Edit: 08/20/24 – Tucson, Arizona, Sonoran Desert, Earth – A Very Special Place Indeed

I originally named this blog post “Monsoon Season is my Favorite Season” but I only wrote a few sentences and I also lost the original posting date. It has been quite a while, but I am working on this blog post as a “I love where I live” post. I want to share with people all the things I love about Tucson, and maybe some things that I don’t love as much, but I am proud of where I live and like I read in Brad Lancasters book, if you leave then you will just take your problems with you. Thank you Brad for not leaving Tucson and doing so much for our community. You are a huge influence on me.

Tucson, Arizona is a magnificent city, but it is far from perfect. It is known for a few things, such as the University of Arizona, Mt. Lemmon is right ouside Tucson. We are also known for military reasons, as we have the largest air force base in area, due to the largest airplane boneyard there. Tucson is also the home of Raytheon, a large military contracter. Lance Armstrong trained here for the Tour de France during the winter, and was seen riding his bike up and down Mount Lemmon. We also have Brad Lancaster, a local celebrity (actually he speaks around the world apparently) who has pioneered a new way of looking at water conservation (https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/).

You can be in an evergreen forest similar to Washington and Oregon within an hour or so from Tucson. The Sonoran Desert has the most biodiverse plantlife in North America, (https://www.britannica.com/place/Sonoran-Desert) and I have also heard that Mt. Lemmon/The Sonoran Desert has the most biodiversity in fungi and animals as well, but I do not have a source on that right now. People have been in the area for at least 12,000 years. Tucson was founded by the Spanish in 1775, until 1821-1854 when Tucson was part of Mexico after Mexico gained their independence from Spain. The area was bought as part of the Gadsden Purchase and became part of the New Mexico territory, but did not become the Arizona territory until 1863, and then Tucson became a city in these United States in 1877. (Am I sure? Still working on my short history of Tucson and the Sonoran Desert)

Mission Gardens, which is right below Sentinel Mountain, known locally as “A Mountain”. A for Arizona. This small mountain, which is an inactive volcano, is where Tucson got it’s name. The Tohono O’odham native americans called it “Ts-iuk-shan” which means “black base” because the base of the mountain was darker than the top. I believe this is because of the volcanic rock.

to be continued….more about loving tucson =) =) =)