Dispatch #320: Where the Saguaros Bloom

For over a dozen years, I called the city of Tucson, Arizona home. I loved the dry Sonoran Desert air, the perpetually sunny skies, and the ubiquitous Saguaro cacti. 

Having walked through plenty of forests in my time, I can say that there are few views as majestic and breathtaking as those inside Pima County's Saguaro National Park. 

Long before I moved to the Arizona, I'd seen so many images of the tall, multi-armed cacti in western movies and TV shows that I began to associate them generally with the American Southwest. 

 I didn't know then that the long-lived species—who only begin to grow their distinctive "arms" at age 75—are native to a rather narrow area of Southern California, Arizona, and Mexico.

Saguaro Habitat

Despite this, I've watched dozens of cowboy movies supposedly set in New Mexico, Oklahoma, or Texas that feature Saguaros in the background. Even worse, I once spotted a jar of Lone Star Salsa in the grocery that sported a green saguaro prominently on its yellow label.

The presence of a saguaro in a movie or TV show is an indication as to where it was filmed—in most cases usually near Arizona's Old Tucson Studios—a facility used in hundreds of productions since 1940.

So, the next time you're watching a movie or TV show set in American West, check the landscape for the majestic saguaros. If you spot some, you'll know it was probably filmed in Arizona or Mexico—but definitely not Texas.

Update (Dec. 2024): I noticed that mega-star Beyoncé is advertising her halftime performance during the Christmas Day NFL game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans by appearing in an ad next to a saguaro cactus that's decked out in holiday lights.

As a Texas native, I assume Beyoncé knows full well that no saguaros grow anywhere in the Lone Star State but simply employed the multi-armed cacti (as Hollywood has long done) as a general symbol of the US Southwest. 

  There's more to come in the next dispatch.

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