photo by gusto

“Old Pueblo” (meaning “old village”), as Tucson is affectionately nicknamed, is Arizona’s oldest city and, with about 468,500 residents, its second largest. Located in southeastern Arizona beside the Santa Cruz River, in a high desert valley surrounded by mountains, its human history reaches back to the Native Americans who occupied the area as long as 12,000 years ago.

Father Eusebio Francisco Kino first visited the valley in the late 1600s, and in 1700 he established several missions in the area. Tucson was founded in 1775 as a Spanish presidio, or military garrison, to protect settlers from Apache raids. It was Spain’s northernmost outpost in the New World.

Its name is a Pima Native American word meaning “water at black mountain.” An unruly but growing frontier town, it was governed by Mexico from 1821 until 1854, when the Gadsden Purchase made it part of the United States. In February 1862, during the Civil War, Captain Sherod Hunter briefly seized the city for the Confederacy. It served as the capital of Arizona Territory from 1867 to 1877. The city is noted for its mix of cultures.

Tucson was incorporated in 1877, and serves as the seat of Pima County. It is famous for its mild winters, although summers are hot. With an average of 3,800 hours of sunshine and only 11 inches of rain annually, it is one of the nation’s sunniest cities.

The University of Arizona is the largest single employer in Tucson, with more than 10,000 employees. Davis-Monthan Air Force Base has more than 8,000 military and civilian employees.

High technology has grown in importance to the economy as companies like Raytheon, Allied Signal, Sargent Controls, and others have located operations here. Tourism is also a dominant economic force.

Among the local attractions are Mission San Xavier del Bac (1700); Saguaro National Park; Old Tucson Studio and Park, the set for many Hollywood Westerns; and the Arizona State Museum, an anthropology museum with exhibits depicting the history of Southwestern cultures from prehistoric mammoth hunters to today’s Native Americans.

The primary access route by car is east-west I-10. Commercial flights go from Tucson International Airport. Both rail and bus service is available.