Barry M Goldwater Range

Military test area covering 10,620 sq km/4,100 sq mi in the southwestern corner of Arizona. It is named after the long-serving right-wing Republican senator for Arizona who unsuccessfully ran for the US presidency against Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

Extending north from the Mexican border to near the Gila River and east from the Yuma Desert to the Tohono O'odham (Papago) Indian Reservation, the Goldwater Range was established as a bombing range in 1941. Most of it comprises weapons testing facilities for the Luke Air Base in the northeast, near the city of Peoria, though there is also a section used by the US Marines. It is the site of a number of mountain ranges of the Great Basin, including the Gila Mountains (which reach a height of 962 m/3,156 ft at Sheep Mountain); the Tinajas Altas Mountains (noted for their ‘high tanks’, or desert waterholes); the Copper Mountains; the Mohawk Mountains; the Granite Mountains; the Growler Mountains; the Sauceda Mountains; and the Sand Tank Mountains, which rise to 1,245 m/4,084 ft at Maricopa Peak. The area includes the so-called ‘Lost City’ (believed to be the site of a Hohokam settlement), traces of the ancient Sand Papago people, and part of the historic El Camino del Diablo route. The Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge is also sited within the range.