San Simon is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

Cochise County Cochise County () is a county in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is named after the Native American chief Cochise. The population was 125,447 at the 2020 census. The county seat is Bisbee and the most populous city is ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 165. San Simon is located 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 pl ...

, east of Willcox. The community has a ZIP code of 85632.

History

San Simon was the location of the San Simon 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 ...

on the San Simon River between

Apache Pass Apache Pass, also known by its earlier Spanish name Puerto del Dado ("Pass of the Die"), is a historic mountain pass in the U.S. state of Arizona between the Dos Cabezas Mountains and Chiricahua Mountains at an elevation of . It is approximately ...

and

Stein's Peak Station Stein's Peak Station, was one of the original stage stations 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 O ...

s. It was a later relay station established to provide water and change horses on the route. In September 1880,

Southern Pacific The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

's rail line construction from the west reached San Simon and started rail service.Ascarza, William (22 November 2015)
Mining in Chiricahua Mountains had varied success
''

Arizona Daily Star The ''Arizona Daily Star'' is the major morning daily newspaper that serves Tucson and surrounding districts of southern Arizona in the United States. History L. C. Hughes was the Arizona Territory governor and founder of the ''Arizona Star'', ...

'' Once a junction was made in March 1881 with eastern rails in

Deming, New Mexico Deming (, ''DEM-ing'') is a city in Luna County, New Mexico, Luna County, New Mexico, United States, west of Las Cruces, New Mexico, Las Cruces and north of the Mexico–United States border, Mexican border. The population was 14,855 as of the ...

, the line became the second transcontinental rail route across the United States.(12 March 1881)
Completion of the New Trans-Continental Route
''Pacific Rural Press'' San Simon was within

Pima County Pima County ( ) is a county in the south central region of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,043,433, making it Arizona's second-most populous county. The county seat is Tucson, where most of the population ...

until Cochise County was formed out of the eastern half of Pima in February 1881.

San Simon School

The San Simon School is the K-12 school in San Simon, Arizona. It is the only school in the San Simon Unified School District. Its high school enrollment of 40 students makes it the second-smallest high school currently in the

Arizona Interscholastic Association The Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) is one of two regulatory bodies for high school athletics and activities in the state of Arizona. It comprises all of the state's public district high schools (except Ajo High School, Beaver Dam High S ...

, only ahead of nearby Bowie High School. San Simon School as a district was rated No. 1 Arizona school for 2011, according to the Arizona Department of Education. The school received an A rating for 2012.

Demographics

As of the census of 2010, there were 165 people and 127 housing units in the CDP. The CDP was a new CDP created in the 2010 census. The population density was 237.5 people per square mile. Prior to the 2010 census, the San Simon area was only a part of the much larger Bowie CCD for census purposes.

Climate

Climate occurs primarily on the outside of true

desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...

s in low-latitude semiarid steppe regions. The

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, notabl ...

subtype for this climate is ''BSk'' (Tropical and Subtropical Steppe Climate).

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Cochise County, Arizona Unincorporated communities in Arizona Butterfield Overland Mail in New Mexico Territory Stagecoach stops in the United States