Tucson, The Old Pueblo, has been visited for at least 12,000 years. Nestled in a valley created by the Tucson, Santa Catalina, Rincon, Santa Rita, and Tortolita Mountains its earlier climate and geography allowed for the indigenous Hohokam people to thrive and create an agricultural society. Though the Hohokam disappeared from the archaeological record, later tribes settled and lived in the area such as the northern Pima Indians and the Tohono O'odham. It was many years later in 1775 when Tucson was established as a walled fort by the Spanish during their northern expeditions. Almost 100 years later vast changes would occur in Spain, Mexico, and the growing United States which acquired the Arizona Territory via the Gadsden Purchase in 1854. In 1867 Tucson was named the first capital of Arizona Territory, and many notable events in the old west followed. Some of the more famous events would be the shoot out at the O.K. Corral on 26 October 1881 or the surrender and exile to Florida of the famous Apache warrior Geronimo. In 1885 Territorial Legislature decided that the University of Arizona would be built in Tucson, which has since established itself as a premier land grant University. On Valentines Day 1912 Arizona became the 48th State in the Union and since then Southern Arizona has grown and changed with the times becoming a vitally important source of commerce and to the defense of the state and the nation.
