San Simon is 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 ...

Cochise County Cochise County ( ) is a county in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is named after Cochise, a Chiricahua Apache who was a key war leader during the Apache Wars. The population was 125,447 at the 2020 census. The 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 census, it had a population of 165. San Simon is located along

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 ...

, 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 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 in ...

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 Stations. 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) 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 names ...

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

Arizona Daily Star The ''Arizona Daily Star'' is an American daily newspaper based in Tucson, Arizona, and owned by Lee Enterprises. It serves Tucson and surrounding districts of Southern Arizona in the United States. History 1877–1925 L. C. Hughes was the ...

'' 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 14,758 as of the ...

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

Pima County Pima County ( ) is a County (United States), county in the south central region of the U.S. state of Arizona, one of 15 List of counties in Arizona, counties in the state. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 1 ...

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 ...

, 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 landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

s in low-latitude semiarid steppe regions. The

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

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