Tucson

Sister cities

• Pécs
• Almaty
• Segovia
• Guadalajara
• Nouakchott
• Ciudad Obregón
• Trikala
• Sulaymaniyah
• Hermosillo
• Fiesole

History

The Tucson area was probably first visited by Paleo-Indians, who were known to have been in southern Arizona about 12,000 years ago. Recent archaeological excavations near the Santa Cruz River found a village site dating from 2100 BC. The floodplain of the Santa Cruz River was extensively farmed during the Early Agricultural Period, to AD 150. These people hunted, gathered wild plants and nuts, and ate corn, beans, and other crops grown using irrigation canals they constructed. Italian Jesuit missionary Eusebio Francisco Kino first visited the Santa Cruz River valley in 1692. He founded the Mission San Xavier del Bac in 1700, about upstream from the site of the settlement of Tucson. A separate Convento settlement was founded downstream along the Santa Cruz River, near the base of what is now known as "A" mountain. Hugo Oconór (Hugo O'Conor), the founding father of the city of Tucson, Arizona, authorized the construction of a military fort in that location, Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón, on August 20, 1775 (the present downtown Pima County Courthouse was built near this site). During the Spanish period of the presidio, attacks such as the Second Battle of Tucson were repeatedly mounted by the Apache. Eventually, the town came to be called Tucsón, a Spanish version of the O'odham word for the area. It was included in the state of Sonora after Mexico gained independence from the Kingdom of Spain and its Spanish Empire in 1821. During the Mexican–American War in 1846–1848, Tucsón was captured by Philip St. George Cooke with the Mormon Battalion, but it soon returned to Mexican control as Cooke proceeded to the west, establishing Cooke's Wagon Road to California. Tucsón was not included in the Mexican Cession to the United States following the war. Cooke's…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, as of 2010, the City of Tucson has a land area of . The city's elevation is above sea level (as measured at the Tucson International Airport). Tucson is on an alluvial plain in the Sonoran Desert, surrounded by five minor ranges of mountains: the Santa Catalina Mountains and the Tortolita Mountains to the north, the Santa Rita Mountains to the south, the Rincon Mountains to the east, and the Tucson Mountains to the west. Tucson Mountains include Wasson Peak. The highest point in the area is Mount Wrightson, found in the Santa Rita Mountains at above sea level. Tucson is southeast of Phoenix and north of the United States–Mexico border by interstate highway. The 2020 United States census puts the city's population at 542,629 with a metropolitan area population at 1,043,433. In 2020, Tucson ranked as the 33rd-largest city and 53rd-largest metropolitan area in the United States. A major city in the Arizona Sun Corridor, Tucson is the largest city in southern Arizona, and the second-largest in the state after Phoenix. It is also the largest city in the area of the historic Gadsden Purchase. As of 2015, the Greater Tucson Metro area has exceeded a population of 1 million. The city is built along the Santa Cruz River, formerly a perennial river. Now a dry riverbed for much of the year, it regularly floods during significant seasonal rains. Interstate 10 runs northwest through town, connecting Tucson to Phoenix to the northwest (on the way to its western terminus in Santa Monica, California), and to Las Cruces, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas to the southeast. (Its eastern terminus is in Jacksonville, Florida). I-19 runs south from Tucson to Nogales and the Mexico–United States border. I-19 is the only Interstate Highway in…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  92,076
• Gila Woodpecker

  Melanerpes uropygialis (S.F.Baird, 1854) · Aves
  86,028
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  83,937
• Verdin

  Auriparus flaviceps (Sundevall, 1850) · Aves
  77,880
• Lesser Goldfinch

  Spinus psaltria (Say, 1822) · Aves
  62,433
• Vermilion Flycatcher

  Pyrocephalus rubinus (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  59,431
• Anna's Hummingbird

  Calypte anna (R.Lesson, 1829) · Aves
  57,680
• Abert's Towhee

  Melozone aberti (S.F.Baird, 1852) · Aves
  55,103

Largest nearby schools

• Tucson Magnet High School
  High · TUCSON · 3,162 students · 19.5:1 ratio
• Sunnyside High School
  High · TUCSON · 2,204 students · 21.4:1 ratio
• Desert View High School
  High · TUCSON · 2,169 students · 21.5:1 ratio
• Pueblo High School
  High · TUCSON · 1,831 students · 17.8:1 ratio
• Cholla High School
  High · TUCSON · 1,760 students · 19.1:1 ratio
• Sahuaro High School
  High · TUCSON · 1,432 students · 21.4:1 ratio
• Rincon High School
  High · TUCSON · 1,273 students · 19.3:1 ratio
• Mica Mountain High
  High · Tucson · 1,161 students · 18.4:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.6 — 2025-08-09
  14 km ENE of Willow Canyon, Arizona
• M 3.1 — 2023-09-28
  21 km E of Tanque Verde, Arizona