Southern Arizona

Southern Arizona is the location of several large national monuments protecting the scenery, wildlife, and archaeological sites of Southern Arizona, and the Saguaro National Park, which stands on two large sections of land, one west of the Tucson metropolitan area and the other one east of Tucson.

Finally, the short Interstate 19 runs south from Tucson to Nogales, Arizona, and a major border crossing into Mexico.

In more recent times, the dominant indigenous group of Native Americans have been the O'odham tribe, which continues to reside in this area in their traditional homeland.

Davis-Monthan AFB was the home base of an air force wing of 18 heavy Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles dispersed over a wide area of launch sites – south, southwest, and southeast of Tucson.

Due to their advancing age and the advent of several important Strategic Nuclear Weapons Reduction treaties, all of these missiles were retired from service by the mid-1980s.

A political push to that effect began in February, 2011, led by a group of attorneys largely in opposition to what they perceived as a nativist, conservative dominance in the Phoenix area in contrast to the Democrats of the south.

Southern Arizona is the area of Arizona south of the Gila River, roughly corresponding to the area from the 1854 Gadsden Purchase (shown on the map in yellow with present-day state boundaries and cities)
The Gila River is generally considered the northern boundary of southern Arizona
Stone Avenue in the year 1880 in Tucson, southern Arizona's largest city