HOMES IN MARANA

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Marana is a relatively new municipality, incorporating in 1977 to control our most valuable resource – water. Although the Town is young, Marana has a long, rich history and heritage preservation is one of our core values.

Within Marana are three Master Planned Communites - Continental Ranch, Gladden Farms and Dove Mountain.

Marana's unique location between Tucson and Phoenix, makes it an attractive community dedicated to maintaining a friendly environment where people can work, shop, live and play.

Although a relatively young municipality, the community has a long and rich history with over 4200 years of continuous human occupation in Marana and the surrounding middle Santa Cruz Valley. Long before the coming of the Spanish Conquistadors and missionaries in the 17th Century, the area was inhabited by the Hohokam people who developed extensive canal systems and used waters from the Santa Cruz River to irrigate crops. 

The first European to visit the Marana area was a Jesuit Priest, Father Eusebio Francisco Kino in 1694.  In 1775, Juan Bautista de Anza, Captain of the Presidio of Tubac led an expedition north along the Santa Cruz River to found the city of San Francisco, California. With the area under the jurisdiction of the United States in 1854, prospectors seeking mineral riches intensified their efforts in the region.  Gold was not discovered in abundance, but by 1865, high-grade copper ore was being shipped from mines in the Silver Bell Mountains.

Rail transportation came in 1881 and signaled a major change in the area. It gave Marana its first identification as a specific place by appearing on Southern Pacific Railroad maps in 1890. “Maraña” is a Spanish word meaning a jungle, a tangle or a thicket and was chosen as an appropriate name by the railroad workers as they hacked their way through the dense brush. With the early establishment of mining and ranching, it was not until after WWI that Marana became primarily an agricultural center, producing mainly cotton, but also wheat, barley, alfalfa, and pecans.

During World War II, the impact of the rising importance of military power came quickly to Marana. The Marana airfield (1942-1945) was the largest pilot-training center in the world during WWII, training some 10,000 flyers, and five Titan missile sites were later located in the area as part of a complex of ballistic missile installations built around Tucson.

In March of 1977, the Town of Marana incorporated about 10 square miles and in August the 1,500 townspeople elected their first town council.  In early 1979 the town began to grow through an aggressive annexation policy and is now nearly 120 square miles with an estimated population of 28,000.

Call Kim or Ben at 1 866 316 5575 or submit this contact form for more information on Marana and the surrounding areas.