Bowie is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), 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 counte ...

in Cochise County,

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, United States. As of the 2010 U.S. Census the population of Bowie was 449.

History

The Southern Pacific built a rail line through eastern Arizona in 1880, including a stop at Bowie. Once a junction was made in March 1881 with eastern rail lines in Deming, New Mexico, this line was the second transcontinental rail route across the United States.(March 12, 1881)
Completion of the New Trans-Continental Route
''Pacific Rural Press'' The community is named for the former

Fort Bowie Fort Bowie was a 19th-century outpost of the United States Army located in southeastern Arizona near the present day town of Willcox, Arizona. The remaining buildings and site are now protected as Fort Bowie National Historic Site. Fort Bowi ...

.Barnes, Will C
Arizona Place Names
p. 59 (1935) ("Bowie was named of course for the old fort not far away.")

Demographics

Bowie first appeared on the 1910 U.S. Census as the "Bowie Precinct" of Cochise County. It appeared again in 1920 and 1930 as a precinct. It reported a majority White population in 1930. The population of Bowie was 650 in the 1960 census. 2010, when it was made a census-designated place (CDP).

Location and nearby communities

The community lies on

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...

in eastern

close to the western

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

border. The community is in the west of the San Simon Valley, as well as the northeast foothills of the Dos Cabezas Mountains. On Interstate 10, Willcox, Arizona at the Willcox Playa lies west-southwest; San Simon, AZ and Road Forks- Lordsburg, New Mexico lie east.

Information

Bowie has the ZIP Code of 85605; in 2010, the population of the 85605 ZCTA was 449.

Climate

Bowie has a borderline

semi-arid A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a aridity, dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below Evapotranspiration#Potential evapotranspiration, potential evapotranspiration, but not as l ...

desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''BSk''/''BWk''/''BSh''/''BWh'') with very hot summers punctuated by monsoon rains, and mild, generally dry winters with cold nights. Typically there are 26.9 days topping and 119 days over , which only a few days with unusually heavy rain failing to top this mark during the summer. In the winter, there are typically 63.6 nights falling below freezing, with the all-time record low being on December 9, 1978 – though the dryness means only one day every three or four winters will fail to top freezing, and only 6.4 days per winter will not top . The average snowfall is , but the median is zero so that most winters do not have measurable falls, though fell in January 1978. Since 1899 the wettest calendar year has been 1914 with and the driest 1956 with , whilst the wettest month has been July 1919 with ,Western Regional Climate Center
BOWIE, ARIZONA: Period of Record General Climate Summary
/ref> and the wettest day October 30, 1951, with .

In popular culture

Bowie, Arizona gained attention when it was revealed that it was action icon

John Rambo John James Rambo is a fictional character in the Rambo (franchise), ''Rambo'' franchise. He first appeared in the 1972 novel ''First Blood (novel), First Blood'' by David Morrell, but later became more famous as the protagonist of the film serie ...

's hometown. This was first unveiled in '' Rambo: First Blood Part II'' and later elaborated on in '' Rambo III''. In the film '' Rambo'' from 2008, Bowie was seen on screen for the first time, although the filming of that particular scene was actually done in Southern California. 2019's '' Rambo: Last Blood'' took place entirely in Bowie and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, though filming was not done in Arizona.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Cochise County, Arizona Unincorporated communities in Arizona