during the 1880s and 1890s referred to the range as either "Santa Catarina" or "Santa Catalina." However, by 1902 the range was officially designated the "Santa Catalina Mountains," as the General Land Office established the Santa Catalina Forest Reserve that year, encompassing 155,520 acres (later to become the Santa Catalina National Forest.) As such, the name of the range apparently morphed into the current "Santa Catalina Mountains" sometime between 1890 and 1902, but each previous version of the name always referred to the namesake St. Catherine. National Forest Following the Gadsden Purchase, Americans increasingly moved into the Arizona Territory and focused on the Catalinas in search of gold, silver, and copper beginning in the 1850s. By the late 1880s, residents of southern Arizona desired protection for the Catalinas, and the U.S. Congress authorized the President to designate specific lands around the U.S. to be removed from the public domain under the Forest Reserve Act of 1891. As mentioned above, the Santa Catalina Forest Reserve was created on July 2, 1902, and after the National Forest Service was organized in 1905, the reserve became the Santa Catalina National Forest on March 4, 1907. On July 1, 1908, it was combined with two other nearby national forests (Dragoon and Santa Rita) to create the present Coronado National Forest. Notable sites and areas Mountains and ridges Cathedral Rock Mount Bigelow Mount Kimball Mount Lemmon: highest point Pusch Ridge: westernmost point Rattlesnake Peak Table Mountain Thimble Peak Window Peak Canyons Bear Canyon Box Camp Canyon Cañada del Oro: north of Mount Lemmon Esperero Canyon Molino Canyon Pima Canyon: southeast of Pusch Ridge Romero Canyon: located in Catalina State Park Sabino Canyon Ventana Canyon Other Arizona Trail Rose Canyon Lake Catalina Highway Catalina State Park Pusch Ridge Wilderness Area Redington Pass Summerhaven Tanque Verde Falls Peppersauce Cave Miscellaneous facts Mount Lemmon is not the highest point in the Tucson area. Mount Wrightson in the nearby Santa Rita Mountains has an elevation of 9,453 feet (2,881 m). It is the type locality of a species of Noctuidae or owlet moths (see List of butterflies and moths of Arizona) Mount Lemmon is named after Sara Lemmon, a plant collector and the first white woman to ascend the peak in the 1881. Mercer Spring, located at the Molino Basin Campground on Mount Lemmon, is named for rancher Dell Mercer who had a ranch at the basin at one