Superior (Arizona)
Superior | |
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Location in County and Arizona
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Basic data | |
Foundation : | 1902 |
State : | United States |
State : | Arizona |
County : | Pinal County |
Coordinates : | 33 ° 17 ′ N , 111 ° 6 ′ W |
Time zone : | Mountain Standard Time ( UTC − 7 ) |
Residents : | 2,916 (as of 2014) |
Population density : | 583.2 inhabitants per km 2 |
Area : | 5.0 km 2 (approx. 2 mi 2 ) of which 5.0 km 2 (approx. 2 mi 2 ) is land |
Height : | 866 m |
Postal code : | 85173 |
Area code : | +1 520 |
FIPS : | 04-71300 |
GNIS ID : | 00034981 |
Website : | www.superioraz.gov |
Mayor : | Mila Besich-Lira (since 2016) |
Superior is a city in Pinal County , in the south of the US state of Arizona with almost 3,000 inhabitants (as of: 2014 update). It is located about 100 kilometers east of Phoenix . The Western Apaches call the area Yoo 'Łigai .
As of the 2010 census , 68.5 percent of the population of Superiors is of Spanish origin.
flora
The flora of the Superiors includes the typical plants of the semi-desert of the southwestern United States, including agaves , Encelia farinosa , jojoba , seaweed , Fouquieria splendens (also called ocotillo ), Parkinsonia and cactus species such as Carnegiea gigantea , Cylindropuntia and Opuntia .
history
According to a city legend, 75 Apaches defended themselves against the cavalry from Camp Pinal on a mountain near the eastern Queen Creek Canyon, now called Apache Leap Mountain, in the 1870s . Because the Indians did not want to surrender, they jumped from the mountain to their death. If you look at the mountain, you can see red traces in the rock face, which were explained with this legend. Legend has it that when the women of the Apache warriors heard of the death of their husbands, they wept tears that turned to stone. This explains the smooth, teardrop-shaped obsidians found near the mountain. The stones are called Apache Tears .
In the 19th century there were copper, silver and gold mines in the urban area. In 1888 the silver and gold mines were exhausted. Among the visitors of the mine settlement had gunslingers Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday belongs. In 1902, George Lobb, Sr., a native of England, sold his silver mine called the Golden Eagle Group to the Lake Superior and Arizona Mining Company (LS&A). Lobb stayed in the area planning a town he named Hastings first and then Superior, after the mining company. A post office was opened in December of the same year. One of the first postmasters was Robert Taylor Jones , who later became governor of Arizona from 1939 to 1941 . The Superior Sun has been published since 1902 and (as of 2015) appears bi-weekly. Since there was still copper ore mining and the transport to the next train station in Florence was too expensive, Superior was connected to the rail network in June 1915 by building a railway line to Webster near Magma, a mine patch a few kilometers north of Florence. Steam locomotives, which were still on narrow gauge until 1924, could be used to transport ore and cattle until 1943. Silver mining was resumed between 1918 and 1928. In December 2014, the Resolution Copper project , which had been planned for decades, entered the implementation phase through federal law: The Rio Tinto Group plans to resume copper mining in an underground mine near the city, which is supposed to supply a quarter of the copper mined in the United States. The project is politically controversial because of the interference with nature and because it is destroying a sacred place of the Apaches.
The city is a popular film location for films. Films, some of which were shot in Superior, include That Was the Wild West (1962) by John Ford , Henry Hathaway , George Marshall and Richard Thorpe , Cheyenne (1964) by John Ford, The Merciless Avenger (1969) by Burt Kennedy , The Man Who Never Gives Up (1977) by Clint Eastwood , God's Army - The Final Battle (1995) by Gregory Widen , U-Turn - No Going Back (1997) by Oliver Stone , Rebecca - A woman on the Finding Yourself (2000) by Karen Arthur, Skinwalkers (2002) by Chris Eyre, Arac Attack - Attack of the Eight-Legged Monsters (2002) by Ellory Elkayem , Alien Invasion Arizona (2005) by Dustin Rikert, Moonpie (2006) by Drake Doremus and Purgatory Arizona (2008) by Dominic Ross.
climate
Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Superior, AZ
Source: Temperature and Precipitation: Weather data from Superior, AZ on weatherbase.com (English)
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Culture and sights
Superior has had a library since October 1952. The library received the Arizona Library Association's Trustees Award in 1960. The library has been municipal since 1976. The inventory is around 15,000 books. The Superior Arts League was founded in 2003 and supported local artists as a non-commercial association until 2009.
The Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park in Queen Creek Canyon, about five kilometers west of Superior, is a 1.31 km² large botanical garden, founded in 1925th It is the largest and oldest botanical garden in Arizona.
There is a small museum of memorabilia called the World's Smallest Museum on US Highway 60 .
Two bridges in the city are in the National Register of Historic Places has been added to the state of Arizona: The 1920 built and 1921 Zwickel - arch bridge Queen Creek Bridge (coordinates: 33 ° 17 '47.7 " N , 111 ° 5' 21.1 ″ W ) and the arched bridge Devil's Canyon Bridge, built between 1921 and 1922 (coordinates: 33 ° 19 ′ 39 ″ N , 111 ° 1 ′ 54 ″ W ).
The Picketpost Mountain (elevation 1334 meters), which is located in the southern desert region of the Tonto National Forrest, is a popular destination. There is an old red mailbox on its top that contains the Picketpost Mountain Trail guest book. On some days you can see all the way to Phoenix from the summit. The highest mountain in the city is Iron Mountain at 1,846 meters.
transport
Superior is served by Greyhound Lines buses . Greyhound routes 1435 (from El Paso, TX to Phoenix, AZ) and 1438 (from Phoenix, AZ to San Antonio, TX ) stop in Superior.
education
In Superior there is an Elementary School for grades 1 to 6, the John F. Kennedy Elementary School, a Junior High School for grades 7 to 8, the Superior Junior High School and a high school in the same building for grades 9 to 8 12, the Superior High School.
sons and daughters of the town
- Kern W. Dunagan (1934-1991), Colonel, Medal of Honor recipient
Web links
- The City website (English)
- Superior, Arizona at city-data.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mila Besich-Lira promises to work hard to make Superior better on being sworn in as Mayor . Article by James Hodl from September 15, 2016 on CopperArea.com (English)
- ↑ Population update of the United States Census Bureau (English).
- ↑ US Census Bureau (English).
- ↑ City history on arizonian.com, article from July 22, 2008 ( Memento from September 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ^ Newspaper Archive of The Superior Sun. In: Small Town Papers. (English)
- ^ Gordon S. Chappell: Rails To Carry Copper: A History Of The Magma Railroad. Pruett, Boulder 1973, ISBN 0-87108-056-7 .
- ^ Lee Allison: Copper and the Arizona economy. In: Arizona Geology (blog), March 19, 2008; Dorothy Kosich: Tribes, agencies, NGOs oppose Resolution Copper land exchange. In: Mineweb.com , June 15, 2011; Lee Allison: Resolution Copper land swap bill signed into law. In: Arizona Geology (blog), December 23, 2014; Bill Carter: Boom, Bust, Boom. A Story About Copper, the Metal that Runs the World. Scribner, New York 2012, ISBN 978-1-4391-3644-7 , chapter “Superior”, pp. 161–178, see also the register p. 271 , entries “Resolution Copper” and “Resolution mine”.
- ↑ Films shot in Superior ( Memento of September 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the Superior Chamber of Commerce and Industry (English)
- ↑ Superior Arts League ( Memento from April 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ Website of the Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park (English)
- ↑ World's Smallest Museum (English)
- ↑ Description of the hike on azcentral.com ( Memento from September 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), article by John Stanley from February 28, 2011 (English)
- ↑ Greyhound Bustracker (English)
- ↑ Overview of the Superiors Schools ( Memento of the original dated December 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)