Official Web Site of the City of Phoenix

This ceramic tile mural, titled A Bit of the Grand 48th, investigates the history of Arizona, which became the 48th state in 1912. Arizona’s earliest inhabitants - Apache dancers, vaqueros, prospectors, Spanish explorers, farmers and cowboys - spring from the bottom of the piece in a dynamic upward movement. Symbols of industrial growth, from the stagecoach to the railroad, mingle and fuse in the desert landscape representing definable moments in the state’s diverse history.