Graham County is the Center of America's Copper Industry

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Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart west of the Mississippi in Thatcher, AZ Graham County in 1987.   Why?  The Gila Valley is a regional shopping hub with a secondary retail trade area of five counties and a retail trade area population of 80,000.  The Graham County population growing at 1.8% for 120 years is about to add substantial growth adding a population of our Town of Thatcher (5,500) in 10 years and a population of the City of Safford (10,000) in 20 years.  Sections of Hwy 70 and Hwy 191 transecting Graham County receive 26,000 vehicles per day.  Traditional demographic data for national site selectors is just now starting to tip the scales. When a fast-food chain site selector was recently asked how he made his choice.  "I could tell when I got here and just drove around."

Site Selectors judge a place by the health of their downtown district.  The historic commercial shopping district of Graham County is a busy utilitarian downtown with restaurants, grocery stores, hardware stores, theatres, banks, government offices and more.  Main Street is idyllic with a courthouse anchoring the west end.  Is it a coincidence that Disneyland is laid out near exactly as downtown Safford when we know that Walt would visit downtown Safford on his trips east?

One of Arizona's five C's, the Gila Valley exports long and short staple cotton from 28,000 thousand acres to the world.  Graham County is a leader in US cotton production since WWI supporting two cotton gins in the Gila Valley. 

Discover what many Graham County businesses have discovered that do business with the factories (maquiladoras) just south of the border.  We are outside of the Phoenix/Tucson metroplex but only 124 miles to Douglas