Marana is a town in
Pima County, Arizona, United States, located northwest of
Tucson
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
, with a small portion in
Pinal County. According to the
2010 census, the population of the town is 34,961. From 1990 to 2000, Marana was the fourth fastest-growing place among all cities and towns of any size in Arizona.
History
Archaeologists have found evidence of about 4,200 years of continuous human settlement in the vicinity of Marana and the middle
Santa Cruz Valley. Many important archaeological sites have been found near Marana.
*
Las Capas, a large, early agricultural site, is related to the nearby Costello-King site near present-day Ina Road and the
Interstate 10
Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally ...
interchange. It was occupied from 4,200 to 2,500 years ago. It is the site of the oldest-known cemetery in the
American Southwest and the oldest-known canals in North America. The oldest tobacco pipes in the world were found here.
*
Los Morteros, a
Hohokam ballcourt village ruin, is located on the Santa Cruz floodplain near the Point of the Mountain at the northern end of the
Tucson Mountains. Los Morteros has also been identified as the probable location of the Llano del Azotado campsite used by the
Juan Bautista de Anza expedition in 1775, which was chronicled. The location is near the present-day Arizona Portland Cement Plant in the Town of Marana.
*
Linda Vista Hill, dating between 1200 and 1350 A.D., is a
Trincheras culture site in the Tucson Mountains. The people inhabited mountain slopes overlooking arable land along streams. The hillside site has more than 150 terraces and 75 pit houses excavated into the terraces. A massive, adobe-walled compound is located on the hill summit.
*
Marana Mound, dating between 1150 and 1300 A.D., is the remnant of a large
platform mound
Platform may refer to:
Technology
* Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run
* Platform game, a genre of video games
* Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models
* Weapons platform, a system ...
that was the center of the Hohokam community. The people lived between the Santa Cruz River and the
Tortolita Mountains. The mound is surrounded by an adobe compound wall. Multiple rooms were constructed against the wall and were associated with 30–35 nearby residential compounds. Multiple house features have been found both inside and outside the compounds, as well as wall segments and trash mounds. The whole complex covers an area of approximately one square mile.
* In 1775,
Juan Bautista de Anza, Captain of the Presidio of Tubac, led an expedition north along the Santa Cruz River to find the city of San Francisco. His group of about 200 included 30 soldiers and their families and a number of escorts. They brought more than 1,000 heads of livestock. Their campsite was developed in the 20th century as the CalPortland Cement Plant near Marana. A segment of the route that the expedition took through Marana is designated as part of the
Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail.
*
Pointer Mountain Station, of the
Butterfield Overland Mail
Butterfield Overland Mail (officially the Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service i ...
stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
line used from 1858, was found during the study of Los Morteros, within the limits of the nearby Puerta del Norte trailer court.
Spanish colonists began to inhabit this area in the 17th and 18th centuries. Over time they intermarried with Native Americans, and a class of
mestizo
(; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturally European even though thei ...
settlers also developed. From the early years, mining and ranching were the chief economic activities. The area became part of the independent
Mexican Empire established in 1821 (soon replaced by the Republic of Mexico).
US territory
More than two decades later, the United States acquired this territory as part of the
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase ( es, region=MX, la Venta de La Mesilla "The Sale of La Mesilla") is a region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that the United States acquired from Mexico by the Treaty of Mesilla, which took effe ...
; it was not part of the
Mexican Cession
The Mexican Cession ( es, Cesión mexicana) is the region in the modern-day southwestern United States that Mexico originally controlled, then ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 after the Mexican–American W ...
following the defeat in the Mexican-American War, ending in 1848.
20th-century pioneers
According to historian David Leighton, Charles B. Anway was the first member of the Anway family in the Tucson area; from the eastern United States, he came because the dry mountain air was thought to be beneficial for people suffering from
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...
, as he was. Antibiotics were not yet in general use to treat this disease, which had a high mortality rate and no known cure. In 1919, his brother William and his two children, Louis and Ila, arrived in town, but they decided to settle in an area northwest of Tucson called
Postvale, Arizona.
In 1920, the longtime widower William Anway married Orpha Ralston. She had been a member for many years of the Postvale Co-operative Women's Club. This group lobbied to have the local post office renamed from Postvale to Marana; in time, the town was also named Marana.
Marana did not become developed primarily as an agricultural center, until after World War I. It has produced commodity crops of cotton, wheat, barley, alfalfa, and pecans.
During World War II, the Army built facilities here to support the military effort. Before the Air Force was established, the Army built and operated the Marana Airfield (1942–45). It became the largest pilot-training center in the world, training some 10,000 flyers.
In the postwar years, five
Titan missile sites were constructed in the area as part of a complex of
ballistic missile
A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are guided only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles stay within ...
installations built around Tucson. This was during the
Cold War when tensions were high with the Soviet Union.
In March 1977, the Town incorporated about and in August of that year, the 1,500 residents elected their first town council. In early 1979, the town began to grow through a targeted annexation policy. It now measures a little more than with a population of over 43,000.
Annexation
The southern portion of Marana has grown considerably since the early 1990s, with the addition of businesses and some housing, much of it due to the annexation of existing unincorporated areas. In 1992, the Marana Town Council voted to annex an area of unincorporated Pima County that was located to the southeast of the town limits. The area selected was a narrow corridor of land along Interstate 10, to the east along Ina Road, and south along Thornydale Road. These areas were mainly developed as high-density commercial businesses and shopping centers, including large retailers or "big box" stores such as Super
KMart
Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States.
The company was inco ...
(now closed),
Costco Wholesale,
Target
Target may refer to:
Physical items
* Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports
** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports
** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...
, and
Home Depot
The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational corporation, multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the l ...
. Marana chose these areas to annex to increase its revenue from sales taxes. The large residential areas behind these commercial areas, which required support for residents, such as schools and roads, were not annexed.
As a result, the city of Tucson filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of the State of Arizona in and for the County of Pima (''City of Tucson v Town of Marana''), claiming that Marana illegally annexed the unincorporated areas in violation of existing state laws. However, on April 4, 1994, Judge Lina Rodriguez ruled in favor of Marana, allowing the annexation to stand. Following this suit, the Arizona State annexation laws were changed, forbidding municipalities from annexing small strips of land without taking large surrounding parcels as well. Such a "strip annexation" is no longer allowed under Arizona law.
Geography
Marana is located at (32.386539, -111.125437).
According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy
An economy is an area of th ...
, the town has a total area of 121.4 square miles (313.6 km
2), of which 120.7 square miles (312.3 km
2) is land and 0.7 square miles (1.9 km
2) (1.22%) is water.
The town extends along
Interstate 10
Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally ...
from the line between
Pinal and
Pima counties to the
Tucson
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
city line, except for the area around the non-affluent unincorporated community of
Rillito. The town has a history of farming and ranching. The
Tucson Mountains and the western half of
Saguaro National Park
Saguaro National Park is an American national park in Pima County, southeastern Arizona. The park consists of two separate areas—the Tucson Mountain District (TMD) about west of the city of Tucson and the Rincon Mountain District (RMD) abou ...
are located to the south.
Phoenix is approximately 90 minutes north via Interstate 10.
Climate
Marana has a hot semi-arid climate (
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...
BSh). This is characterized by hot summers and relatively mild winters. The area averages only 12.19 inches (310 mm) of annual rainfall. During the dry and sunny winter months, daytime highs usually reach between 60°F and 70°F (16°C and 21°C), with temperatures cooling to well below 50°F (10°C), and sometimes below 40°F (4°C) during the night. Temperatures below the
freezing mark are not uncommon during this period. In the summer, high temperatures range between 95°F and 105°F (35°C and 41°C), with nights cooling down to around 70°F (21°C). The occasional
heat wave
A heat wave, or heatwave, is a period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity, especially in oceanic climate countries. While definitions vary, a heat wave is usually measured relative to the usual climate in the ...
can cause temperatures to soar above 110°F (43°C) for multiple days during the hot summer months.
Rain
Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water ...
is much more frequent during the summer due to the
North American Monsoon
The North American monsoon, variously known as the Southwest monsoon, the Mexican monsoon, the New Mexican monsoon, or the Arizona monsoon is a pattern of pronounced increase in thunderstorms and rainfall over large areas of the southwestern Uni ...
, and is sometimes accompanied by high winds and thunderstorms.
Demographics
As of the
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...
of 2010, there were 34,961 people, 11,759 households, and 8,871 families residing in the town. There were 13,706 housing units and the racial makeup of the town was 81.9%
White
White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...
, 4.6%
Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...
or
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
, 0.7%
Native American, 5.2%
Asian, 0.1%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Ocea ...
, 9.7% from
other races, and 2.2% from two or more races. 21.7% of the population were
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...
or
Latino of any race.
There were 11,759 households, out of which 32.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.2% were
married couples
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...
living together, 8.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.6% were non-families. 19.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.81, and the average family size was 3.17.
In the town, the population was spread out, with 26.7% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 34.3% from 25 to 44, 22.1% from 45 to 64, and 9.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. The Town is 50.1% female and 49.9% male.
The median income for a household in the town was $68,361, and the median income for a family was $75,281. Males had a median income of $58,932 versus $37,388 for females. The
per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population.
Per capita i ...
for the town was $28,468. About 6.1% of families and 8.1% of the population were below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 15.0% of those under age 18 and 2.3% of those aged 65 or over.
Economy
Asarco's Silver Bell mine is located near Marana.
Principal employers
According to Marana's 2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the principal employers in the city are;
Transportation
Marana is served by
Sun Shuttle
Sun Tran is the public transit system serving the city of Tucson, Arizona. In , the system had rides, or about per weekday as of . 100% of the fleet utilizes clean-burning fuels, such as compressed natural gas (CNG), biodiesel, and hybrid tec ...
service to Tucson.
Town facts
* Marana was named for the
Spanish word ''maraña'' ("thicket") by 19th-century railroad workers who had to clear a line through the area.
* In 2007, Marana began hosting the
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...
's WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship (now the
WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship
The WGC Match Play, currently titled as the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play for sponsorship reasons, is a professional men's golf tournament that has been held since 1999. It is the only one of the World Golf Championships to have been contest ...
). Held in late February, the event included the world's top 64 professional golfers.
Henrik Stenson won the inaugural event, and
Tiger Woods
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records.
*
*
* Woods is widely regarded as ...
won in 2008.
Geoff Ogilvy won the 2009 event.
Ian Poulter won the 2010 event and
Luke Donald took the 2011 title. The tournament remained in Marana through 2014. (In September 2014, Cadillac was announced as the new title sponsor for 2015, and the event was moved to San Francisco's
TPC Harding Park golf course.)
*
Pinal Airpark (
Evergreen International Aviation
Evergreen International Aviation, Inc. was a global aviation services company based in McMinnville, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1960, Evergreen was primarily known publicly for commercial helicopter operations in agricultural and forestry a ...
) is located just north of Marana in
Pinal County. Many commercial
airline
An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in which ...
s send their airplanes to this site for storage. It was well known in the 1970s and 1980s as an air base for the
CIA. The airport was said to be a
U.S. Forest Service air tanker base, but when a series of
forest fires broke out in the mountains surrounding Tucson in the early 1970s, Airpark officials had to admit that these places were not Forest Service tankers. Locals had asked for them to put out the fires. Airpark officials said these were actually
paramilitary cargo planes. Access to the Airpark is stringently monitored.
*
Marana Regional Airport
Marana Regional Airport , also known as Marana Northwest Regional Airport or Avra Valley Airport, is a non-towered, general aviation airport about 15 miles (13 nmi; 24 km) northwest of Tucson, Arizona in Marana a town in Pima County ...
was purchased by the town from Pima County in 1999. It does not serve commercial airlines. Residents use the
Tucson International Airport for commercial flights to other cities and areas.
* Marana is home to one of four Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemeteries.
Arizona Veterans' Memorial Cemetery at Marana
/ref> Since it was developed in 2016 by the Arizona Department of Veterans' Services
Arizona Department of Veterans' Services
History
Arizona has provided services to Arizona Veterans since 1925, when it created the position of Veterans’ Service Officer. This position was abolished in 1951 and replaced by the Arizona Vetera ...
over 2,450 burials have been undertaken.
Education
Marana has a public school system consisting of 16 schools, which are coordinated by the Marana Unified School District. Flowing Wells Unified School District coordinates the education in the municipality's extreme southeastern section. Additionally, the portion of the town within Pinal County is served by Red Rock Elementary School and Santa Cruz Valley Unified High.
References
External links
*
''Marana News''
– local newspaper
"Pioneering People on a Corridor of Change: Marana’s Cultural Heritage"
26 March 2012
Cultural and Historic Resource Acquisitions, Los Morteros
accessed fro
Pima County website
{{Authority Control
Populated places established in 1977
Towns in Pima County, Arizona
Populated places in the Sonoran Desert
Butterfield Overland Mail in New Mexico Territory
1977 establishments in Arizona
Cemeteries in Arizona
Stagecoach stops in the United States