Number of saguaros around Tucson according to the 2020 National Parks park census: 2,605,083
Number of saguaros who refused to answer their doors and be counted: 17
Height a saguaro can reach in 150-years: 40 feet
Time it takes to drive across Tucson if you’re behind me in traffic: 150-years
Height of Joe Pagac’s mural, “Desert Colossus,” depicting a saguaro: 153 feet
Estimated number of murals in Tucson: 500+
Year the Presidio of Tucson was founded by Spain’s mercenary, Hugh O’Conor: 1775
Year the American Revolutionary War began: 1775
Number of times I’ve claimed Hugh O’Conor was Donald O’Connor’s cousin: 23
When sober: 0
The proportion of Americans surveyed in 2009 who believed the Civil War took place before the American Revolution: 1 out of 2
Number of alleged miles Tucson founder Hugh O'Conor rode on horseback in the course of conducting his duties: 10,000
Number of miles on my first clunker when I bought it in 1972: 79,000
Number of potholes in Tucson in 1972: 79,000
Year O’Conor was born in Ireland: 1732
Year he died in the Yucatan: 1779
Times he hung out on the beach in Cancun with UA coeds: 0
Times I hung out on the beach with UA coeds: 0
Year I was born under a B-52: 1955
Number of objects orbiting the earth the year I was born: 0
Number of coyotes who raised me: 3
Year the Hohokam began establishing villages along the Santa Cruz River: 300 B.C.
Year Paleo-Indians appeared in Tucson: 10,000 B.C.
Year Padre Kino founded mission San Xavier Del Bac: 1770
Year Tucson became part of Mexico: 1821
Year the Gadsden Purchase deal was struck and Tucson became part of the United States: 1854
Cost to buy the land from Mexico: $10,000
Cost of popcorn and a diet coke at a movie I saw recently: $10,000
Number of Drive-in theaters that once flourished in Tucson: 10
Number of times my buddies failed to pop the trunk once we sneaked me in: 1
Year the first passenger train arrived in Tucson: 1880
Number of times its been on time since: 0
Number of Aravaipa and Pinal Apaches massacred by Tucson vigilantes in 1871 in the Camp Grant Massacre: 144
Number of the victims murdered who were women and children: 136
Number of jurors at the trial of the Tucson vigilantes held in Tucson who found them guilty: 0
Number of earthquakes that rocked Tucson in the 1880s: 4
Year Linda Ronstadt first rocked Tucson with The Doors at Hi Corbett Field: 1967
Year I sneaked into the Pirates Den without an ID: 1973
Year the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum was founded: 1952
Year school segregation was ended in Tucson: 1951
Year interracial marriage in Tucson was declared illegal after Hank Oyama sued for the right to marry Mary Ann Jordan: 1959
Number of girls I made out with at the end of Swan: 0
Javelinas: 0
Number of flags that have flown over Tucson: 5
Confederate: 1
Number of students in Tucson’s first school which opened in 1868: 55
Year it closed due to lack of funding: 1868
Number of Arizona educators who weren’t surprised by this trivia: 0
The year Tucson’s oldest school, Tucson High School, opened: 1892
Number of Titan II missile silo sites that once circled Tucson: 18
The yield in kilotons of a Titan II warhead: 9,000
The yield in kilotons of the Hiroshima bomb: 15
The yield in kilotons of a typical bean burrito: 3
Year Woody Johnson, founder of Macayo's, claimed he invented the chimichanga: 1946
Number of fistfights over who invented the chimichanga since 1946: 3,452,442
Number of tuberculosis sanatoriums in Tucson in 1920: 24+
Number of Holocaust Survivors who relocated to Tucson after the war: 270+
Year the El Conquistador Hotel opened: 1929
Year it was razed to make room for Tucson’s oldest mall, El Con Mall: 1960
Year I rode my modified stingray bike to El Con to buy a 45rpm of the Beatle’s recording of “Get Back”: 1970
Number of times in 1970 I annoyed my parents by singing “ Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona for some California grass”: 1,667,823
Number of miles “Old Tucson” is located west of Tucson : 15
Alleged number of years: 100
Number of times I’ve politely said to a “know-it-all” visitor at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, “javelinas are not pigs”: 3
Number of times I’ve heard “Back off” in German, Dutch or Japanese: 3
Maximum weight of a javelina: 88 pounds
Percentage of javelina who will email me to contest this number: 74%
Scope of the range a javelina herd may inhabit: 800 acres
Year Lindbergh flew into Tucson: 1927
Year I dropped a tab and believed I flew over Himmel Park: 1974
Year Hitler invaded Poland: 1939
Year Lindbergh gave up his “Nazis are swell” spiel: 1939
Average number of annual lightning strikes in Arizona: 600,000
Average temperature of a lightning strike: 50,000°
Average temperature of my car’s steering wheel in Tucson in July: 50,000°
Elevation of Tucson: 2,643 ft
Elevation of Mt.Lemmon: 9,159 ft
Elevation of Mt.Wrightson in the Santa Rita Mountains: 9,453 ft
Year the population of Tucson passed half a million: 2006
Average high in Tucson: 84°
Low:40°
Average high outside a Tucson dispensary: Baked
Percentage of you in July who have said “Jumping Jehosaphat! Mah biscuits are burning!”: 27%
Degrees offered by the U of A: 150+
Number of reasons I can think of to stay inside in July: 150+
Percentage of the Tucson population who were Asian in 1890: 4.2%
Black: 5.2%
Year the city lost its sanctuary status: 2019
Percentage of the city who were Latino in 2021: 43.6%
Number of cowboys killed by Wyatt Earp after he and Virgil Earp killed Frank Stilwell, who was lying in wait for Virgil Earp at the Tucson station: 3
Year Tucson was the first American city to be designated a City of Gastronomy by UNESCO: 2015
Current population of the metropolitan area of Tucson: 1,043,433
Number who believe Donald O’Connor is really related to Hugh O’Conor: 17
Readers glad I finally ran out of trivia: 87%
Happy 12,000th year of being home to Tucsonans. And please, have a rainy weekend.
Percentage of Fitz’s columns I’ve enjoyed: 100%! 💯
Only ‘factual’ flaw I spotted was the number of things circling the earth when you were born… Unless you’re far older than you look, I suspect the moon was already there…