More of Southern Arizona

In 1938, my Dad went to Tucson and fell in love with the West.  He loved the dry air of the desert, the exceptional flora, and the whole atmosphere. In 1951, he was offered a job in Tucson with Hughes Aviation. My mom and dad flew out to look for a place to live.  It is one of my first clear memories.  I watched them take off from Philadelphia airport in a TWA Constellation. Four props and three tails in red and white livery. Although they found a house, my Dad decided that it was too big of risk. It wasn't until our generation, that true career mobility occurred. We moved 11 times in our marriage and now live full time in an RV traveling. For them, however, it was a really big deal.

Although I had been to Tucson several times, we really got to see some sites in March of 2016. Mom and Dad found a house that was right on the edge of the Sajauro National Park so that is where we started. The park actually consists of two separate parks (one of the east side and one of the west side). We headed for the west side. As you begin to approach the park, you start seeing the sentinels of the desert.

A great visitor center with exhibits galore greets you and then off to the scenic Bajada Loop Drive that loops through a dense sajuaro forest. Heading back out we saw the first of thousands of cacti that we would see in our travels.

Next stop was the amazing Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. A combination zoo, botanical garden and museum.  Everything you would ever want to know about the desert. The plant collection includes over 500 species of cactus and the variation is amazing.

And many species of animals as well.

 What a fantastic place. If you are in the area, don't miss it.

Our next stop was the Asarco copper mine in Suhuarita, AZ. "Opened in February of 1997, the Asarco Mineral Discovery Center is designed to convey the vital importance of mining in our civilization.   Everything that we use everyday was somehow extracted from the earth — either by farming or by mining, and “if it can’t be grown, it has to be mined.”"

Not only is there an interesting center where you enter exhibits through a simulated ball mill, but guess what, you can take a guided tour of the mine. 

The first stop on the tour is the Open-Pit Viewpoint on the south rim of the Mission Mine. The Mission Mine is a quarter-mile deep, two miles from north to south, and a mile-and-three-quarters from east to west. About six times the amount of earth moved to dig the Panama Canal has been mined here.

The Mission open-pit copper mine was at one time five separate mining properties, but over the years, Asarco has combined them into one integrated mining operation. The mine occupies around 20,000 acres of private, State leased, and Indian land. As of July 2011 there were over 600 employees working three shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Each year the mine has the capacity to process about 260,000 tons of copper concentrates which yields 132,700,000 pounds of copper and 1,234,000 ounces of silver.

At the Mill, the copper ore is ground into a powder so the copper minerals can be separated by the froth flotation process.

These huge mills grind the ore into a fine powder
so the copper minerals can be separated by flotation."

That little truck has tires that are ten feet tall and holds 400 tons. A really interesting day.

Next time, the National Monument with the unpronounceable name.