Wayne Thornburg was an American politician from Arizona. He served two consecutive terms in the Arizona State Senate during the

7th 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube (algebra), cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion ...

and

8th Arizona State Legislature The 8th Arizona State Legislature, consisting of the Arizona State Senate and the Arizona House of Representatives, was constituted from January 1, 1927, to December 31, 1928, during the first and second years of George W. P. Hunt's sixth tenure ...

s, holding one of the two seats from Yavapai County. He was a cattle rancher and agriculturist near Phoenix, who at one point was the largest producer of sugar beet seed in the world.

Biography

Thornburg was born in 1891 in California. He moved from Van Nuys, California, to Arizona in 1919, originally locating in the Prescott area, where he managed several ranches: the Bixby ranch, the Diamond 2 Cattle Ranch, and the Three Links Cattle Ranch. In 1918, upon U. S. entrance into

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Thornburg enlisted in the

U. S. Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, multi ...

. In October of that year, he attended their officer training program at Fort Monroe in Virginia. He graduated and was given the rank of Lieutenant. He was honorably discharged in February 1919. He moved from the Prescott area to Phoenix in 1927. He was chairman of the public lands committee which was the driving force behind getting the

Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 () is a United States federal law that provides for the regulation of grazing on the public lands (excluding Alaska) to improve rangeland conditions and regulate their use. The law initially permitted of previously ...

passed into law. He pioneered the growing of both cardinal grapes and winter sweet corn in the

Salt River Valley The Salt River Valley is an extensive valley on the Salt River in central Arizona, which contains the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. Although this geographic term still identifies the area, the name "Valley of the Sun" popularly replaced the usage ...

, and his ranch in Litchfield Park was one of the largest producers of cardinal grapes in the country. At one point, he and his partner, Floyd Smith were the largest producers of sugar beet seed in the world. He also developed and patented a variety of grape, the "robin grape". In addition to his grapes, he also grew cotton and alfalfa, as well as raising cattle. Thornburg died on August 8, 1980, in the Beatitudes Care Center in

Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''. It may refer to: Places Australia * Glendale, New South Wales ** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre *Glendale, Queensland, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornburg, Wayne Republican Party Arizona state senators 20th-century Arizona politicians 1891 births 1980 deaths People from Litchfield Park, Arizona Politicians from Los Angeles