The DesertAura website was started in 1998 as a pictorial of the communities in Cochise County, Arizona. It has since expanded to include photos from places beyond Cochise County and Arizona. This necessitated the change of the website's subtitle from "A Cochise County Pictorial" to "A Desert Lands Pictorial."
Cochise County is located in the southeast corner of Arizona. As Arizona counties go, Cochise is only average-sized. At about 6200 square miles, it is slightly larger than Connecticut (which is 5544 square miles). The population of Cochise County is approximately 120,000.
Cochise County was established on February 1, 1881, and is named after the great Chiricahua Apache chief. Cochise County is rich with classic old west history, from Apache and U.S. Cavalry conflicts to famous outlaw shootouts to mining boom towns and ghost towns. The landscape is a vast array of mountain ranges and desert grasslands. The two highest points are Chiricahua Peak (9,795 ft) in the Chiricahua Mountains on the eastern edge of the county and Miller Peak (9,466 ft) in the Huachuca Mountains on the western edge of the county.
