Arizona City by City (Phoenix, Tucson: living, gangs, moving to)
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I am thinking of retiring in the next couple of years from eastern Colorado where our summers are hot and winters too cold. Prescott, Prescott Valley and Dewey-Humboldt are the areas that intrigue me the most. The sizes of each are ok for me. The altitude change from Prescott to Dewey seems like a lot for 20 miles??? Would people that live in the area talk about the difference between the three?? I'm not too old and I want to golf and not be too hot or too cold and have other people with similar interests.
Anthem is not a city or town, but a large planned community development just north of Phoenix. Do a search on "Anthem" in the Phoenix forum, and you will find numerous threads.
Setting and Geography:
Benson sits along the west bank of the San Pedro River surrounded by the Sky Islands in Cochise County in the SE corner of the state. Up until 1887 the river had a fairly steady flow - the water flowing north out of Mexico along the base of the San Pedro Valley, into the Gila River south and east of present-day Phoenix, and eventually making it's way into the Colorado River to the west. On May 6th of that year however, a massive earthquake across the border in northern Mexico had a profound inpact on the San Padro and the surrounding farms and ranches when geological changes from the quake drove the river underground. Make no mistake about it, the river still flows, but since that time the flow has been largely restricted to beneath the surface of the river bed so today the river is - most of the time anyway - just an apparently dry riverbed surrounded by cottonwood and mequite trees drawing their moisture from the subsurface. As mentioned however, beneath that surface, the river still flows - as the abundance of vegitation along the route of the river clearly shows. Because of the plentiful trees and shrubs along the rivers' course, this area is a haven for wildlife - especially birds of many many varities and the San Pedro Riparian Conservation Area draws birdwatchers from all around the world.
The San Pedro Valley itself is a classic rift valley - the surrounding hills and mountains of the nearby Sky Islands thrusting diagonally upwards to the east and west in scattered clumps on either side of the valley, and the base of the valley itself slipping gradually downward into the resulting rift (as evidenced by the sloping cliffs on both sides of the valley). As mentioned, the actual base of the valley (ie along the banks of the river) is relatively green (except during the winter of course - when the trees are bare and the vast number of black gnarly mequite trees give the area a "burnt" appearance), while the slopes of the escarpment are pretty barren and marked by an apparently endless string of dry gullies. Above the escarpments the arid grassland slopes upwards to the tree-covered and partially tree-covered peaks of the Sky Islands on either side of the valley.
Those Sky Islands are a unique feature of SE Arizona - scattered clusters of peaks ranging from 5,500 up to around 10,000 feet or so (depending on the cluster). Each of these relatively small clusters of peaks is considered a separate range (even though they are all part of the same collection of mountains) with names like the Catalinas, the Whetstones, the Rincons, the Santa Ritas, the Tucson Mts, the Huachucas, etc, etc, etc. Collectively they get their name "the Sky Islands" from the fact that these islolated hunks of towering peaks stick up like islands from the surrounding desert lowands - and in some ways they are indeed true islands - each one with it's own unique collection of plants and animals slightly different from those on the other nearby "islands" - for as one climbs the slopes of the peaks, one first encounters grasslands then pine forests, while the nearby lowlands are far more desert-like. The result is that species of plants and animals on the upper slopes of one Sky Island are effectively cut off from those on other nearby Sky Islands. The mid-altitude grasslands (which are pretty lush indeed during the rainy summer months - they filmed the 1950's musical Oklahoma in the mid-altitude grasslands SW of Benson (ie near Soniota) - are known as the Apache Highlands Grasslands ecosystem.
The overall effect of this setting is quite striking, and views - especially heading east as you begin your descent down into the valley - are beautiful indeed and it seems you can see FOREVER.
Weather:
Benson sits at around 3,500 feet and as such it's cooler than than towns and cities further west such as Yuma, Phoenix, Casa Grande and Tucson (there's a general elevation gain in southern Arizona as you head east from the Calfornia border towards the New Mexico border). Average summer highs top out around 100 (with overnight lows typically in the mid-upper 60s) while winter highs are generally in the mid-60's (with overnight lows down around 30). It's worth noting that because Benson lies near the base of the San Pedro valley (and cold air sinks) in the winter time it's generally true that the closer you are to the San Pedro river (ie the lower in the valley), the colder the winter nights tend to be. Likewise, the higher you are up the slopes of the valley, the warmer the winter nights generally are. Upslope from town just a mile or two - for example, in the area of the highway 90 interchange down to Sierra Vista - it's usually about 5 degrees warmer overnight in the winter months. Interestingly enough that same change in elevation gives those upper slopes of the valley cooler temps during the hot summer months, with summer highs up to 5-7 degrees cooler than in Benson itself - so those upper slope areas (on the west side of the valley from the highway 90 exit all the way up to the crest of the ridge near J-Six and Mescal) have a pretty idea climate (similar to that of Sierra Vista) - warmer at night than Benson itself in the winter but cooler during the day in the summer - with summer highs typically only in the low-mid 90's and winter overnight lows averaging about 35/36 or so.
As with most of Arizona, summer brings monsoons and this particular corner of the state tends to get a bit more rain than the rest of southern Arizona - which explains why much of the area is grassland studded with mesquite trees rather than pure desert - lending some parts of the region (especially up around the J-Six area) a look somewhat like the African Savanna: ( http://www.saguaro-juniper.com/i_and...rom_NW0016.jpg )
Overall the area gets some really beautiful and impressive summer thunderstorms - impressive enough to attract "stormchaser" type tours in the summer Monsoon months.
History:
The Benson area is rich in history - and while the area of the town itself was not central to any specific historical event, it played a secondary role in many. Prior to it's conquest by the White Man, this area was the domain of the fierce Apache. Other (more peaceful) tribes farmed along the river,but the Apache - who resided just to the east - claimed dominance over these peaceful farmers for untold ages. Coronado passed up the San Pedro Valley in his search for the Seven Cities of Gold in 1540 but did not stay. Nearly two centuries later, the Spanish returned and tried to colonize the region and establish a series of fortified villages along the river as they Christianized the local farming tribes. The Apaches didn't take kindly to the Spanish intruding on what they considered "their domain" and reacted violently - driving the Spanish back towards the west to the area near Tucson and by 1710 forcing them to effectively abandon plans to settle the area and establishing firm Apache control of the region for the next century and a half.
By 1854 however the entire region had been claimed by the United States - partly through conquest from the Mexicans (Mexico was independent by that time) and partly through the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico - and bold (some may say foolish) American settlers began farming and ranching in the area. As they did to the Spanish some 200 years earlier, the Apaches reacted violently to the interlopers into what they considered to be their domain - burning farms and ranches and slaughtering the homesteaders. The US government however - unlike the Spanish of two centuries earlier - was better armed, better organized and more determined to effectively control the area they had just conquered/purchased, and - after a delay caused by the Civil War - began building forts in earnest in the area, beginning a long period of struggle with the Apaches that was highlighed by names like Geronimo and Cochise. Though the natives fought fiercely and bravely, in the end they were no match for the superior weaponry and unending numbers of the White Man.
Though the fabled Butterfield Stage passed directly through present-day Benson (and in fact established a small station there), the real history of Benson as a substantial settlement begins in 1880, when the Southern Pacific RR - forged it's way east from California. The townsite was selected for couple of reasons - first off, the river provided a water source for the steam engines and a logical place to store the extra engines needed to haul loads up the long steep slopes of the San Pedro Valley (those extra engines would then decouple at the crest of the ridges overlooking the valley and return back down to help the next train up the slope). Secondly, by 1880, silver had been discovered in nearby Tombstone and the Benson location made an excellent transfer point both for silver ore coming up by wagon from Tombstone on to Tucson (and eventually California) and supplies bound south for Tombstone itself.
So, first and foremost Benson was a railroad town - with (at one time) 2 roundhouses and several different railroad stations. Because of the presence of water from the river, farmers and ranchers settled here as well, utilizing the railroad to both bring them supplies and to transport their produce both east and west along what was fast becoming THE major transportation line across the southernmost reaches of the American Southwest. To begin with, a stage line connected Benson with Tombstone and points south (it was the Benson stage that Doc Holliday was accused of robbing by his enemies the Clantons, and it was Benson to which Wyatt Earp brough his dead brother Morgan by wagon for loading on the train to be buried in California) but eventually a rail line was extended south towards Tombstone, Bisbee and the other rich mining areas near the Mexican border, and Benson became a proper railroad hub for the region.
The result was Benson grew and prospered until the silver mines closed in Tombstone a few years later, then continued on as a farming community and hub for other mines in the area (such as the copper mines in Bisbee) but starting about 1913 the railroads began consolidating with Tucson as a hub (rather than Benson) and Benson began to die, with the population - which had been well over 5,000 - dropping to around 900 or so. The completion of a major paved road from Texas to California - and running directly through downtown Benson - saved to the town and in the 1940s and 1950s - like towns around famed route 66 - Benson developed into a rest stop town for the great postwar migration to California - boasting a string of charming motels and cottages along it's main street (a few of which still remain - though some are vacant and in ill-repair). Like those towns that grew up along route 66 however, this respite was brief and the completion of I-10 brought another slump as now travelers tended to simply slip through town at a mile a minute without bothering to stop for the night.
Benson today:
Nowadays Benson is like many small towns out west - struggling a bit. Prior to the housing collapse, Benson was starting to boom again - with a population of around 5,000 or so in Benson proper and another 10,000 or so in the surrounding hamlets of St David, Pomerine, J-Six and Mescal. Tucson's development had extended out as far southeast along I-10 as Vail, but from there for some 15 miles lies a stretch of state-owned land, so forward-looking developers were already eyeing the greater Benson area (which lies just beyong that 15 mile stretch) as the next bedroom community for Tucson, and some 15,000 building permits were issued for the region and developments were starting to pop up near the highway 90 (the route to Sierra Vista) interchange. Needless the say, the end of the housing boom put a stop to all that, and Benson returned to the doldrums. Today Benson is seeing a few tentative signs of recovery. Things ARE still very tough here. The Tucson housing market and economy has recovered quite a bit, but out here in Benson things are still pretty slow. Many businesses that closed during the early stages of the Great Recession remain shuttered and many of the survivors are still struggling.
Still, there are signs of life here. Unlike other towns in southeast Arizona - such as Wilcox (which has almost died) - Benson still has a fairly heavly flow of traffic passing through it - some of it heading south on highway 90 to relatively unscathed Sierra Vista, and some of it directly through town on highway 80 to the tourist destinations of Tombstone and Bisbee. The result is that - while Benson is definitely feeling the effects (and aftereffects) of the 2008 crash - there ARE signs of life here, and over the last year or so a few new businesses have opened. Benson DOES have ways to go to regain it's health, but it's far from dead. The other thing that really saves Benson is that it's a pretty substantial winter destination for snowbirders (especially Canadians, Northwesterners and even some from the upper Midwest) and the towns' population really swells during the winter months as RVers flood into the area.
Other nearby hamlets:
Around Benson there's a number of other small towns and villages - some of them (such as Cascabel) no one in their right mind would really even call a "town". Others - like St David - are an actual (though admittedly very very small) town. J-Six and Mescal sit on either side of I-10 just west of Benson. J-Six is simply a development with no retail at all, while Mescal boasts a feed store, a min-mart/gas station and couple of "bar and grill" places to eat. On a side note, back in 1936 a young JFK and his older brother Joseph (who would later die in WWII) were sent to J-Six Ranch (which no longer exists - though the name of the area remains) to "become men" working the the ranch for the summer (JFK was on summer break from college at the time).
Dining:
As mentioned, Benson gets a LOT of RV-based snowbirders so there's a surprising number of restaurants for a town of it's small size. Along with the usual assortment of chain restaurants and fast-food joints (Denny's, Wendy's, Little Caesars, Subway, McDonalds and KFC/Taco Bell (both of the last two are out at the Highway 90 interchange west of town), there's a number of local homepun eateries, including a couple of pizza joints, a terrific and inexpensive "home-cooking" restaurant (the Farm House), a pretty darned good Chinese restaurant, a couple of Mexican places (including a wonderful little hole-in-the-wall place that's pretty much gourmet - Mi Casa - and has racked up a a series of stunning reviews on Yelp (and in truth could make a good go of it in a FAR more upscale location like Sedona or Scottsdale)), an OK steak house and a couple of other pretty decent places to catch a bite - including a dairy-queen-like ice creamery and a really cheap hot-dog stand offering a wide-ranging array of unique hot dogs.
Shopping:
Like many small towns, the major store in town is the Walmart. This particular Walmart - though not huge, is big enough to have most of what one needs and is (in my opinion) very very well-run. It's clean, the associates are universally cheerful and helpful and I shop there often. There's also a very nice Safeway and probably the best-run big-chain hardware store I have ever seen (the local Ace) with very helpful and enthusiastic employees. Aside from that, there's a local hardward store thats really interesting to poke around (we never know what we're gonna find there), a small drug store, laundromat, a western-wear store, a couple of auto-parts stores, a couple of used book stores (including a really interesting and unique one out in the desert outside of town - the Singing Wind Bookshop- that specializes in local history and local writers), a dollar store, etc, etc, etc.
Medical services:
The town has a small hospital that serves as a evacuation trauma center for this part of the state (helicoptors fly evacuees to Tucson) and a couple of dentists as well as 2 veterinarians. For more substantial medical care, Tucson and Sierra Vista are 40-50 minutes away by car.
Air quality:
Really good. SE Arizona is in fact a mecca for astronomers - with MAJOR observatories in this general section of the state (both to the west at Kitt Peak National Observatory - which has a HUGE collection of telescopes - and to the east at Mt Graham International Observatory - which has the largest binocular telescope on the planet) Note that both of these installations are atop some of the Sky Islands peaks I mentioned earlier. There's even two unique observatories in Benson itself (more about those later).
Economy:
As mentioned, Benson is still struggling.
Traffic:
Some traffic in the winter (when the snowbirders swell the population) but otherwise virtually nil. I might occasionall have to wait for a car or two to pass before making a left turn across "traffic".
Crime:
Pretty low - despite the fact that the economy is rather poor here in town. It's easy to feel safe pretty much everywhere in town (even in the less desirable parts)
What to do:
Benson is kind of the "gateway" to SE Arizona - and as such there's quite a bit to do in the surrounding area. Besides the small museum and art gallary in Benson, there's a couple more such gallaries in nearby St David, and the town offers a pretty decent city park, city swimmng pool and municple golf course - but first and foremost of the things to see in the area is Tombstone - world famous as the site of the shootout at the OK Corral (though it actually occured behind the OK Corral) - without a doubt the most famous gunfight of the old west. Tombstone - which is a really fun (though admittedly really touristy) classic old west town (complete with covered wooden sidewalks) is just 30 minutes from downtown Benson - and equally interesting (though not nearly so well-known) Bisbee is just another 30 minutes beyond that (Bisbee is kind of an artsy "hippy" town).
Next on the list of local attractions is wonderful Karchner Caverns. This cave - though not the biggest one you'll likely ever see - is undoubtably the most pristine. Kept a secret for years by the two spelunkers (ie cave explorers) who first found it, the story of how Karchner Caverns became a state park reads kind'a like a spy novel - with the two men determined to keep the place undiscovered by others (who they feared might vandalize it) until it could be properly secured and protected. Happily for visitors to the site, the two were successful and to this day Karchner Caverns remains a model of "how to do it right" when comes to protecting and displaying a subterranian treasure - drawing folks who manage other cave attractions from all of the world to learn what to do and what not to do - truly a terrific treasure. Getting into the place feels like you are entering Fort Knox - with visitors passing through 3 big steel doors to enter the upper chamber and 6 such doors to enter the lower chamber.
It might surprise people to know that there are 2 movie studios in the greater Benson area - Mescal studios just west of town is an axillary studio to Old Tucson Studios in Tucson. The Mescal site is much smaller and less elaborate than the Old Tucson site, and is used when filmmakers want a somewhat smaller town to film in. Much of it is in ill-repair but it continues to be used by filmmakers on an occasional basis. Many, many famous western movies were shot there - including Tombstone, The Quick and the Dead, The Outlaw Josie Wales, Tom Horn, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, and Cimerron - along with many TV shows like Bonanza, Little House on the Pairie, Gunsmoke, and dozens and dozens of TV commercials. It is open for tours from time to time, but the schedule is sort or erractic. The other local studio is Gammons Gulch in nearby Pomerine - which I believe is more actively used today but has not had so many famous films shot there in years past. It also is open for tours at certain times.
For astronomy buffs (remember this area is a mecca for such folks) there's the San Pedro Observatory. Formerly knowns as the Astronomers Inn, this place no longer has nighttime accomodations, but apparently still has the vast array of telescopes available for use by visitors and even offers remote use by online users all over the planet. Aside from the San Pedro Observatory, Benson boasts the only RV park in the entire nation that has it's own observatory - the Butterfield RV Park. This first-class park has a full-time astronomer living and working at the park who's only job is to maintain the parks' 16 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain (ie a "university class") telescope and give nightly shows (weather permitting) to the parks' guests (for free no less).
Aside from those things to see, you are within a reasonable drive of historic Fort Huachuca (famous home of the Buffalo Soldiers), Chiricahua National Monument, and of course Tucson and it's large array of attractions.
Personally, my only gripe about "things to do" is that it's a long drive (40 minutes or so) to go to the nearest movie house (which we really enjoy doing). Before the housing bust there were plans to put in a multiplex (and a major shopping complex and regional hospital) at Vail (which is about 20 minutes away from Benson). Hopefully those plans will come to life once again at some point.
Summary:
All in all, Benson is a pretty decent place and we really enjoy living in the area. The climate is mild by southern Arizona standards (especially - as mentioned - in the areas along the valley ridgeline) with wam - but not blisteringly hot - summers, and very mild (though not quite a mild as the lower elevation towns of Yuma, Casa Grande, Phoenix, Tucson etc) and sunny winters - and to top it off, it's not totally dry or barren - with quite a few mesquite trees and plentiful grass on the upper slopes of the valley ridgeline (especially to the west of the valley). Despite all the hype about illegals in Cochise County, crime here is well below the national average and cost of living is pretty low. The town has most of what we need to live in regards to shopping and dining, and what it doesn't have can be found at a reasonable distance in either Sierra Vista (pop 45,000 or so) or Tucson (pop of 500,000 in Tucson itself but probably close to 1 million including the surrounding areas). Taken all together, it's a pretty basic town (doesn't have a lot of "charm" but not "ugly" either) with decent weather and fairly low crime in a location with awesome views and low cost of living that's hard to beat as a place to live.
For more detailed info, be sure and check out the main City-data page for Benson:
Just as an FYI, over the past few years the folks at the highly regarded neighboring Vail Unified School District have been "mentoring" the folks here at the Benson Unified School District. For the past decade, Vail has been more or less the "800 lb gorilla" of Arizona school districts when it comes to academic performance - often #1 in the entire state. This year - thanks no doubt in part to the folks at the Vail school district - Benson was able to claim the title of best school district in the entire state when it comes to academics, with Vail as a close #2.
So, along with the other positive features about the town I've mentioned, I guess we can add "truly excellent schools" (best in the entire state of Arizona at the moment) to that list.
I should also add that it looks like new housing construction is about to start up again along highway 90 (south to Sierra Vista) just south of the I-10 interchange. Before the housing crash that area poised for construction of thousands of new homes. While I don't see that kind of massive building resuming soon, it's clearly about to restart at least to some degree.
Also, north of I-10 at that interchange it appears that a parcel is being prepared for some kind of new construction as well - my guess is it will be a retail shopping center of some kind (in anticipation of the new residents). Not sure exactly when construction of (whatever it is) will start but clearly it's been cleared there for a reason (note too that highway 90 was extended a short distance north of the interchange as a wide 4-lane road that suddenly dead-ends at that point. Can't see them widening the road that much unless they had some kind of thoughts that something would be built there. The only question is "when?".
Excellent post. Always yhought highly about Benson/SE AZ.
Willcox is not dead I believe, there is just nothing happening. With your last paragraph, that might be a good thing for some, a bad thing for others.
With new construction comes often a lot of other, sometimes less desirable, problems.
Living in Scottsdale and not wealthy...any longer....would like to move south..southeast..but hospitals in Benson?
The hospital in Benson is mainly a triage hospital that serves to stabilize patients before they are airlifted into Tucson - and I believe they are very good at that. It's not a huge hospital though so it doesn't have a whole lot of facilities for longer-term care.
It's my understanding that there are plans to eventually put a major regional hospital in at Vail - though I don't think there's a firm date for that.
I am grateful for this valid information. You have represented your points in an insightful and interesting way.
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Update regarding Benson
