Boundaries: The community of Safford lies in between the Pinaleno Mountains sit prominently to the southwest of town and the Mogollon rim to the North on the Gila river. The Pinalenos have the greatest vertical relief of any mountain range in Arizona, while the Mogollon stretch from the Northern Yavapai lands to the old border with New Mexico to the East. The only real access to Safford is via a long trek along the Rim to Sun valley, or along a bandit infested trail to Las Cruces to the East.
Government: Elections by landholding men, yielding a Mayor and a Sheriff every two years.
Legal Code: Tradition, derived from Old US and generally only used when necessary.
Climate: Safford has a warm high desert climate, much hotter than most places in eastern Arizona due to its relatively low elevation of 2,953 feet. In January, the average high temperature is 60 °F (16 °C) with a low of 29 °F (−2 °C). In July, the average high temperature is 98 °F (37 °C) with a low of 68 °F (20 °C). Annual precipitation averages around 9.8 inches (250 mm), and snowfall is exceptionally rare: the mean is around 0.8 inches (0.020 m) but the median is zero.
Population: 8,500 (250 in the town)
Economics: Mining (copper, iron, gold), Textiles, Light industry, distilling (whiskey and gin)
Agriculture: Wheat, cotton, tubers, some citrus,
Trade: Almost non-existent on an organized basis. Occasional caravans from Sun Valley or Pueblo trading for copper.
Religion: Post Rapture Order of the Redeemer 95%, Unaffiliated 5%.
Standard of Living:
Gender Equity: Good. Between Mt Ghraham and the Troupe of Copper Canyon, well. Lets just say women of Safford pull their own weight. In fact, 'getting a Safford wife' has become synonymous with ending up with a beautiful woman in the Southwest. No one is really certain where the saying started but there it is.
Armed Forces: Safford has no standing military. Instead it creates ad - hoc Militia run by the elected Sheriff as needed.
Dominant Magical Tradition: Electromancy, Miracles
History:
Well, the world ended. Pretty much on schedule. The only thing the people of Safford knew was that the power went out (Luckily for them, an atmospheric EMP fried most non-hardened electronics. Otherwise Safford would have been overrun by the wave of starving people from Phoenix and Tucson). So people spent the next few days drinking warm beer and wondering when the power company would come back around.
Only, they never did.
Rural: Average
Urban: Average.
"The Escape from Tucson"
So about a week in some fellas grabbed a whole lot of water and some horses and headed down US 191 toward Wilcox to see what was what. They made it to the Interstate where they found stalled cars a people already dead of dehydration; both in cars and on the side of the road. Apparently some drivers tried to walk back to Tucson.A week later larger teams were sent toward Tucson and Phoenix.
Those groups found desiccated corpses by the thousands, the orchards and farms out by Florence. Globe was picked clean by refugees who then up and died from dysentery and dehydration because they drank water directly from the canals.
Arizona was a morgue, filled to the brim with desiccated corpses - some of which looked to still be moving around. A few of the survivors fell to the monsters. Those that returned told the stories of the dead lining the streets.
So the people of Safford forted up. Built some walls and improved the town wells. Used the gasoline from the stalled cars to build flamethrowers.
Those first years were hard. Many committed suicide when they realized their relatives didn’t get out of the cities (‘cause everyone has someone in one of the cities. College age kids. Brothers or sisters. But eventually, eventually - the survivors had bigger concerns.
The dead came.
Many a corpse was burned at the Walls of Safford, sometimes as a single. Sometimes as a hoard. But the town held. The people survived. And eventually even prospered in a way. They became friendly with other outposts: Globe. Sierra Vista. The Hohokam and Yavapi Pueblos. The scientists on Mount Graham. Some even went to colonize Sun Valley and the agricultural bounty it represented.
But the people of Safford remember the Days of the Dead. Días de los Muertos. They keep their Tesla Generators and prayers ready for the next time.
Noteworthy things:
Mount Graham Observatory: once an outpost of the University of Arizona, now The Observatory is a center for learning that accepts pupils from wherever they come from - if they can get there. The observatory sits at an elevation of over 10,000 feet, making the climate far more pleasant than the surrounding Sonora. There is running water and sufficient rainfall to grow barley and wheat with the winters being mild enough to keep the snow at minimal levels during the winter.
Generally the population of Mt. Graham is around 500 or so, students, professors and associates. There they study the Stars, experiment with Weird Science, and dream of the past - hoping to keep some of the knowledge of the old world alive.