Tucson, Arizona: Profile of a Desert City

Profile of a Desert City

No one knows when the first red-skinned Tucsonians settled in what is now Southern Arizona. It might have been a thousand years ago-it could be two or three thousand. But at any rate, they found the wide, mountain-girt desert basin a good place to live. People still do, and are coming in ever-increasing numbers. The Indians called their community Stjukshon, which has been variously translated to mean “dark spring” or “at the foot of a black hill.” When the Spaniards pushed their New-World Empire northward from Mexico City in the late Seventeenth Century, they established a Catho-lic mission at this little Papago Indian village and in 1769 built a church and walled presidio nearby. Named San Augustin de Tucson, the tiny, isolated pueblo of soldiers and their families was for many years a remote outpost of European civilization in a wild, barbaric land. The fort withstood attacks by the savage Apaches, and the garrison protected the widely scattered ranches and settlers as best it could. The flags of Spain, Mexico, the Confederacy and the United States flew over the little walled town of Tucson, and today the city is still fondly referred to as “The Old Pueblo” in memory of its valiant past.

The Gadsden Purchase of 1853 transferred Southern Arizona from Mexico to the United States. However, the change made little difference. When the transcontinental railroad arrived in 1881, Tucson was still a sleepy Mexican appearing town of a few hundred inhabitants. But by the turn of the century the former Old Pueblo had become the business and supply center for a large territory, and was rapidly gaining renown as a health resort where Easterners came to soak up the desert sunshine. As early as the 1890's a Southern Pacific Railway folder extolled the climate and announced that “Tucson receives the sick and sends them away every whit whole.” With these physical and geographic advantages the town stirred into life and began to prosper. By 1909 the description of it in Baedaeker's United States guidebook was quite impressive. “Tucson (pron. 'Too-sohn'; 2390 ft.)” we read, “a quaint old Spanish-looking place with 7351 inhab. is the largest city of Arizona and carries on a considerable trade with Mexico. Copper, cattle, and the railroad shops are its chief sources of wealth. Tucson contains the University of Arizona (215 students), an Indian School, and an interesting Desert Botanical Laboratory in connection with the Carnegie Institution.” The Old Pueblo had started on its upward course.

Tucson ARIZONA

In spite of the recently acquired metropolitan overtones, Tucson is still a desert city. The arching sky is big and blue, Nature presses close on all sides, and the sharp, aromatic scent of creosote bush is in the air. Although rapidly expanding in all directions, it is one of the few urban centers in the country without suburbs and clustered satellite communities. Furthermore, the nearest sizeable towns are more than fifty miles distant. As a result, escape to the wide-open-spaces of desert, canyons and mountains is still only a matter of a few minutes drive from the throbbing human heart of the city. For the next forty-odd years the city's growth was healthy, but not remarkable. In 1940 the population was 32,506, rising to 45,453 a decade later. But during the 1950's a human explosion hit Tucson which sent the count to 212,892 in 1960. This is an increase of 367 per cent, second greatest among the nation's cities of over 100,000 population. The fantastic growth is continuing, and today Tucson is estimated to have 295,000 inhabitants, with another 50,000 in the area immediately surrounding it. In other words, there are about 1,500 new residents each month.

In fact, Tucson's principal appeal to visitors and residents are the many factors which make it different from other American cities. Here a bright sun shines more than seventy-five per cent of all daylight hours; outdoor sports and activities are possible throughout the year; the surroundings are colorful, stimulating and, in places, spectacular; and living can be exciting and relaxing at the same time.

Of course, Tucson has a variety of accommodations, restaurants, entertainment and recreation, as well as fine stores, shopping centers, and services superior to most places of equal size. Cultural, artistic, religious and educational activities also flourish in abundance. But such things are standard urban amenities that are today almost world-wide. What is different about Tucson is an absence of high-pressure tensions, a fresh, clean openness, and a gracious way of life inherited from its Spanish beginnings and suited to the Southwestern desert background. Here is cosmopolitanism without protocol, and sophistication without pretensions. All together, these distinctive qualities attract people from every part of the country to live, work and play in Arizona's second largest city.

Tucson's uniqueness begins with its location. Among the vast stretches of arid, cactus-studded valleys and barren, rocky ranges of the Sonoran Desert, the Santa Cruz River cuts northward from Mexico. Sixty miles from the border its valley widens into a huge oval basin, thirty miles long and twenty miles across, which is almost com-pletely ringed by mountains. The city spreads over the gentle floor of the northern end, its edges ascending the bordering slopes on three sides with foothill residential areas. View lots are common in Tucson, and even the downtown streets frame distant tawny mountains leaning against the sky. All in all, few places have such an inspir-ing setting, and it gives the city a stamp of identity and an individualism which modern progress seems unable to erase.

miles long and twenty miles across, which is almost com-pletely ringed by mountains. The city spreads over the gentle floor of the northern end, its edges ascending the bordering slopes on three sides with foothill residential areas. View lots are common in Tucson, and even the downtown streets frame distant tawny mountains leaning against the sky. All in all, few places have such an inspir-ing setting, and it gives the city a stamp of identity and an individualism which modern progress seems unable to erase.

With such unrivalled climatic and scenic resources, it is natural that Tucson's largest industry is providing for the well-being and entertainment of visitors and part-time residents. Internationally known as a leading recreation center of the great Southwestern winter playground, the area receives a goodly share of Arizona's annual half-billion-dollar tourist business. In addition, a surprisingly large number of visitors become permanent Tucsonians. Many of these are retired people with respectable incomes. But young and middle-aged people like Tucson, too, and establish new homes for one simple reason-they would rather live here than any other place on earth.

This continuous influx of desirable residents is beneficial to the city's basic stability and economic prosperity. However, it poses problems, and the Old Pueblo is experiencing severe growing pains. There is constant demand for new schools; street paving, widening and lighting, underpasses and freeways can barely keep pace with the increasing traffic; low-rent housing is in short supply and urban renewal is sorely needed to rejuvenate blighted neighborhoods. Also a much talked-of municipal auditorium and expanded convention facilities would enhance Tucson's reputation as a cordial host to the many national organizations' meetings and conferences. These difficulties are further compounded by extensive annexations, and the city's area of some seventy-two square miles is almost double that of five years ago.

But Tucson and Pima County are laboring valiantly to provide adequate services for the rapidly expanding community, and in general are succeeding admirably. But a local newspaper's complaint column, "Action Please!," tells the inevitable story of civic inability to keep up with the rapid development in all respects. A lag between need and fulfillment is a price a city must pay for phenomenal population growth.

Two more powerful stimulants to Tucson's economy are Davis Monthan Air Force Base and the Hughes Aircraft Company. The former is a $335,000,000 installation of 11,000 acres adjacent to the city limits on the southeast edge of town. One of the largest and most diversified air bases in the country, Davis Monthan is headquarters for several of the Strategic Air Command's combat and tactical units and has a military complement of 6,800 and an additional civilian personnel of 1,200. With their families, this huge post directly supports a total of some 17,000 people and pumps an incalculable stream Of dollars into the city's commercial veins. Hughes is the largest manufacturing plant in Arizona, and is capable of employing 5,600. At present it is engaged in research, development and construction of missiles on government contract.

Copper, cattle and agriculture are three other economic mainstays. Arizona is the nation's leading copper producing state and two large recent mining developments are in the Tucson area. San Manuel, fifty miles northeast, is a multi-million-dollar project dating from 1957. It includes an independent smelter and a built-to-order city of 5,000 inhabitants. The other is an open pit operation near Twin Buttes, twenty miles southwest. The Anaconda Company is also engaged in exploratory work in this area which may result in a major open-pit mine operation within a few years.

Tucson, too, is surrounded by cattle country, with some ranches big as Eastern counties, and the cowboy, roundup and rodeo are part of its picturesque Western traditions. Although a cattle shipping point of some importance, little meat processing is done, so stockyards and slaughterhouses are absent. This relieves Tucsonians of coping with one type of air pollution which plagues several other Western cities. Agriculture in Pima County is largely confined to irrigated bottomlands along the Santa Cruz River. However, cotton, corn, cattle feed and vegetables are products that help swell the city's income.

But there is no denying the fact that wage-earning newcomers encounter considerable difficulty in finding suitable work. The meteoric population growth tends to outstrip job opportunities, and there is always keen competition for the openings that do exist. So it is a wise precaution to have at least a year's financial backlog before choosing Tucson as a permanent home. However, the local situation is simply a microcosm of the world-wide population explosion, which is fast becoming the most serious threat we humans have ever faced.

Most business leaders believe that the solution in Tucson's case is manufacturing. They maintain that a steadily increasing source of industrial payrolls is the only way to insure continued prosperity for a future city of a million or more people. Acting on this theory, the Chamber of Commerce has set up a committee to attract industry and initiated a publicity campaign which points out with facts and figures Tucson's desirable features as a plant location. These include, among many other advantages, equable climate, superior health and living conditions, year-round outdoor recreation, and availability of land and labor. One executive summed it up: “People are more cheerful in a sunny climate, and cheerful workers are good workers.” But not even the most avid advocates of manufacturing want the city to become a center of heavy industry. Thus the appeal is aimed at concerns engaged in producing electronic equipment, precision instruments, and the like. It is too soon to say how successful Tucson's bid for new industry will be, but some headway has already been made in the direction of light manufacturing, particularly in the production and sale of goods consumed locally. However, industrial progress has been slowed because Tucson is a community of sharply divided opinions. There is a large group which opposes concentrated industry as the chief foundation of the future economy. This slowdown-and-live faction is composed of a hard core of natives and long-time Tucsonians with nostalgic memories and those who were drawn to the Old Pueblo because of the good life it offers. Neither wants Tucson's basic character changed. They feel strongly that the city's greatest attraction is its individuality. This would be destroyed by industry, light or heavy. There are many manufacturing centers in America, but only one Tucson, and they see no burning necessity why the city should become just another sprawling, characterless megalopolis with its resultant smog, slurbs, expressways, and "industrial parks." As one of them put it: "The welcome mat is always out for new residents. We like 'em. But if people want industry there are plenty of other places to go."

Tucson International Airport

What the outcome will be no one knows. But there is little question that the tourist business is preeminent today. Without it Tucson would only be another name on the map. And in recent years the boom in retirement living has added another golden bonanza. Large sums have been expended in attractive senior-citizen subdivisions and apartments, mobile home estates, and varied recreational and cultural facilities suitable for older people. These have not only been financed locally, but considerable outside capital has been invested. The biggest project is Tucson Green Valley, a $100,000,000 non-profit retirement community sponsored by the University of Arizona and the New York State Teachers Retirement System. Located on a particularly scenic site of several thousand acres, nineteen miles south of the city, Green Valley is a completely self-contained residential development planned for an eventual population of 22,000.

Tucson is also a leading Southwestern educational and scientific center. Paced by the University of Arizona, significant work is being done in many fields of knowledge. On the University campus is the Arizona State Museum. Its exhibits give a fascinating close-up picture of the prehistoric Southwest and graphically show the high degree of culture attained by the various tribes of Indians before the coming of the White Man. Then, adjacent to the University, but not a part of it, is the handsome Spanish-Mexican style building of the Arizona Pioneers Historical Society. Here are housed relics and mementos of Arizona's past, from the days of Coronado, more than three centuries ago, to achievement of statehood in 1912. The Society's library contains 250,000 volumes, as well as hundreds of pamphlets, maps, photographs, microfilms and newspaper files.

These two institutions are limitless reservoirs of research, and their priceless collections give an almost complete story of Tucson's human background. But for the living natural history of the area, there is the ArizonaSonora Desert Museum, one of Tucson's greatest attractions for both visitors and residents. Here, on a 60-acre tract in the Tucson Mountains, fifteen miles west of town, are displayed the wildlife, plants, rocks and minerals that