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City Snapshot: City of Willcox
The city of Willcox is, to quote the words of Rex Allen, Jr, "The garden spot of the universe". The trick is to know where the "garden spot" is located.
Willcox is located in southeastern Arizona on the historical path across the southern United States - the Union Pacific Railroad line (originally the Southern
Pacific). In modern days the route would be called U.S. 70, or in present day, Interstate 10.
Willcox was and is an agriculture/ranching community, once known as the largest ranch cattle shipping center in the United States. We still ship a lot of
cattle, but the main products leaving the area now are fruits and vegetables. As many of the readers who have visited our booth at the League of Arizona
Cities and Towns Annual Conference know, we claim the largest greenhouse in the world, where the best organic tomatoes in the world are grown, (although this is
actually in Graham County, Willcox is the mailing address). Despite the outward signs of tourism, agriculture is still the mainstay of the economic
picture.
That is not to say that we don't have tourism, or that it isn't an important part of our life and economy. Willcox hosts the annual Rex Allen Days (a hometown
boy who made it big in the singing cowboy era); Marty Robbins Days (not a hometown boy but another singing cowboy); Wings over Willcox (WOW), (which attracts
visitors from around the globe to bird watch while the sand hill cranes winter here); the Inde Sports Race Track (which brings in private car owners to test
their skills on a banked snaky track); the U-Pick 'em Farms which provides the "city folks" a chance to see where that food they eat really comes from, and get
their hands dirty actually picking fruit and vegetables; and our latest agriculture tourist industry: Wine growing and tasting.
This is an area of history; this is the land where Cochise and Geronimo ruled, battled the Spanish and then the U.S. Cavalry. This is the town with the oldest
continuously-operated Retail outlet in the state - where Geronimo came to buy sugar (when he wasn't on the war path). This is where Warren Earp, the youngest
brother of Wyatt Earp is buried (he brought a knife to a gunfight).
This is the land of beauty; with "Sky Islands" inhabited by unique animals stranded in their mountain climate, surrounded by a sea of desert. This is the land
of the Chiricahua National Monument- where you can actually stare at the rocks stacked on top of each other and wonder that they don't collapse.
This is Willcox: founded in 1880 with the Railroad; incorporated in May of 1915 - the "Garden Spot of the Universe".
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League of Arizona Cities and Towns
1820 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Phone: 602-258-5786
Fax: 602-253-3874
http://www.azleague.org
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