Welcome to Northern Pima County, Arizona!  We are proud to introduce you to the Northwest communities of Casas Adobes, Catalina, Catalina Foothills, Marana, Oro Valley, Tortolita and Northwest Tucson.

The beauty and charm of the area continues to entice new residents and businesses to the region and we have seen tremendous growth over the years.

The Northern Pima County Chamber of Commerce was organized in 1992 to support the growth and the business interests of the community.  We are over 500 members strong and represent your neighborhood businesses who support the community.

You're in for some surprises.  Those who live northwest of Tucson's city limits don't mind saying they're from Tucson, since it generally describes the entire region, of which those of us who live here are immensely proud.  Another surprise you're sure to experience is how green the desert is around here.  For people unfamiliar with the region, the term desert implies sweeping sand dunes, massive dust storms or the creosote dotted plains and towering red monoliths of Monument Valley (thanks to the seven Western movies Director John Ford filmed there).Welcome to Northern Pima County, Arizona!

The Sonoran Desert's 120,000 square miles is incredibly diverse.  It has those ubiquitous sand dunes, but more importantly, it is dotted with what natives call "Sky Islands" - high mountain ranges separated by grassy valleys.

The metropolitan Tucson area is surrounded by Sky Islands.  To the north are 9,000 foot high Santa Catalina Mountains whose forested peaks are prowled by mountain lion and black bear.  In the summer, the mountains fill with thousands of campers and hikers.  In the winter, with hundreds of skiers.  Yes, skiers.  Ski Valley on Mount Lemmon is the southern-most ski area in the United States, boasting an average snowfall of 175 inches and three months of skiing.

To the east is the 7,000 foot Rincon Mountain range, home to the eastern half of Saguaro National Park, a forest of giant cactus, some 150-feet tall and containing hundreds of gallons of stored water.  Across Tucson to the west lies the other half of the National Park in the middle of the 4,200 foot high Tucson Mountains.  South of town is the 9,000 foot Santa Rita range.  This confluence of high mountains causes summer thunderstorms and winter cold fronts to drop more rain and snow than most of the rest of the Sonoran Desert.  The mountain rain and snow has made the alluvial plain that is the Tucson basin a web of intermittent streams and washes creating a lush upland desert, covered with grasses, brush, palo verde, mesquite and ironwood trees, and interspersed with prickly pear, cholla and saguaro cacti.

The thick vegetation is home to lizards, snakes, jackrabbits, javelina (a pig-like animal that is quite fond of prickly pear and other cactus fruit), coyotes, mule deer, bobcats and mountain lions.

The Tucson basin and surrounding areas are also a bird watcher's paradise, home to hundreds of native species and nearly as many migratory birds.  The San Pedro River Valley southeast of Tucson, perhaps more than any other reason they cite the beauty and diversity of the desert and the majesty of the mountain ranges.

The metropolitan economy is another reason cited for moving here and the economy is nearly as diverse as the desert.  Tucson historically has been a center of ranching, mining and farming.  The railroad also made the town a center of commerce.  Today, those three industries remain a big part of the economy and the Interstate has joined the railroad in keeping the region a center of commerce for Southeast Arizona.

Major defense contractors like Raytheon and Honeywell employ thousands of Tucsonans, Davis Monthan Air Force Base and Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista likewise have multi-million dollar impacts on the local economy.

A whole industry has sprung up supporting the thousands of retirees who move to the metropolitan area each year, relocating to take advantage of the warm climate, the year round golf, and the unique Tucson and Southwestern lifestyle.

The University of Arizona has become one of the premier research universities in the world and one of its research schools, the Department of Astronomy, has made Tucson the optics center of the nation.  As communications rely more on photons than electrons, Tucson's leading position in the optic industry has the area poised to become the next Silicon Valley.  Although this time it will be called Optics Valley.

Tourism is also a major part of the local economy.  Tucson boasts some of the finest health spas in the world and some of the most highly rated golf resorts in the country.  Thousands of people every year, particularly in the winter when Tusconans bask in sunshine while other Americans shovel snow, come to stay at the area's four and five star resorts.  Most of these resorts and spas are in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains, and in the Northwest.

Winter visitors, sometimes called Snow Birds, make up a large part of the tourism economy.  Every winter tens of thousands of people from the Midwest and East move into their winter Tucson homes, then race the more permanent residents for tee times on some of the most picturesque and demanding golf courses in the country.  All of these economic factors have made the Tucson region one of the fastest growing in the state.

Other surprises in store for newcomers are the broad spectrum of arts, recreation and leisure activities Tucson offers.  Tucson is the smallest metropolitan area in the country offering a full complement of arts.  Tucson has a renowned symphony orchestra as well as ballet, opera and theater companies.  When Broadway's biggest hits go on the road, nearly all make a stop in Tucson.  When fall rolls around, nearly every weekend features an art of music festival at one of the many regional parks.  They continue until summer heat drives people indoors or to their backyard or public pools.

Tucsonans wanting to watch a professional sport are treated to Major League Baseball Spring Training each February and March (where the world champion Arizona Diamondbacks train and home to their AAA affiliate, the Sidewinders), or they can take the short trip up the highway to Phoenix.

And then there's the outstanding athletic teams at the University of Arizona.  If the Wildcats are playing a football or basketball game in town, nearly everyone dons their red shirts and sings the school fight song "Bear Down, Arizona."  When the men's basketball team makes its annual run through the NCAA tournament in quest of the national championship the whole region becomes a ghost town as fans gather before television sets to watch their beloved Cats.

That's not to say Tucsonans are sedentary.  Outdoors-minded residents revel in their proximity to the region's four mountain ranges.  From simple day hikes to view petroglyphs in the Tucson Mountains, to wild three-day mountain bike rides through the Catalinas, the area's mountains and streams offer spectacular outdoor activities for all interests and abilities.

Since the early 1980s, Tucson, Pima County, Oro Valley and Marana have made concerted efforts to make the area bicycle friendly.  As a result, few other metropolitan areas in the country have as an extensive bike lane network as Tucson.  What's more, the levees on the area's three major waterways have been turned into interconnecting hiking and biking trails that are immensely popular.

In the coming years, there will be more surprises in store for residents, newcomers and visitors alike.  Plans on the drawing board in Tucson, Marana and Pima County call for a revitalization of the Santa Cruz and Rillito Rivers and the Canyon del Oro Wash.  The Santa Cruz River was once a perennial stream lined with cottonwoods and mesquite bosques on its way north to the Gila River near Gila Bend.  But years of agriculture groundwater pumping dried up.

The reclamation project will use effluent to make the river flow again, restore cottonwood and mesquite habitats along its length and return the river to its former glory.  The Canyon del Oro and the Rillito were once the Santa Cruz's major seasonal tributaries.  They will also be restored.

Along with the revitalization of the river, Tucson has begun the Rio Nuevo project that will revitalize the downtown area, adding more arts and culture venues, shopping centers and parks all centered around the river.  The Rio Nuevo project and the river revitalization are expected to rev the region's economic engines even higher making the future for Tucson and its surrounding communities quite bright.

That, though, is no surprise, for a long as the sun shines and the mountains stand Tucson will remain one of the nation's best cities in which to live or visit.

Tucson is the second largest city in Arizona.  Incorporated in 1877, the two-square mile settlement near today's downtown has grown to include some 194 square miles surrounded by an approximately 412-square-mile metropolitan area.

Archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation of the area dating back about 9,000 years.  About A.D. 300 a new civilization of farmers and traders, the Hohokam, populated most of Southern Arizona.  They dominated the region until about A.D. 1500 when they mysteriously disappeared.

The Tucson area was then settled by the Tohono O'odham (the desert people).  The O'odham lived along the Santa Cruz and Gila Rivers and were mostly farmers.  They were frequently terrorized and raided by their more war-like neighbors to the east and southeast, the Apache.

In 1694, missionary and explorer Father Eusebio Francisco Kino became the first European to enter the Tucson basin and create a lasting settlement during his exploration of the Santa Cruz River Valley for Spain (other Spanish explorers passed through the area but didn't settle it).

During his explorations, he established a number of missions, including San Xavier del Bac, which is today one of the finest examples of 18th century missionary architecture in the world.

The Spanish continued to colonize and settle the river valleys of Southern Arizona throughout the 1700s and in 1775 a Spanish officer, Hugh O'Connor, who was actually Irish, established the Tucson presidio, or fort, to protect the settlers from the bands of raiding Apaches.  Residents of the walled city began referring to the fort as the "Old Pueblo" which is still the nickname for Tucson.

The area remained part of Spain, then Mexico, until the Gadsden Purchase of 1853 bought Southern Arizona for the United States.  (The area south of the Gila River was needed for the completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad.  The area north of the Gila was too mountainous and had too many canyon and rivers to bridge.)

Tucson remained what it had been for the Spanish and Mexicans, a center for ranching and mining, especially after the Southern Pacific Railroad was completed.  In 1867, the city became the territorial capital, but the territorial legislature moved the capital to Prescott in 1877.

Pima County was established in 1864 by the first territorial legislature in.  At its creation, Pima County was the second largest of Arizona's four original counties and included all land south of the Gila River and east of Yuma to the Arizona borders with New Mexico.  Over time, Cochise, Santa Cruz and Graham counties were carved out of this massive region that today encompasses some 9,200 square miles and is home to 843,000 people.  Tucson's population has grown to 486,000.