Historedia
Episode 1 of 2

Signing of the Organic Act

When
1863-02-24
Where
Washington, D.C.
Part of
Arizona is organized as a United States territory

President Lincoln signed the Arizona Organic Act on February 24, 1863, officially creating the territory from the western half of New Mexico.

The Arizona Organic Act, introduced as H.R. 357, provided for the creation of Arizona Territory by dividing the New Mexico Territory. President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill on February 24, 1863, marking the official organization of the U.S. Arizona Territory.

Sources

  1. Arizona Organic Act Wikipedia, revision of 2026-02-01
  2. Arizona Territory Wikipedia, revision of 2026-05-08

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.