Tucson is a city and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States, and home to the University of Arizona. The 2010 United States Census put the population at 520,116, while the 2015 estimated population of the entire Tucson metropolitan statistical area (MSA) was 980,263.

The Tucson MSA forms part of the larger Tucson-Nogales combined statistical area (CSA), with a total population of 1,010,025 as of the 2010 Census. Tucson is the second-largest populated city in Arizona behind Phoenix, both of which anchor the Arizona Sun Corridor.

The city is located 108 miles (174 km) southeast of Phoenix and 60 mi (97 km) north of the U.S.–Mexico border. Tucson is the 33rd largest city and the 58th largest metropolitan area in the United States (2014).

Jesuit missionary Eusebio Francisco Kino visited the Santa Cruz River valley in 1692, and founded the Mission San Xavier del Bac in 1700 about 7 mi (11 km) 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 “A” mountain.

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 (near the present downtown Pima County Courthouse).

During the Spanish period of the presidio, attacks such as the Second Battle of Tucson were repeatedly mounted by Apaches. Eventually the town came to be called “Tucson” and became a part of Mexico after Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821.

It was following the Gadsden Purchase in 1853 that Tucson became a part of the United States of America. Southern Arizona, including Tucson, was legally bought from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase, by the United States on June 8, 1854.

In 1857 Tucson became a stage station on the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line and in 1858 became 3rd division headquarters of the Butterfield Overland Mail until the line shut down in March 1861.

From August 1861, until mid-1862, Tucson was the western capital of the Confederate Arizona Territory. All of what is now Arizona was part of New Mexico Territory until 1863, when it became part of the new Arizona Territory. From 1867 to 1877, Tucson was the capital of Arizona Territory. 1877, the Tucson was incorporated, making Tucson the oldest incorporated city in Arizona.

From 1877 to 1878, the Tucson area suffered from a rash of stagecoach robberies. Pima County Sheriff, Charles A. Shibell and his citizen’s posse tracked down William Whitney Brazelton, a masked stagecoach robber and killed him 3 miles south of Tucson in a mesquite grove along the Santa Cruz River.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp and others help rid southern Arizona of other bandits. This help clear the way for future growth and expansion in the early 1880s.

In 1885, the University of Arizona, was founded as a land-grant college on over-grazed ranch land between Tucson and Fort Lowell. Today, around 150 Tucson companies are involved in the design and manufacture of optics and optoelectronics systems, earning Tucson the nickname Optics Valley.

These companies contribute to the local economy just as the local barber shop businesses.

We encourage you to continue to show your support for Tucson small business and merchants. Local residents and visitors deserve a special thanks for their support. Connect with them right here.