MARANA, Ariz. (KGUN) — Marana is one of the fastest-growing communities in Southern Arizona, but it's important to the town to honor its heritage and longstanding agricultural history.
Town of Marana Cultural Heritage Specialist Jill McCleary researches and shares Marana’s story.
“We are a town that has been really true to our agricultural, small-town roots, but is also growing and expanding,” she said.
McCleary says the first farmers were here about 4,000 years ago.
“The indigenous people who lived in Marana, we know that they were growing corn by 2100 BC, so we have a very long history of agriculture here in Marana.”
She says modern Marana can be attributed to Edwin Post, who came to the area in 1919. Because of Post, the area was even called ‘Postvale’ for a short time.
“He came to Tucson at the end of World War One and he imagined Marana could be an agricultural hub,” McCleary said. “He could see crops growing in the desert.”
Families started arriving in the 1920s. In 1939, the Wong family started farming here.
“One thing that always kind of hurts me a little is when I tell people I’m a farmer and they say that they didn’t even know there was farming in Arizona, which is a hard thing to hear,” Brian Wong said.
Wong is a third-generation farmer, running BKW Farms. He says his grandfather, Bing Kun Wong put in his first cotton crop in 1941. However, he says his grandfather didn’t know what he was doing yet and got it in the ground later than it’s typically done.
But his inexperience ended up working in his favor. Wong says his grandfather ended up being one of the last farmers with cotton left in the ground when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened on December 7, 1941.
“Basically overnight cotton was declared a wartime commodity and I think it was selling for about eight cents a pound and went to over a dollar a pound - just because it was needed for parachutes, clothing, that kind of stuff. So you know, simple mistakes, didn’t think he was going to be able to keep the farm running turned into a million dollar crop,” Wong said.
He was then able to reinvest that profit back into the farm. BKW still operates today in Marana, with a farm-to-table approach.
On March 21, 1977, Marana was officially incorporated into a town.
“A lot of that had to do with water. You know, of course with farming being such the heart of Marana, they wanted to make sure that they continued to have the water rights,” McCleary said.
Marana has since grown from about 10 square miles to 120 square miles; and from a population of about 1,000 to about 60,000. Despite its changes and growth, agriculture still remains very much at its core – especially cotton.
“As we move forward it’s going to continue to stay important, it’s part of our roots, it’s part of our history and it’s really made our culture and identity what it is today. Of course, things are going to change and we will have differences as we move forward, but the people who came here, those early farmers that really needed that grit and resiliency – that’s still what Marana is made of and it’s going to continue to be what it’s made of,” McCleary said.
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