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

Marana was first identified as a specific place location by appearing on Southern Pacific Railroad maps in 1890. Marana is a Spanish word meaning a jungle, a tangle or a thicket and was chosen as an appropriate name by the railroad workers as they hacked their way through the dense brush in 1881.

In 1920, construction began on an extensive irrigation system to bring ground water to the fertile desert land. Many families then migrated to the area to grow cotton. The community grew by several hundred during the heyday of the irrigated farming expansion from 1920 to 1924.

In 1961, the Arizona Highway Department and the federal government removed most of the Marana business district to widen Interstate 10. The construction of a group of Titan missile silos and their connecting roads made the area accessible.

In March of 1977 the Town of Marana was incorporated with about 10 square miles. In August of that year the 1,500 townspeople elected their first town council. In early 1979 the Town began growing through an aggressive annexation policy and is now nearly 120 square miles with an estimated population of 20,000.

Rick Engineering Company has been working in this area since first coming to Tucson in 1987, creating development plans and subdivision plats, and assisting the Town of Marana and its residents with implementing its master plans. From providing expertise in drainage and flood control in flat farmlands and steering a roadwayor designing a roadway with minimal disturbance with minimum disturbance through pristine mountain desert, Rick Engineering has been a conscious integral partner in Marana’s vision of smart growth.