In 1885, the territorial legislature chartered the University of Arizona on overgrazed ranchland at the edge of Tucson — a city that still ran on adobe and borderland grit. The first class arrived in 1891: 32 students, six faculty, one building holding every classroom, every office, the library, the dorms. That building, Old Main, was condemned by 1938, saved by the US Navy during the war, and handed back in working order in 1945. What the university built from there reshaped what Tucson became. Beneath the east stands of Arizona Stadium, the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab now spin-casts mirrors up to 8.4 meters across for the telescopes pushing deepest into the universe. OSIRIS-REx flew to an asteroid and back. The work helped earn Tucson the nickname "Optics Valley." A ranchland donation became the engine of a city.
