Tucson05 TitanControlRoom

, "(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 outlining Tucson
, image_map1 = File:Pima County Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Tucson highlighted.svg
, mapsize1 = 250px
, map_caption1 = Location within Pima County
, pushpin_label = Tucson
, pushpin_map = USA Arizona#USA
, pushpin_map_caption = Location within Arizona##Location within the United States
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_type1 = State
, subdivision_type2 = County
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_name1 = Arizona
, subdivision_name2 = Pima
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = August 20, 1775
, established_title1 = Incorporated
, established_date1 = February 7, 1877
, founder = Hugo O'Conor
, seat_type =
, seat =
, parts_type = Ward
, parts_style = coll
, parts = 6 Wards
, p1
Ward 1
, p2
Ward 2
, p3
Ward 3
, p4
Ward 4
, p5
Ward 5
, p6
Ward 6
, government_type = Council-manager government
, governing_body = Tucson City Council
, leader_party = D
, leader_title = Mayor
, leader_name = Regina Romero
, leader_title1 = Vice Mayor
, leader_name1 = Lane Santa Cruz
, leader_title2 = City Manager
, leader_name2 = Michael Ortega
, leader_title3 = City Council
, leader_name3 =
, area_total_km2 = 625.04
, area_total_sq_mi = 241.33
, area_land_km2 = 624.22
, area_land_sq_mi = 241.01
, area_water_km2 = 0.82
, area_water_sq_mi = 0.32
, elevation_ft = 2389
, elevation_m = 728
, population_total = 542629
, population_as_of = 2020
, population_footnotes =
, population_rank = 33rd in the United States
2nd in Arizona
, population_density_sq_mi = 2251.44
, population_density_km2 = 869.29
, population_metro_footnotes =
, population_metro = 1043433 (53rd)
, population_demonym = Tucsonian; Tucsonan
, timezone = MST (no DST)
, utc_offset = -07:00
, postal_code_type = ZIP Codes
, postal_code = 85701-85775
, area_code = 520
, area_code_type = Area code
, coordinates =
, blank_name = FIPS code
, blank_info = 04-77000
, blank1_name = GNIS feature ID
, blank1_info = 43534
, website =
, footnotes = ¹ Urban = 2010 Census
, unit_pref = Imperial
, area_footnotes =
, pop_est_as_of =
, pop_est_footnotes =
, population_est =
, named_for = Oʼodham for "(at the) base of the black hill”

Tucson (; es, Tucson, ood, Cuk-Ṣon) is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States, and is home to the University of Arizona. It is the second largest city in Arizona behind Phoenix, with a population of 542,629 in the 2020 United States census, while the population of the entire Tucson metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is 1,043,433. The Tucson MSA forms part of the larger Tucson-Nogales combined statistical area (CSA). Both Tucson and Phoenix anchor the Arizona Sun Corridor. The city is southeast of Phoenix and north of the U.S.–Mexico border. Tucson is the 34th largest city and the 53rd largest metropolitan area in the United States (2014).

Major incorporated suburbs of Tucson include Oro Valley and Marana northwest of the city, Sahuarita south of the city, and South Tucson in an enclave south of downtown. Communities in the vicinity of Tucson (some within or overlapping the city limits) include Casas Adobes, Catalina Foothills, Flowing Wells, Midvale Park, Tanque Verde, Tortolita, and Vail. Towns outside the Tucson metro area include Benson to the southeast, Catalina and Oracle to the north, and Green Valley to the south.

Tucson was founded as a military fort by the Spanish when Hugo O'Conor authorized the construction of Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón in 1775. It was included in the state of Sonora after Mexico gained independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821. In 1853, the United States acquired a region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico from Mexico under the Gadsden Purchase. Tucson served as the capital of the Arizona Territory from 1867 to 1877. Tucson was Arizona's largest city by population during the territorial period and early statehood, until it was surpassed by Phoenix by 1920. Nevertheless, population growth remained strong during the late 20th century. In 2017, Tucson was the first American city to be designated a "City of Gastronomy" by UNESCO.

The Spanish name of the city, ''Tucsón'' , is derived from the O'odham ''Cuk Ṣon'' , meaning "(at the) base of the black ill, a reference to a basalt-covered hill now known as Sentinel Peak. Tucson is sometimes referred to as "The Old Pueblo", and "Optics Valley," the latter referring to its optical science and telescopes known worldwide.

History

The Tucson area was probably first visited by Paleo-Indians, who were known to have been in southern Arizona about 12,000 years ago. Recent archaeological excavations near the Santa Cruz River found a village site dating from 2100 BC. The floodplain of the Santa Cruz River was extensively farmed during the Early Agricultural Period, c. 1200 BC to AD 150. These people hunted, gathered wild plants and nuts, and ate corn, beans and other crops grown using irrigation canals they constructed.

The Early Ceramic period occupation of Tucson saw the first extensive use of pottery vessels for cooking and storage. The groups designated as the Hohokam lived in the area from AD 600 to 1450 and are known for their vast irrigation canal systems and their red-on-brown pottery.

The Spanish Jesuit missionary Eusebio Francisco Kino first visited the Santa Cruz River valley in 1692. He founded the Mission San Xavier del Bac in 1700, about upstream from the site of the settlement of Tucson. A separate Convento settlement was founded downstream along the Santa Cruz River, near the base of what is now known as "A" mountain. Hugo O'Conor, the founding father of the city of Tucson, Arizona, authorized the construction of a military fort in that location, ''Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón,'' on August 20, 1775 (the present downtown Pima County Courthouse was built near this site). During the Spanish period of the presidio, attacks such as the Second Battle of Tucson were repeatedly mounted by the Apache. Eventually the town came to be called ''Tucsón,'' a Spanish version of the O'odham word for the area. It was included in the state of Sonora after Mexico gained independence from the Kingdom of Spain and its Spanish Empire in 1821.

During the Mexican–American War in 1846–1848, Tucsón was captured by Philip St. George Cooke with the Mormon Battalion, but it soon returned to Mexican control as Cooke proceeded to the west, establishing Cooke's Wagon Road to California. Tucsón was not included in the Mexican Cession to the United States following the war. Cooke's road through Tucsón became one of the important routes into California during the California Gold Rush of 1849.

The US acquired those portions of (modern day) Arizona that lay south of the Gila River via treaty from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase on June 8, 1854. Under this treaty and purchase, Tucsón became a part of the United States of America. The American military did not formally take over control until March 1856. In time, the name of the town became standardized in English in its current form, where the stress is on the first syllable, the "u" is long, and the "c" is silent.

In 1857, Tucson was established as a stage station on the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line. In 1858 it became 3rd division headquarters of the Butterfield Overland Mail and operated until the line was shut down in March 1861. The Overland Mail Corporation attempted to continue running; however, following the Bascom Affair, devastating Apache attacks on the stations and coaches ended operations in August 1861.

Tucson was incorporated in 1877, making it the oldest incorporated city in Arizona.

From 1877 to 1878, the area suffered a rash of stagecoach robberies. Most notable were the two holdups committed by masked road-agent William Whitney Brazelton. Brazelton held up two stages in the summer of 1878 near Point of Mountain Station, approximately northwest of Tucson. John Clum, of Tombstone, Arizona fame, was one of the passengers. Pima County Sheriff Charles A. Shibell and his citizen posse killed Brazelton on August 19, 1878, in a mesquite bosque along the Santa Cruz River south of Tucson. Brazelton had been suspected of highway robbery in the Tucson area, the Prescott region, and the Silver City, New Mexico area. Because of the crimes and threats to his business, John J. Valentine, Sr. of Wells, Fargo & Co. had sent Bob Paul, a special agent and a future Pima County sheriff, to investigate. The US Army established Fort Lowell, then east of Tucson, to help protect settlers and travelers from Apache attacks.

In 1882, Morgan Earp was fatally shot, in what was later referred to in the press as "the Earp-Clanton Tragedy". Marietta Spence, wife of Pete Spence, one of the Cochise County Cowboys, testified at the coroner's inquest on Earp's killing and implicated Frank Stilwell in the murder. The coroner's jury concluded Pete Spence, Stilwell, Frederick Bode, and Florentino "Indian Charlie" Cruz were the prime suspects in the assassination of Morgan Earp.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp gathered a few trusted friends and accompanied Virgil Earp and his family as they traveled to Benson to take a train to California. They found Stilwell apparently lying in wait for Virgil Earp at the Tucson station and killed him on the tracks. After killing Stilwell, Wyatt deputized others and conducted a vendetta, killing three more cowboys over the next few days before leaving the Territory.

Jim Leavy had built a reputation of having fought in at least 16 gunfights. On June 5, 1882, Leavy had an argument with faro dealer John Murphy in Tucson. The two agreed to have a duel on the Mexican border, but after hearing of Leavy's exploits as a gunfighter, Murphy decided to ambush Leavy instead. Together with two of his friends, Murphy ambushed Leavy as he was leaving the Palace Hotel, killing him. According to Wright, the three co-defendants in Leavy's murder later escaped from the Pima County Jail, but were later recaptured. Murphy and Gibson were found in Fenner, California living under assumed names and retried for the murder before being found not guilty. Moyer was captured in Denver and sentenced to life in Yuma Territorial Prison, but was pardoned in 1888.Jim Levy – The Jewish Gunfighter
/ref>Rosa, Joseph G. ''Jim Leavy, Gunfighter'' True West Magazine

Post-frontier life

As other settlers tried to overcome violent frontier society, in 1885 the territorial legislature founded the University of Arizona as a land-grant college on what was over-grazed ranch land between Tucson and Fort Lowell.

In 1890, Asians made up 4.2% of the city's population. They were predominantly Chinese men who had been recruited as workers on the railroads.

By 1900, 7,531 people lived in Tucson. By 1910, the population increased to 13,913. At about this time, the U.S. Veterans Administration had begun construction of the present Veterans Hospital. The city's clean, dry air made it a destination for the many veterans who had been gassed in World War I and needed respiratory therapy. In addition, these dry and high altitude conditions were thought to be ideal for the treatment of tuberculosis, for which there were no known cures before antibiotics were developed against it.

The city continued to grow, with the population increasing to 20,292 in 1920 and 36,818 in 1940. In 2006, the population of Pima County, in which Tucson is located, passed one million, while the City of Tucson's population was 535,000.

In 1912, Arizona was admitted as a state. This increased the number of flags that had been flown over Tucson to five: Spanish, Mexican, United States, Confederate, and the State of Arizona.

During the territorial and early statehood periods, Tucson was Arizona's largest city and commercial center, while Phoenix was the seat of state government (beginning in 1889) and agriculture. The development of Tucson Municipal Airport increased the city's prominence. But between 1910 and 1920, Phoenix surpassed Tucson in population, and has continued to outpace Tucson in growth. In recent years, both Tucson and Phoenix have had some of the highest growth rates of any jurisdiction in the United States.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, as of 2010, the City of Tucson has a land area of .

The city's elevation is above sea level (as measured at the Tucson International Airport). Tucson is on an alluvial plain in the Sonoran Desert, surrounded by five minor ranges of mountains: the Santa Catalina Mountains and the Tortolita Mountains to the north, the Santa Rita Mountains to the south, the Rincon Mountains to the east, and the Tucson Mountains to the west. The high point of the Santa Catalina Mountains is Mount Lemmon, the southernmost ski destination in the continental U.S., while the Tucson Mountains include Wasson Peak. The highest point in the area is Mount Wrightson, found in the Santa Rita Mountains at above sea level.

Tucson is southeast of Phoenix and north of the United States - Mexico border. The 2010 United States census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 980,263. In 2009, Tucson ranked as the 32nd-largest city and 52nd-largest metropolitan area in the United States. A major city in the Arizona Sun Corridor, Tucson is the largest city in southern Arizona, and the second largest in the state after Phoenix. It is also the largest city in the area of the historic Gadsden Purchase. As of 2015, The Greater Tucson Metro area has exceeded a population of 1 million.

The city is built along the Santa Cruz River, formerly a perennial river. Now a dry river bed for much of the year, it regularly floods during significant seasonal rains.

Interstate 10 runs northwest through town, connecting Tucson to Phoenix in the northwest (on the way to its western terminus in Santa Monica, California), and to Las Cruces, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas in the southeast. (Its eastern terminus is in Jacksonville, Florida).

I-19 runs south from Tucson toward Nogales and the U.S.-Mexico border. I-19 is the only Interstate highway that uses "kilometer posts" instead of "mileposts." However, speed limits are marked in miles per hour and kilometers per hour.

Neighborhoods

Downtown and Central Tucson

Similar to many other cities in the Western U.S., Tucson was developed by European Americans on a grid plan starting in the late 19th century, with the city center at Stone Avenue and Broadway Boulevard. While this intersection was initially near the geographic center of Tucson, the center has shifted as the city has expanded far to the east. Development to the west was effectively blocked by the Tucson Mountains. Covering a large geographic area, Tucson has many distinct neighborhoods.

Tucson's earliest neighborhoods, some of which were redeveloped and covered by the Tucson Convention Center (TCC), include:
* El Presidio, Tucson's oldest neighborhood
* Barrio Histórico, also known as Barrio Libre
* Armory Park, directly south of downtown
* Barrio Anita, named for an early settler and located between Granada Avenue and Interstate 10
* Barrio Tiburón, now known as the Fourth Avenue arts district, was designated in territorial times as a red-light district