Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monuments
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
Location	Pima County, Arizona, USA
Nearest city	Ajo, Arizona
Coordinates	31°57′14″N 112°48′03″W / 31.954°N 112.80095°W / 31.954; -112.80095Coordinates: 31°57′14″N 112°48′03″W / 31.954°N 112.80095°W / 31.954; -112.80095
Area	330,688 acres (1,338.25 km2)[1]
Created	April 13, 1937 (1937-April-13)
Visitors	211,405 (in 2011)[2]
Governing body	National Park Service
Website	Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is a U.S. National Monument and UNESCO biosphere reserve located in extreme southern Arizona which shares a border with the Mexican state of Sonora. The park is the only place in the United States where the organ pipe cactus grows wild. Along with Organ Pipe, many other types of cacti, as well as other desert flora native to the Yuma Desert section of the Sonoran Desert region grow here. The Park is a beautiful preservation of the American Southwest. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is 517 square miles (1,338 square kilometers) in size. In 1976 the monument was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, and in 1977 95% of Organ Pipe Cactus was declared a wilderness area.

Land for the Monument was donated by the Arizona state legislature to the federal government during Prohibition knowing that the north-south road would be improved and make contraband alcohol easier to import from Mexico. In 1937 the land was officially opened as a national monument.^[3]

At the north entrance of the park is the unincorporated community of Why, Arizona; the town of Lukeville, Arizona, sits at the park's southern border. Lukeville is a border crossing point to Sonoyta, Sonora, Mexico.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is bordered to the northwest by Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and to the east by the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation.

On August 9, 2002, Ranger Kris Eggle was shot and killed by a suspected Mexican drug smuggler during a United States Border Patrol operation. The visitor center has been named in his honor.

Gallery

• 
  An organ pipe cactus in the Monument
• 
  Hedgehog cactus and brittlebush in bloom at the National Monument
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  The Monument is also home to many saguaro cacti
• 
  The Monument also contains a pair of natural arches
• 
  Map of Organ Pipe and its designated wilderness

See also

• Bates Well Ranch, listed on the National Register of Historic Places within the park
• Dos Lomitas Ranch, also listed on the NRHP
• Growler Valley and Growler Mountains geographic features located within the park
• El Camino del Diablo historic road that traverses a section of the monument

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

• Official Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument website - U.S. National Park Service