The city of Tucson, Arizona, sits on America’s southern border, surrounded by the cactus-strewn landscapes of the Sonoran Desert. Its present-day creativity draws on its Native American and Mexican roots, Spanish colonial heritage and Wild West frontier days. This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). The Sonoran Desert region has been home to Apache and other Native American peoples for centuries, with Spanish colonialists, Mexico and the US fighting for land here in successive waves. In 1854, Mexico sold 30,000 sq miles of the desert to the US,...

"Doomsday mom" Lori Vallow Daybell was convicted Tuesday of conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow. A Maricopa County Superior Court jury found Vallow Daybell guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the July 2019 fatal shooting. Vallow Daybell, who represented herself at trial, told jurors that her brother, Alex Cox, shot Charles Vallow in self-defense following a family argument. Cox died later that year from a pulmonary embolism and was never charged. According to Vallow Daybell, her husband got into an argument with her daughter, Tylee Ryan,...

The parents of a 2-year-old boy who went missing in the Arizona wilderness before being found alive by a rancher’s dog last week described his initial disappearance as the “worst living nightmare.” In an interview with NBC affiliate KPNX , Sarah and Corey Allen recalled what happened when they discovered their son, Bodin, missing from their home in Seligman on Monday, April 14. "It started to get more intense every minute, I started freaking out," Corey told the outlet in a story published on Friday, April 18. "The tears are...

On Monday around 5 p.m. local time, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of the missing toddler, Boden Allen, who had wandered away from his home in the small town of Seligman, Arizona, the agency said in a Facebook post. “I’d heard about the missing child before I was going to town,” Buford’s human, Scotty Dundon, told the sheriff’s office in an interview. “And when I was driving out the driveway, I noticed my dog was sitting down by the entrance. And I look up, and the...

National Parks Service officials and an Arizona school had different things to say about a recent hiking trip that ended in a rescue. The incident occurred on Thursday, April 10, according to a Facebook post from the Lake Mead National Park Service as well as a letter to parents from an administrator at The Marvelous Microschool in Kingman. In a social media post about their decision to temporarily close hiking trails in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area due to the 100-degree-plus heat, park officials said that a group of...

A 2-year-old boy who spent the night alone in remote Arizona wilderness and walked 7 miles through mountain lion territory was led to safety by a rancher's dog, authorities said Tuesday. A huge search operation was launched when Boden Allen disappeared from his home in Seligman, Arizona, about 100 miles south of Grand Canyon National Park, at about 5 p.m. on Monday. He was wearing just a blue tank top and pajama pants, Yavapai County Sheriff's Office said. The sheriff's office said more than 40 rescuers, including Department of Public...

Apache Junction, Arizona, is outside Phoenix, and has a ghost town popular with tourists. The ZIP codes where home prices have seen the biggest surge during the past 12 months reveal a surprising new collection of potential housing hot spots where property owners could find themselves sitting on an increasingly valuable asset. Amid rising economic volatility and tumbling stock markets, Realtor.com data has revealed 10 areas where house prices have shot up since the first quarter of 2024—with Sheffield, Alabama, emerging as one of the ZIP codes with the biggest...