Getting to Know the Community

Snapshot

• Population: Tucson Metropolitan Area reached 1 million in November 2006
• Geographical size: Metropolitan area covers 600 square miles +
  
• Proximity to other areas: Phoenix (115 miles); Nogales, Mexico (45 miles); San Diego (420 miles); Los Angeles (520 miles); Las Vegas (399 miles); Puerto Penasco, MX (220 miles)
• Third-fastest-growing city in U.S. (UA Eller College of Business and Public Administration)
• Arizona is the fastest growing state with 6.1 million population
  
• Weather: Average high temperature, 81.7; low 54.2
• Elevation: 2,389 feet in the basin and 9100 ft. atop Mt. Lemmon

The UA is located in Tucson, 45 miles from the Arizona/Mexico border in the Sonoran Desert ecoregion, a 55 million-acre area in Arizona, Mexico, and Baja California. Arizona has 22 American Indian reservations and some of the best known national parkland in the country, yet it is one of the most urban states with the fast growing cities of Phoenix and Tucson.

Cultural Diversity - Southern Arizona's diversity is a great part of its charm with 37% Hispanic and sizable Native American populations. The Tohono O’Odham and Pascua Yaqui reservations border Tucson. The border community of Nogales is 45 miles south of Tucson. Migrant border crossings are a complex issue for the southern Arizona region.

Desert Living - Saguaro National Park (east and west), the Catalina National Forest, and the Rincon, Tucson, and Santa Rita Mountains ring the Tucson basin. The weather is very mild from October to March. Summers are hot with a "monsoon season" in July and August when dramatic thunderstorms supply a major portion of an average 14 inches of rain per year.

Healthy Living - Bicycling, rock climbing, hiking, running, soccer, swimming, and baseball/softball are year-round outdoor activities. The art scene, music, theater, and fine arts all thrive here and you can catch acts in Phoenix, LA and Vegas without much difficulty. Tucson and the UA are highly accessible communities.

History - Evidence of early hunter gatherers dates back 12,000 years in the region. August 20th, 1775 is considered Tucson's birthday with the proclamation organizing a Presidio. Spanish settlers arrived in the area in 1776. Tucson officially became part of the United States with the Gadsden Purchase of 1854 and served as capital of the Arizona Territory from 1867 to 1877. The ancient Hohokham, Spanish colonizers, Father Kino, Geronimo and the Apache Wars, Pancho Villa, the great Bisbee Deportation, the Buffalo Soldiers, ranching, copper mining, cures for tuberculosis, Howard Hughes, Katherine Hepburn, Margaret Sanger, and Paul McCartney are all a part of southern Arizona's fascinating history.