Relocating to Tucson Arizona
The largest city in southern Arizona and one of the fastest growing urban areas in the Southwest, Tucson is both a bustling center of business and a laid-back university and resort town. The days of rowdy saloons and the Butterfield Stage rolling over dusty city streets may be gone, but the independent feeling of the Old West remains. Tucsonans embrace the quality of life and live in a place where the American dream can still come true, where individual voices can be heard, and where people are the driving force behind making things happen.
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Tucson History
A view of downtown Tucson and "A" Mountain
Nicknamed ” The Old Pueblo ” after the Spanish meaning for town or village, the name Tucson comes from the O ‘odham tribe and was pronounced chuk-shon, meaning ” spring at the foot of a black mountain. ” Continuously inhabited for more than 12,000 years, the area has been home to Native Americans, Spanish explorers, Mexicans, Europeans, and West-bound pioneers.
Archeologists have found evidence of the ancient Hohokum Civilization living in the Tucson basin as early as 900 A.D. The Santa Cruz River once flowed through this picturesque desert valley, supporting abundant wildlife and agriculture. In 1539, a Spanish expedition led by Fray Marcos de Niza traveled through the area in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola. Tucson is one of the oldest towns in the United States, founded in 1775 by Don Hugo O’Connor, an Irishman who was an officer in Spain’s military. He established the Tucson Presidio as a military outpost. When Spanish settlers arrived in 1776 the Presidio of Tucson was enclosed with an adobe wall for protection from the native Apache tribe, who quite obviously did not put out a welcome mat for the newcomers.
Tucson officially became part of the United States with the Gadsden Purchase of 1854 and served as the capital of the Arizona Territory from 1867 to 1877. Early Tucson was a major outpost, a Butterfield Overland Stagecoach stop, and a rowdy frontier town tempered only by social refinements of new settlers from more civilized cities back east. The town prospered and boasted a population of more than 7,000 by the early 1800s, making it one of the largest cities in the West. The arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1880 paved the way for modern growth, which was further stimulated by the founding of the University of Arizona in 1885. The University opened its doors in 1891 on land donated by a saloonkeeper and two gamblers.
The rattlesnake bridge in downtown Tucson
Business & Industry in Tucson
According to a forecasting project at the University of Arizona, Tucson is on track for the future with a robust economy, and projections estimate the population will top one million by 2010. Tucson’s competitive edge as a profitable place to do business is based on multiple factors, such as competitive wages, a moderate tax structure, a low cost of living, and availability of industrial sites, education and training programs. An $800 million downtown urban redevelopment project for revitalization, the Rio Nuevo Master Plan, is underway.
Tucson is ranked the third most Creative City in the U.S among medium-sized cities in the Washington Monthly. The Creativity Index ranks cities in terms of percent of employees working in creative and high tech fields, percent of high-tech industry within the local economy, innovation and diversity (measuring an area’s openness to different kinds of people and ideas). Tucson also is ranked Number Two nationwide in the Top 10 digital cities by the Center for Digital Government, rating how cities use technology to increase public access to local government and improve the delivery of services to their citizens. The Milkin Institute’s Best Performing Cities index gives Tucson an overall enviable rank of 17 out of 200 metropolitan areas, based on economic performance and ability to create, as well as keep, the greatest number of jobs in the nation.
St. Marys Hospital
Tucson Healthcare
The Greater Tucson area has 15 hospitals, including the Tucson Heart Hospital, and a medical community of more than 2,000 physicians and 400 dentists. The University of Arizona’s Health Sciences Center has the state’s only College of Medicine and eight Centers of Excellence, including primary facilities for cancer, arthritis, heart, aging, respiratory, the Children’s Research Center, the Program in Integrative Medicine, and University Medical Center, with one of only nine organ transplant programs in the nation. Tucson Medical Center was named in the 100 Top Hospitals list in 1995.
The metropolitan area is home to several leading managed care companies, including Intergroup Health Care Corporation and Partners. The Muscular Dystrophy Association and the American Board of Radiology are headquartered in Tucson. There are more than 4,000 Holistic medicine providers in the city. The nationally accredited Desert Institute of the Healing Arts offers certification in Massage Therapy, Zen Shiatsu, Reflexology and Thai Massage. The nationally accredited Arizona School of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and the Asian Institute of Medical Studies offer masters degrees in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.