Consistently ranked among the nation’s top places to live, Tucson’s booming high-tech market, vibrant cultural and entertainment scene, and fabulous outdoor scenic and recreation amenities have also made it one of the youngest, with a median age of just 32, and the hippest. Rapidly growing- the population is about 520,000- the city’s superb climate, colorful history, and blend of American, Hispanic and Native American cultures make it one of America's favorite tourist destinations.
Location
Situated on the Santa Cruz River in southeast Arizona, Tucson is the second-largest city in the state. The city is located along I-10, which runs through Phoenix toward California in the northwest and through El Paso, Texas toward Florida in the east. I-19, runs south from Tucson toward Nogales and the U.S.-Mexico border.
Geography/Terrain
Surrounded by five minor ranges of mountains, Tucson is situated at 2,389 ft above sea level on an alluvial plain in the bed of the Santa Cruz River, which is dry for much of the year. The surrounding country is desert.
Distance to 3 closest major cities
Tucson is approximately 100 miles from Phoenix, 260 miles from El Paso Texas, and 320 miles from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Jobs
Home to several major military installations as well as medical and research facilities, Tucson numbers Raytheon Industries and other prominent companies in the computer hardware and software, optics, biotechnology, electronics, and aerospace industries among its principal employers. Phelps Dodge Mining and other mining companies are also large employers, as are the University of Arizona and Pima Community College, one of the nation’s largest community colleges.
Housing
Tucson is one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities, with a wide range of residential options available, including single-family homes, town houses, and condominiums. Prices for single-family homes range from around $200,000 to over $1 million, with the median around $235,000. The Tucson metropolitan area is also home to many beautiful retirement and golfing communities.
With more than 120 parks, 26 swimming pools (including 7 year-round pools), the Reid Park Zoo, 3 tennis centers, 5 golf courses, 3 urban fishing lakes, and at least 18 recreation centers providing year-round programs and activities, Tucson offers recreation opportunities for all.
The State and National Park areas in the surrounding mountains and desert, combined with the glorious Arizona weather, mean that outdoor activities like hiking, horse riding, mountain biking, and camping are available year-round. There is mountaineering on 9,157-foot Mt. Lemmon in the Catalinas, and this most southerly snowfield in the US even offers downhill skiing in winter.
The Sabino Canyon Recreation Area, just 12 miles from downtown Tucson in the Catalina foothills, is one of Arizona’s most spectacular scenic and natural treasures, in part because unlike most desert streams the Sabino Creek, which rises 6000 feet above the desert floor, runs for almost all of the year. Therefore, the canyon provides habitat for a wide range of plants and animals, including Ground Squirrels and White-tailed deer, mountain lion, bobcat, coyote, fox, roadrunners, Canyon tree frogs and Red-spotted gila monsters, and rattlesnakes. The area is also much loved by birdwatchers, and at least 14 species of hummingbirds have been spotted there.
The Tucson area is a golfer’s paradise, with perfect weather, spectacular scenery, and some of the finest courses in the world right on the doorstep. Among the city’s 19 courses, there are such nationally acclaimed gems as Ventana Canyon, and the renowned Arizona National Golf Club, with its strenuous uphill holes, sloping rocky outcrops and forest of giant saguaro cactus, while the greater metropolitan area offers ten or fifteen more.
Special Attractions/Events
A century of aviation history is commemorated at Tucson’s famous Pima Air and Space Museum, where over 270 aircraft, including such unique exhibits as President Kennedy's Air Force One and the spectacular supersonic SR-71 Blackbird "Spy Plane" are on display. The Museum also offers tours of the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center Facility located on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and visits to the famous B-17 390th Memorial Museum and the Challenger Learning Center of the Southwest.
Also on a military theme, the Titan Missile Museum is the only publicly accessible Titan II missile site in the nation. Guided tours enable visitors to observe the Titan II missile in the launch duct and to descend 100 feet into the underground missile complex where they experience a simulated launch of the missile.
Tucson has lots of great places for a family outing too. Funtasticks Family Fun Park has go-karts, bumper boats, batting cages, mini-golf, and a video arcade and three-story Laser. To top it off there is the city's largest Kiddie Land, with rookie go-karts, junior-sized bumper boats, a carousel, jumping castle, and much more. Alternatively, you could try Breakers, one of Tucson's two fantastic water parks. With Arizona's largest wave pool, five super slides, two tube slides and a whole section devoted to safe entertainment for little kids, it’s a great way to have some fun on a hot desert day.
The understanding and conservation of the glorious desert environment is cultivated in several acclaimed public facilities, including the sensational Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which is a world-renowned zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden, all in one place. Almost 2 miles of paths traverse 21 acres of beautiful desert, enabling visitors to observe more than 300 animal species including rare reptiles, mammals and birds, and 1,200 kinds of plants in stunning natural surroundings.
Interesting Facts/Historic Buildings and Places
Humans have visited or lived in the Tucson area for more than 12,000 years. The first inhabitants were probably nomadic hunter-gatherers, and they were replaced about 2500 years ago by the Hohokam people, who left signs of their culture in the Sabino Canyon and other places. The Hohokam may have been the ancestors of the Pima and Tohono O'odham Indians, whose culture appeared in the area around 1500AD, and whose descendents still inhabit the Tucson area today.
Arizona was explored and settled by Spanish missionaries and adventurers during the 16th and 17th Centuries and Tucson was ruled by both the Spanish and Mexicans before being sold to the US in 1853 as part of the Gadsden Purchase. Without doubt, the most beautiful building from the Spanish period, the San Xavier del Bac Mission, is sometimes called America’s Sistine Chapel and is possibly the finest example of mission architecture in the United States. Situated in the Santa Cruz Valley just nine miles south of Tucson, in a place where the Tohono O'odham had lived for many centuries, it was built during the period 1783-1797 by two Spanish Franciscan priests, and is noted for its graceful blend of Moorish, Byzantine and late Mexican Renaissance architecture.
Cowboys, great cattle drives, saloons, gamblers and gunslingers, and all the popular stereotypes of the Wild West were part of the town’s history during the latter part of the 19th Century. The arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1880 led to a period of rapid growth, as did the development of the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base sixty years later during World War II.
Several beautiful buildings that were constructed during the early decades of the 20th Century still stand in the city’s downtown area, including the Rialto Theater, the art deco Fox Tucson, and the historic Hotel Congress, built in 1919, where the outlaw John Dillinger was captured in 1934.
- NUMBER1EXPERT™ 
