be cut out entirely of the compact, giving Arizona its share. It actually might benefit Arizona and California even more as there is one less "Lower Basin" state and the "Upper Basin" states might lose a fraction of their share (or, in other words, guarantee a certain extra amount of water going downstream).
 
Wikipedia says it happened because of gold being discovered in the area... maybe we just delay gold being discovered

I always thought it was to give Nevada access to the Colorado River. There was gold mining activity in the area, but it wasn't substantial compared to finds in Prescott, Arizona or Silverton, Colorado around the same time.
 
I always thought it was to give Nevada access to the Colorado River. There was gold mining activity in the area, but it wasn't substantial compared to finds in Prescott, Arizona or Silverton, Colorado around the same time.

Well it's not sourced but the claim is that the US government thought Nevada could better control the gold deposits in the area?
 
Maybe, I think I heard about the Colorado River access thing from "How The States Got Their Shape."

Either way. Here we have uber Arizona with a coastline, a major train stop near Vegas and some more gold and other minerals. Maybe we see it be slightly more liberal than in OTL as a result.
 
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