Arizona’s Five Cs: A Century Later
Arizona’s economy is said to be built on The Five Cs: Cattle, Citrus, Climate, Copper, and Cotton.
But things have changed. Today, it’s aerospace, biotech, and tourism that drive the state’s economy.
The Five Cs: A Century Later is a half-hour radio documentary that examines the state’s original economic engines. We explore their past and hear predictions about their future.
The Five Cs aired in 2012 on Tucson’s NPR station, KUAZ-FM. It received a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for “Best Radio Documentary” in 2013.
Listen
Arizona's Five Cs: A Century Later
Run time: 29:00
Senior Producer/Editor/Host: Mark Duggan
Contributing Reporters: Mark Duggan, Fernanda Echavarria, Robert Rappaport, Steve Shadley
Executive Producer: Peter Michaels
Photos
Orchard owner DeWayne Justice's hands have touched thousands of oranges. (Photo by Fernanda Echavarria)
Arizona's population exploded in the 1950s, with many newcomers arriving for the sunshine.
Orchard owner DeWayne Justice expertly carves into one of his own oranges. (Photo by Fernanda Echavarria)
Dewayne Justice tastes an orange on his 300-acre orchard near Phoenix. (Photo by Fernanda Echavarria)
Cattle feed. (Photo by Steve Shadley)
A modern cotton gin sounds like a giant vacuum cleaner. (Photo by Mark Duggan)
Arizona is still a leading producer of cotton. (Photo by Mark Duggan)
Water is a scarce resource in a desert state. Some argue copper mining and cotton farming are using too much of it. (Photo of Sabino Creek by Mark Duggan)
The Magma Mine near Superior Arizona. (Photo by Mark Duggan)
The vast Morenci Mine in eastern Arizona is one of the largest open pit copper mines in North America. (Photo by Mark Duggan)
Piles of copper mine tailings from the Ray Mine tower over the Sonoran Desert. (Photo by Mark Duggan)
The open pit Carlota Mine west of Globe, Arizona. (Photo by Mark Duggan)
Corn mash at a cattle ranch near Tucson. (Photo: Steve Shadley)
A newborn calf learns to walk. (Photo: Steve Shadley)
Citrus grower Dewayne Justice samples the juice of his labor. (Photo: Fernanda Echavarria)
Citrus grower Dewayne Justice reaches for an orange at his orchard in Maricopa County, Arizona. (Photo: Fernanda Echavarria)
Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793 . Today's version is a little larger. Songwriter Billy Joe Shaver described the sound of a gin "like a giant vacuum cleaner, sucking lint off of the ground" in his song "Jesus Was Our Savior and Cotton Was Our King." (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Cotton farmer Ron Rayner checks settings on his cotton gin, which is completely computer-controlled. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Freshly-ginned cotton is ready for baling and shipping to market. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Raw cotton awaits ginning, the process by which fiber is separated from seed. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Climate is one of Arizona's Five Cs. The state has long attracted people who want plenty of sunshine. Here, the sun falls low on the Sonoran Desert near Saguaro National Park's west unit. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Arizona's population has grown exponentially over the years as people have moved to the state for sunshine and warm weather. But can already-scarce water supplies sustain continued growth? Here, Sabino Creek flows down Sabino Canyon in the Santa Catalina Mountains near Tucson. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
The Morenci Mine is the largest open pit copper mine in the U.S. and has been in operation since 1881. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Site of the proposed Rosemont Copper Mine southeast of Tucson. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Tailings piles tower over the desert at the Ray Mine in central Arizona. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Children play in a city park in the shadow of the massive Hayden Smelter in Arizona. Its 1,001 foot-tall chimney is the tallest free-standing structure of Arizona. In 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a "finding of violation" against the smelter for releasing "illegal amounts of lead, arsenic and eight other dangerous compounds."