Back when I was a kid, Arizona was my home away from home. My grandfather had bad arthritis, so he and my grandmother moved there in the days before AC. (They say everyone who moved to southern Arizona before AC did it for their health.) It must have worked, he lived to 99 and was still walking around to his dying day. She made it to 100.
Although I’m from Va, some of my fondest childhood memories are of camping, hiking and shooting in Arizona. Later I went to the University of Arizona. In Va. I had ridden with the 4th Va. Cavalry. In Arizona, I quickly fell in with the 8th US infantry (with occasional cavalry duty).
So, when it came time to pick an alias, it had to be something that combined the post CW west and Spencers. Arizona Trooper fit the bill.
One of these days, we’re moving back West, and probably to Az, or New Mexico. Unfortunately, Tucson is getting a bit too hectic, but there’s a lot more to the state than Tucson and Phoenix.
By the way Tubac, I have an interesting account of the Mowry-Cross duel in Tubac just before the war (Burnside’s Carbines and 40 paces!).