The effect of political divisions

I am just back from a trip to national parks in Utah and Arizona (Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyon). On the trip I visited the Navajo Bridge across the Colorado River. It is located at Lees Ferry (see the following map). When it was built some 80 years ago it was the only bridge across the Colorado River for 600 miles.

The area shown in the map that is north of the Colorado River and south of the Utah-Colorado border is known as the Arizona Strip. Think about it. While it is part of Arizona, communication with the rest of the state was prior to the completion of the bridge very difficult, while communication with southern Utah was direct and simple. Yet the Arizona Strip developed as part of Arizona subject to Arizona laws and paying Arizona taxes rather than as part of Utah subject to Utah laws and taxes.

Source of map.

The following map is used to illustrate the distance from Kanab, Utah to Franconia, Arizona, about seven or eight miles. I happened to drive from Kanab to Franconia and back, a round trip that took about a half hour by my watch. However, the two towns are in different time zones, according to the decisions by their state governments. (And if you cross the Colorado on the Navajo bridge, going between the Navajo reservation and Arizona you also change time zone.) It must be a pain in the tail for close neighbors to be in different time zones.

Source of map.

Someone, long ago, created an artificial line separating two territories, which became the line separating two states. That line has had effects on the people who live in the region, or like myself who merely travel across the line. The need to reset ones watch with every crossing is a minor example, but for me it was a very graphic example of the impact a seemingly nominal change in the political map can have.