Ten things worth knowing about Tucson

Every city has its trivia, but Tucson's tends to come with a mountain, a recipe or a candle attached. Here are ten things worth knowing about the Old Pueblo, each one checked against the people who keep the record, and each one good for telling the next friend who comes to visit.

Where the name and the town came from

One: the name describes a hill. Tucson comes from the O'odham S-cuk Son, usually translated as at the base of the black hill. The hill is Sentinel Peak, the dark volcanic rise just west of downtown that University of Arizona students know as A Mountain. Archaeology Southwest calls it the city's birthplace, and you can still drive or hike to the top for a view of the five ranges that ring the valley.

Two: the city has a birthday, and it recently turned 250. The Spanish presidio of San Agustín del Tucson was founded on August 20, 1775. On that date in 2025 the city unveiled a plaque at City Hall, opened a time capsule that had been buried in 1976 and held an interfaith service. Speakers that day also noted the Tohono O'odham and Pascua Yaqui peoples who lived on this land for thousands of years before the fort went up.

Why it is called the Old Pueblo

Three: the nickname comes from the walls. The fort's adobe walls earned the town the name Old Pueblo, which Tucsonans still use. Visit Tucson describes walls three feet thick and 10 to 12 feet tall, enclosing a square about 700 feet on a side. The Presidio San Agustín del Tucson Museum on North Court Avenue re-creates a corner of that fort today, alongside the remains of a pit house about 2,000 years old.

Four: people were farming here long before the presidio. Visit Tucson credits the Hohokam with about 4,000 years of farming in the valley and calls Tucson one of the oldest continually inhabited areas in North America. Mission Garden, at the foot of Sentinel Peak on the site of the O'odham village of Cuk Son, now grows that story as a living museum of heritage fruit trees, heirloom crops and native food plants, with plots for early agriculture, Hohokam, Spanish, Mexican and Chinese gardens. Entry is free.

The land and the sky

Five: you can see saguaros on both sides of town. Saguaro National Park is split in two, with the Rincon Mountain District east of Tucson and the Tucson Mountain District to the west, so the giant cactus frames the city rather than sitting off in the distance. The National Park Service notes that saguaros store so much water in their tissue that they sometimes draw lightning.

Six: summer is the rainy season. Tucson averages a little over 11 inches of rain a year, and the two wettest months are July and August, when afternoon thunderstorms build over the mountains. December and January bring smaller winter rains. Locals plan around both: early mornings in summer, long afternoons outdoors in winter.

A city you can taste

Seven: Tucson was the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy in the United States. The designation came on December 15, 2015, and a nonprofit, Tucson City of Gastronomy, formed in 2016 to manage it. It certifies restaurants and food artisans and promotes the heritage foods of Tucson and the southern Arizona foodshed around it.

Eight: the Sonoran hot dog has a home here. El Güero Canelo began in 1993 when Daniel Contreras started selling Sonoran hot dogs from a small stand; it has grown into three restaurants and a meat market, including one on South 12th Avenue, and has been recognized by the James Beard Foundation. The city's bread has had a national honor too: Don Guerra of Barrio Bread, a bakery built on the grains and traditions of the Sonoran Desert, won the James Beard award for Outstanding Baker in 2022.

Traditions that fill the streets

Nine: the rodeo is more than a century old. The Tucson Rodeo began in 1925 as La Fiesta de los Vaqueros, created to show winter visitors the American West, and the organizers bill it as the largest outdoor winter rodeo. The next one runs February 20 to 28, 2027, at the rodeo grounds on South Sixth Avenue.

Ten: one of the city's biggest gatherings is about remembering. The All Souls Procession weekend, held this year from November 6 to 8 for the 37th time, invites the whole city to walk together in memory of lost loved ones. It is kept free to attend, supported by donations, and the Mercado district at the foot of Sentinel Peak hosts its finale. A smaller, older act of remembrance sits in Barrio Viejo: El Tiradito, a shrine to a man the legend says could not be buried in consecrated ground. Visitors light candles there, and tradition holds that a wish comes true if the candle burns all night. Folklorist Jim Griffith has collected more than 20 versions of the story, and he credits his predecessor, the folklorist Byrd Howell Granger, whose nomination put the shrine on the National Register of Historic Places, with halting a road project that threatened the neighborhood in the 1970s.

That is ten, though any Tucsonan could add another. Pick one, go see it for yourself, and you will have a story of your own to tell.