Cattle - along with Copper, Canyons and Cotton, was considered one of the four mainstays of Arizona's economy in the 1950's

According to the Vail School District’s website, during the 1870’s, the range southeast of Tucson was home to marauding Apaches, train robbers, and the large herd of cattle owned by Ed and Bob Vail, operators of the Empirita Ranch. The ranch eventually extended south to the border with Mexico between the Santa Cruz and San Pedro Rivers. In 1880, Walter Vail donated land to the railroad and a train stop named after him was established for copper ore and cattle loading. In 1893 the Town of Vail was ‘christened’ but never incorporated. In 1903, a school was established for the region on a knoll near the Pantano Wash, on a ranch called Rancho del Lago. The school was not connected to the electric grid until 1955.

IBM opened a plant within the Vail School district in the early 1980’s, and rapid growth followed. Rick Engineering Company has been active in the region since the mid-1990’s, designing infrastructure to integrate communities into the beautiful and ecologically significant Sonoran Desert landscape. Rick’s Survey team combines legal expertise and intimate understanding of local survey practice to accurately delineate parcel boundaries where quirky and unconventional property corner ‘indicators’ abound. Survey crews handling state-of-the-art Global Positioning Satellite-guided equipment gives designers and developers the best possible information for community-building decision-making.