Arizona's most important contribution to the world as we know it might just be the shirt off your back.
Pima cotton, known for its elegance and durabilty, was formulated on experimental farms near Sacaton, but long before it became the go-to fabric for shirts and sheets, it played a key role in making the world safe for democracy in the War to End All Wars.
In the early days of aviation and automobile travel, cotton was used for everything from canvas airplane wings to dirigibles. One of the most important uses was as a reinforcement in rubber tires.
The best cotton for the job was the long-staple variety, imported from Egypt.
Unlike the coarser, less-durable short fiber cotton grown in the south, the long-staple variety requires a much longer temperate growing period, in other words, a climate like the Arizona desert.
In World War I, Egyptian cotton was embargoed, and treacherous shipping lanes patroled by German U-boats made it difficult to import it from anywhere else.
A solution was growing in the Arizona desert. Farmers near Yuma had been growing long-staple cotton since about 1900, and in the middle of the next decade, the U.S. Department of Agriculture began experimenting with a more durable variety at farms near Sacaton on the Gila River Pima Indian Reservation, where Pima cotton gets its name.
After the war, the bottom fell out of the cotton market, but agriculture experts continued to develop Pima cotton into a silker, more luxuriant fabric that is coveted worldwide.
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