Oro Valley, Arizona
Oro Valley, incorporated in 1974, is a suburban town located north of Tucson, Arizona, United States, in Pima County. According to the 2020 census, the population of the town is 47,070, an increase from 29,700 in 2000. Dubbed the "Upscale Tech Mecca" of Southern Arizona by the Arizona Daily Star, Oro Valley is home to over 10 high tech firms and has a median household income nearly 50% higher than the U.S. median. The town is located approximately southeast of Phoenix, the state capital.
Oro Valley is situated in the western foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains at the base of Pusch Ridge. The Tortolita Mountains are located north of the town and vistas of the Tucson valley are to the south. The town occupies the middle Cañada del Oro Valley. Oro Valley hosts a large number of residents from around the US who maintain second or winter homes in the town.
The town hosted the 2006 Pac-10 Women's Golf Championships at the Oro Valley Country Club which was also the site for the 2006 Girls' Junior America's Cup, a major amateur golf tournament for the Western United States. Annual events in Oro Valley include the Oro Valley Festival of the Arts, El Tour de Tucson, the Oro Valley Music Festival, the Tucson Marathon, the Cactus Speed Classic for inline skaters, the Oro Valley Triathlon, and the Arizona Distance Classic.
History
Pre-U.S. annexation period
The area of Oro Valley has been inhabited discontinuously for nearly two thousand years by various groups of people. The Hohokam lived in the Honeybee Village in the foothills of the Tortolita Mountains on Oro Valley's far north side around 450 A.D and continuously inhabited the village for nearly 800 years. Hohokam artifacts continue to be discovered in the Honeybee Village and studied by archaeologists around the globe.Early in the 16th century, Native American tribes, including the Apache, arrived in the Southern Arizona area, including Oro Valley. These tribes inhabited the region only a few decades prior to the arrival of Spanish conquistadors like Francisco Coronado. In the beginning of the late 16th century, the Spanish established forts in the area, including the Tucson Presidio in 1775.
Territorial period
Beginning in the 19th century after the Mexican–American War and subsequent Gadsden Purchase, Americans increasingly settled in the Arizona Territory. Following the Civil War and several Army efforts to pacify the Apaches, settlers ventured north from Tucson to settle Oro Valley. In 1869, Francisco Romero, who was from a Hispanic family tracing its Tucson roots to the early nineteenth century, established a ranch in the present-day Catalina State Park. He constructed ranch buildings on the foundations of Hohokam ruins in the park. Romero lived there intermittently from 1869 to his death in 1905. Members of the Romero family occupied land in that same area until 1930.In 1874, George Pusch, a German immigrant, established a cattle ranch in Oro Valley that was unique for utilizing a steam pump to provide water, eventually popularizing Pusch's property as the Steam Pump Ranch. The steam pump was one of only two in the Arizona Territory. Pusch and his family visited frequently and employed caretakers to manage the property but never lived there. George Pusch and later the Pusch Land and Cattle Company owned Steam Pump Ranch until 1925. Pusch's ranch provided respite for settlers and travelers entering and leaving the Tucson area. Pusch Ridge is named in honor of George Pusch.
Ranching continued to flourish in the area as greater numbers of Americans settled in Arizona during its days as a territory and following statehood. Federal homesteads became available after 1903 when land surveys were completed. Homesteads were claimed by individuals from 1903 until the 1940s. Hispanic homesteaders included Francisco Romero, Jesus Elias, Francisco Marin, Francisco Aragon and others. Female homesteaders included Ina Gittings, Mabel Burke Johnson, Margaret Moodie and others. Other prominent homesteaders included William Sutherland, James Reidy and David Morgan.
Starting in the 1930s up until the 1960s, large ranching families came to Oro Valley with many coming from the Midwest and the East. After vacationing in Tucson, they became interested in living in the desert and purchased many of the homesteads occupied by early settlers. These wealthy ranchers obtained properties of 1,000 to 7,000 acres. They usually lived on the ranches in the winter months and employed caretakers to manage the property and cattle. These wealthy ranchers included Walter McDonald, John Procter, Lawrence Rooney, Joseph McAdams and Lloyd and Betty Golder.
Gold prospectors in the American West were attracted to Southern Arizona where gold was said to be in abundance in and around the Santa Catalina Mountains to the north of Tucson. Fueled by the legend of the lost Iron Door Gold Mine in the mountains, those in search of gold trekked through the Oro Valley area, focusing their attention along the Cañada del Oro. No significant amounts of gold were found locally.
Post-World War II period
After World War II, the Tucson area experienced dramatic population growth, impacting Oro Valley as well. Property owners began subdividing local real estate for development in the early 1930s. Construction of Campo Bello, the first suburban development, began in 1948. Lots in the Linda Vista Citrus Tracts were sold from the late 1930s to the 1960s and occupied by residents. In the early 1950s, the Oro Valley Country Club opened at the base of Pusch Ridge, affirming the area's future as an affluent community. The Suffolk Hills development was constructed from 1960 to 1962. Although one tract housing development was built in the area in the early 1950s, the majority of homes in the Oro Valley area were built by individual land owners on large lots in a low density residential style.Town founding
The community continued to grow gradually, and area residents increasingly desired local control of the land in the area. In the late 1960s, incorporation became a greater focus in Oro Valley. Tucson Mayor James M. Corbett Jr. expressed great interest in expanding the Tucson city limits to the far north side of Pima County. Corbett vowed to bring the Oro Valley area into Tucson "kicking and screaming", alluding to the reservations Oro Valley residents expressed about joining Tucson.In 1968, a petition to incorporate Oro Valley began circulating. The Pima County Board of Supervisors officially refused to allow Oro Valley to incorporate, and litigation followed. Ultimately, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled in favor of incorporation. In 1974, the Town of Oro Valley was incorporated with only. The original town limits included the Linda Vista Citrus Tracts, Campo Bello Estates, Shadow Mountain Estates, and Oro Valley Country Club Estates. Activity in Oro Valley centered primarily around the Oro Valley Country Club and Canyon del Oro High School. Originally named Palo Verde, town founders proceeded with incorporation efforts under the official name of Oro Valley to garner support from the influential residents of the Oro Valley Country Club. The town began with a population of nearly 1,200.
Through the 1980s and particularly in the 1990s, Oro Valley experienced significant residential and commercial growth. In 1990, the town had a population of 6,670. By 2000, that figure had increased to 29,700 residents. During that time, residential communities of all housing-unit densities were developed in the town, including several master-planned communities. For several years in the 1990s, Oro Valley was the fastest growing municipality in Arizona.
Geography
Oro Valley is located at in the middle of the Cañada del Oro Valley. Oro Valley sits at an average elevation of above sea level.According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of, of which is land and is water.
The topography of Oro Valley is distinguished by the Cañada del Oro riverbed bisecting the town. The eastern banks of the Cañada del Oro rise dramatically to the Santa Catalina Mountains. The western banks of the Cañada del Oro rise more gradually to a plateau and the foothills of the Tortolita Mountains farther north.
Notable geographic features include Pusch Ridge, Pusch Ridge Wilderness Area, Santa Catalina Mountains, Cañada del Oro, and Tortolita Mountains.
Parks
The oldest park in Oro Valley is James D. Kriegh Park ; the park includes an Olympic-sized swimming pool, recreational fields, and racquetball courts. Other major parks in Oro Valley include Cañada del Oro Riverfront Park, which features tennis and basketball courts, recreational fields, walking trails, and connections to equestrian trails along the Cañada del Oro wash, and West Lambert Lane Park, a nature park with a number of hiking trails in Cañada Hills.Naranja Park is the largest park with 213 acres in the middle of town. The park contains four multi-sport fields, a playground, a dog park, an archery range, and multiple walking trails. It is also home to the Sonoran Desert Flyers, an organization dedicated to radio control model aircraft. The park recently underwent a $25 million expansion that added four new multi-sport fields, six pickleball courts, two basketball courts, a splash pad, a BMX track, and a skate park.
Catalina State Park and the Coronado National Forest in the Santa Catalina Mountains form the eastern boundary of Oro Valley. Linda Vista Trail, located east of Oracle Road on Linda Vista Drive to the south of 1st Avenue, is a nature trail that provides views of Oro Valley, Pusch Ridge, and the surrounding vicinity. Honeybee Village and Steam Pump Ranch are historical park sites in Oro Valley that are managed and maintained by the Oro Valley Historical Society in cooperation with the governments of Oro Valley and Pima County.
Northwestern Oro Valley also includes La Cholla Airpark, a private airport community founded in 1972. The airpark includes nearly 100 residential estates and a air strip situated at the center of the community for member use.