48 Fun Facts About Tucson

In which year was the Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón, which founded Tucson, authorized?

Irish-born Spanish officer Hugo O'Conor chose the site on August 20, 1775; the old downtown courthouse stands near the spot of the original presidio walls.

A giant whitewashed 'A' for the University of Arizona sits on which hill west of downtown?

Sentinel Peak earned its everyday name, 'A' Mountain, after students built the 160-foot basalt 'A' in 1916 following a football win over Pomona College.

Tucson is commonly known by which nickname?

'The Old Pueblo' traces to an 1880 telegram that called Tucson the 'ancient and honorable pueblo', a phrase newspapers shortened over time.

Tucson served as capital of the Arizona Territory during which years?

Tucson was territorial capital from 1867 to 1877; Prescott held it before and after, and Phoenix took over for good in 1889.

Tucson became part of the United States on June 8, 1854, through which land deal with Mexico?

The Gadsden Purchase bought the land south of the Gila River for $10 million; the U.S. Army did not formally take control of Tucson until March 1856.

Tucson is the seat of which Arizona county?

The county is named for the Pima people, also known as the Akimel O'odham, and had just over a million residents at the 2020 census.

The University of Arizona, the first university in the Arizona Territory, was founded in which year?

The 1885 territorial legislature gave Tucson the university with a $25,000 allocation; the city had hoped for the mental hospital, which came with $100,000.

Arizona became the Wildcats after a 1914 football game against which California opponent?

After Arizona's hard-fought 1914 loss to Occidental College in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times wrote that the Arizona men 'showed the fight of wildcats'.

The Wildcats' motto "Bear Down" comes from the last words of which student athlete, who died in 1926?

Salmon was student body president, starting quarterback and baseball catcher; the state legislature made "Bear Down" the university's exclusive property in 1939.

The University of Arizona's giant-telescope mirror lab is tucked beneath which campus structure?

The Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab sits under the east stands of Arizona Stadium, the football stadium, spin-casting honeycomb mirrors such as the 8.4-meter mirror for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

Which of Saguaro National Park's two units lies east of Tucson?

The Rincon Mountain District, the eastern unit, is far larger and climbs to 8,666 feet at Mica Mountain; the western unit tops out at 4,687-foot Wasson Peak.

Which president created Saguaro National Monument in 1933 under the Antiquities Act?

Herbert Hoover proclaimed the monument on March 1, 1933, days before leaving office; the western unit in the Tucson Mountains was added in 1961.

Saguaro National Monument was elevated to full national park status in which year?

Congress made Saguaro a national park in October 1994; its namesake cactus can live 200 years, reach 60 feet and weigh 4,800 pounds when fully hydrated.

Mission San Xavier del Bac, about 10 miles south of downtown Tucson, is known by what nickname?

The 'White Dove of the Desert' nickname comes from the mission's gleaming white plaster; the present church went up between 1783 and 1797 and is the oldest European structure in Arizona.

Which Jesuit missionary founded Mission San Xavier del Bac in 1692?

The Italian-born Kino founded a chain of missions across the Pimería Alta and first visited the Tucson valley the same year.

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is named after two Tucson natives who died how?

Davis-Monthan honours Tucson natives Samuel Davis and Oscar Monthan, Army aviators killed in separate military air crashes in 1921 and 1924.

Which aviator flew the Spirit of St. Louis to Tucson in 1927 to dedicate Davis-Monthan airfield?

Charles Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis in on September 23, 1927 to dedicate the field, then the largest municipal airport in the United States.

The museum in Sahuarita, south of Tucson, preserves the last intact launch complex of which ICBM?

Titan II site 571-7 went operational in 1963 and was deactivated in 1984; every other Titan II silo in the country was demolished.

Kitt Peak National Observatory, west of Tucson, sits on land leased from which Native nation?

The Tohono O'odham Nation leased the peak in 1958 under an agreement lasting as long as the site is used for astronomy; it hosts more than twenty optical telescopes.

Biosphere 2, the giant sealed glass research facility north of Tucson, is located in which community?

Biosphere 2 stands in Oracle, some 30 miles north of Tucson at the foot of the Santa Catalina Mountains; its glass enclosure covers 3.14 acres at roughly 4,000 feet.

How many people were sealed inside Biosphere 2 for its original two-year mission from 1991 to 1993?

Eight crew members lived sealed inside for two years; oxygen fell from 20.9 to 14.5 percent after 16 months, forcing managers to pump more in.

The very first Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, in 1955, was held in what kind of venue?

The 1955 show was held in Helen Keeling Elementary School, then moved to a Quonset hut at the fairgrounds before growing into the Tucson Convention Center.

El Tour de Tucson, first held in 1983, is a mass-participation event for which activity?

El Tour de Tucson is a road cycling ride founded by Richard DeBernardis; about 185 riders took part in 1983, and later editions drew several thousand.

Most Tucson schools give two 'rodeo days' off during Fiesta de los Vaqueros in place of which holiday?

Tucson districts swap Presidents' Day for two days off during the February rodeo, whose parade is billed as the world's largest non-mechanized parade.

Sun Link, Tucson's 3.9-mile modern streetcar line, began service in which year?

Sun Link opened on July 25, 2014, linking the health sciences center, the university, Fourth Avenue, downtown and the Mercado District west of Interstate 10.

In which year did UNESCO name Tucson the first "City of Gastronomy" in the United States?

UNESCO added Tucson to its Creative Cities Network as a City of Gastronomy in December 2015, citing some 4,000 years of continuous farming in the valley.

A Sonoran hot dog, a Tucson street-food staple, is wrapped in what before it hits the grill?

The bacon-wrapped frank comes on a bolillo-style bun with pinto beans, onions, tomatoes, mayo, mustard and jalapeño salsa; more than 200 Tucson vendors sold them by 2009.

Monica Flin of which Tucson restaurant is credited with accidentally inventing the chimichanga?

At El Charro Café, Flin reportedly began to swear with a word starting 'chi-' but, with children nearby, switched to 'chimichanga', Spanish for thingamajig.

Which Tucson restaurant won a 2018 James Beard America's Classics award for its Sonoran hot dogs?

El Güero Canelo, Daniel Contreras's south-side stand turned restaurant chain, took the 2018 America's Classics award; the style itself is credited to Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, in the late 1980s.

A 1934 fire at Tucson's Hotel Congress led to the capture of which bank robber's gang?

Firemen who hauled out the gang's heavy luggage later recognized the men from a detective magazine, and John Dillinger and his gang were arrested in Tucson in January 1934.

Old Tucson Studios, the Western movie set turned theme park, was largely destroyed by fire in which year?

The April 1995 fire destroyed much of the set, built in 1939 for the film Arizona, including the Little House on the Prairie wardrobe; it reopened in January 1997.

What job did Linda Ronstadt's brother Peter hold in Tucson from 1981 to 1991?

Peter Ronstadt served as Tucson's chief of police from 1981 to 1991; the Ronstadts were a pioneering Tucson family of Mexican descent whose papers are archived at the University of Arizona library.

Ski Valley, the southernmost ski destination in the continental US, sits on which peak north of Tucson?

Mount Lemmon's summit, at 9,157 feet, stands more than 6,700 feet above the city; in summer the Ski Valley lift runs as a sky ride.

Tucson's monsoon season officially begins on which date each year?

The National Weather Service fixed the monsoon season at June 15 to September 30 in 2008; the first storms actually arrive around July 3 on average, and Arizona's 'Stupid Motorist Law' fines drivers who bypass flooded-road barricades.

Tucson's all-time record high temperature, set in June 1990, was how hot?

Tucson reached 117 °F on June 26, 1990, the same heatwave day Phoenix hit its 122 °F record; the record low is 6 °F from January 1913.

What was Tucson's population at the 2020 census?

The 2020 census counted 542,629 people in Tucson, then Arizona's second-most populous city after Phoenix; the metro area held about 1.04 million.

In the standard English pronunciation of "Tucson," which letter is silent?

The 'c' is silent: Tucson is said TOO-sahn, with stress on the first syllable, which is why the name is so often misspelled 'Tuscon'.

The Rillito, running along Tucson's northern edge, drains into which larger waterway?

The Rillito joins the Santa Cruz River northwest of downtown; once a tree-lined perennial stream, it dried up as groundwater pumping grew and flows only after storms and snowmelt.

Sabino Canyon Recreation Area, northeast of Tucson, is run by which federal agency?

Sabino Canyon lies within the Coronado National Forest, so the US Forest Service manages the recreation area, its tram road and its Depression-era stone bridges.

Which of these is one of Tucson's official sister cities?

Pécs, Hungary, is one of Tucson's sister cities, alongside Roscommon in Ireland, Segovia in Spain and Sulaymaniyah in Iraq.

When the railroad reached Tucson in 1880, the mayor telegrammed the US president and which other world figure?

Mayor Robert Leatherwood's telegram to the Pope announced that the 'ancient and honorable pueblo' of Tucson now lay on the railway; a reply, probably forged by local pranksters, asked where Tucson was.

What nickname did Tucson, home to some 150 lens and telescope firms, get from a 1992 Business Week cover story?

'Optics Valley' stuck after the 1992 cover story; the cluster grew from the University of Arizona's Optical Sciences Center, founded in 1964, and the instrument needs of nearby observatories.

Which suspect in Morgan Earp's murder did Wyatt kill at the Tucson train station in 1882?

Wyatt Earp shot Frank Stilwell dead in the Tucson rail yard on March 20, 1882, then led a vendetta ride that killed Florentino Cruz and Curly Bill Brocius before leaving the territory.

Which force briefly captured Tucson during the Mexican-American War under Philip St. George Cooke?

The Mormon Battalion, volunteers marching from Iowa to California, entered Tucson unopposed on December 16, 1846, after the Mexican garrison withdrew; Cooke's wagon road later became a key route to the 1849 Gold Rush.

Which April 1862 Civil War engagement near Tucson did the Confederates win tactically before withdrawing?

Union troops entered Tucson on May 20, 1862, and the town became part of the new Union Territory of Arizona.

Fort Lowell, whose ruins form a Tucson park, was built to protect settlers from which people?

Fort Lowell, moved in 1873 to a site on the Rillito northeast of town, served as a supply base for the Army's campaigns against the Apache until it closed in 1891.

Which Tucson road did Life magazine call 'the ugliest street in America' in the early 1970s?

Life's 1970 article quoted Tucson's own mayor, James Corbett, who had called Speedway Boulevard 'the ugliest street in America'; the label stuck to the road for decades.

Rillito Downs claims to have hosted the world's first organised races of which kind?

Rillito Downs, opened in 1943, claims the first organised quarter horse racing and the first photo-finish camera; winter race meets were later held there on weekends.