From a Spanish presidio walled village surrounded by mesquite bosques to a valley-spanning desert metropolis consuming the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains.
Compact adobe downtown cluster beside flowing Santa Cruz River.
Metropolitan basin of 1 million residents abutting Coronado National Forest wilderness boundaries.
Davis-Monthan Boneyard became the world's largest aircraft preservation facility with over 4,000 military airframes stored in desert caliche soil.
Heavy agricultural and municipal groundwater pumping lowered the Santa Cruz water table by 300+ feet, desiccating centuries-old mesquite forests.
