In April 1972, the Avra Valley’s Hunter Subdivision No. 2 — owned by Lee J. Hurst and utilizing the Cella, Barr, Evans and Associates engineering firm — was recorded with Pima County along with its street names.

The theme for the streets was a continuation of the subdivision just south of it called El Tirador Estates (The Shooter Estates), whose streets were named mostly for historic firearms.

Hunter Subdivision No. 2’s streets include:

Gatling Road: During the U.S. Civil War, Dr. Richard J. Gatling, a physician and inventor, created the first working version of the machine gun called the Gatling gun, which he patented in 1862. Gatling divided his loyalties during the War Between the States. While attempting to sell firearms to the Union Army, he was an active member of the Order of American Knights, a covert group — most of whose members lived in the North — of Confederate sympathizers and saboteurs.

The weapon he invented was a hand-driven, multi-barreled machine gun that revolved around a central axis and originally had six barrels that fired at 350 rounds per minute. This gun was first used by Gen. Benjamin F Butler of the Union Army at the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, in 1864-1865. But the unreliability of its early models, among other factors, led to it being redesigned with 10 barrels and firing at 400 rounds per minute, and it wasn’t adopted by the U.S. Army until 1866. The Colt Armory in Hartford, Connecticut made the production model.

This gun has been featured in films including “The Magnificent 7” and “The Last Samurai.”

The Downtown Links Project in Tucson will be a 4-lane road that parallels the Union Pacific Railroad and connects Barraza-Aviation Parkway at Broadway Road to Interstate 10 via St. Mary's Road. The expected completion date is early 2023. Video by: Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star (2020)

Starr Road: Ebenezer T. “Eben” Starr was born in 1816 in Middletown, Connecticut. He was the son of Nathan S. Starr, Jr. and grandson of Nathan S. Starr, Sr. The senior had a sword company in the late 1700s and received government contracts for sabers and swords, and after the junior joined in, it became N. S. Starr & Son, a gun and sword company. In 1823, the company received a government contract for rifles and produced its most well-known firearm, the Nathan Starr Model 1817 flintlock rifle.

Ebenezer T. Starr had his own business called the Starr Arms Co. with offices on Broadway in New York City, and factories in Yonkers, Binghamton and Morrisania, New York. He produced revolvers such as the Starr Model 1858 Navy and Starr Model 1858 Army Double Action, and also single-shot and 4-shot Derringer pistols. He is best known for his Starr Percussion Carbine, utilized by the Union Army during the Civil War.

Savage Road: Arthur W. Savage was born in Jamaica but arrived in the United States as a boy, attending school in Baltimore, Maryland and later finishing his education in England and becoming a world traveler.

In the mid-1890s, Savage founded the Savage Repeating Arms Co. in Utica, New York — although the first guns introduced by the business were manufactured by Marlin Firearms Co., such as the Savage Model 1895. By the following year, and until 1897, the company sold ammunition.

Around this time, a new corporation called Savage Arms Co. was formed, with eight main stockholders, and a factory was established.

During the 1910s, Savage Arms Co. either bought or merged with the Driggs Seabury-Ordnance Co. and produced firearms for military use during World War I. Around 1920, the company merged with Stevens Arms Co. of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts.

In 1938, Arthur W. Savage was found deceased in San Diego, California, from a bullet wound. A pistol was by his side. The same year, Savage Arms Co. accepted a contract to produce the .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun.

The year after World War II ended, the Utica plant closed and all operations were carried out at the Stevens plant. In 1960, all production was relocated to Westfield, Massachusetts, where the company is currently located.

Two firearms the company is noted for are the Savage Model 1899, later called the Savage Model 99; and the Savage Model 110.

Weatherby Road: Roy Weatherby began his enterprise in 1945 as Weatherby’s Sporting Goods, a small store, just 25 feet by 70 feet, in Atascadero, California, but it would grow into something much bigger.

Weatherby not only enjoyed designing guns but also cartridges. He would test his new projectiles in an underground 100-yard shooting range under his store and his targets would vary from soaked Los Angeles phone books to bullet-proof glass, with many of his calibers being able to penetrate the so-called bullet-proof glass.

There are many cartridges stamped with the Weatherby name, the majority being magnum cartridges used in big game hunting or hardened targets.

He also designed high quality rifles, particularly the Weatherby Mark V bolt-action rifle, which came in different calibers and barrel lengths and were originally manufactured in Germany, with some made in Italy, but later manufacturing moved to Japan. Other models were the Weatherby Mark XXII and the Weatherby Crown Custom.

It’s interesting to note that John Wayne, the legendary cowboy actor, often appeared in Weatherby advertisements. He was also given, by Roy Weatherby himself, a custom Weatherby rifle, which he very much prized.

Sharps Road: Christian Sharps was born about 1811 in New Jersey. He had a common school education and was then apprenticed in the machinist trade. He is thought to have figured out his invention of a breech-loading firearm in the Daniel Nippes Armory on Mill Creek, near Philadelphia, Pennnsylvania.

At some point after his apprenticeship, Sharps worked for noted gunmaker John Hall at the Harpers Ferry Armory in Virginia (now West Virginia).

In 1849, he was residing in Washington, D.C., possibly to get a U.S. government contract for his patented basic breechloading firearms system. The following year, his patented breech-loading musket was tested by the U.S. Marine Corps, which gave it rave reviews, leading to government contracts.

In 1851, he set up his business called Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Co. in Hartford, Connecticut. He provided the technical advice and marketed the firearms while his partners, Robbins and Lawrence of Vermont, manufactured the guns, among them the Sharps 1852 Saddle Ring Carbine.

In 1853, R.S. Lawrence of Robbins and Lawrence arrived in Hartford to build and manage an arms manufacturing plant for Sharps’ stockholders, based on the Sharps patents. Christian Sharps received royalties on each gun made.

In 1853, Sharps cut connections with the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Co. in Hartford, moved to Philadelphia and set up C. Sharps & Co. He then started on a course of creating a breech-loading single pistol. Four years later it was recorded that C. Sharps & Co. was comprised of Sharps in association with Nathan H. Bolles and Ira B. Eddy.

By this point, they had constructed a brick building that housed the machinery related to firearm production. The business produced Sharps breech-loading, self-priming pistols and Sharps rifles.

In 1862, C. Sharps & Co. formed a partnership with William Hankins, known as Sharps & Hankins, and began making firearms for the Civil War. It produced the Sharps & Hankins Model 1862 Carbine among other weapons for the Union Army. Sharps & Hankins is believed to have existed until 1872.

Christian Sharps died in Vernon, Connecticut, on March 13, 1874. His original firm Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Co. was sold and reorganized as the Sharps Rifle Co.in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and operated until 1881. A company bearing the name Sharps Rifle Co. exists today in Wyoming, although it’s not believed to be the same company.

Some of the well-known Sharps firearms include the Sharps Model 1853 Sporting Rifle and the Sharps Model 1874 Military Rifle.

A look back at Tucson-area streets:

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Special thanks to Bunker de France, Todd Roberts and Harry Alexander of the Voices of the West internet radio program for having David Leighton on their show.

David Leighton is a historian and author of “The History of the Hughes Missile Plant in Tucson, 1947-1960.” He has been featured on PBS, ABC, the Travel Channel, various radio shows, and his work has appeared in Arizona Highways. He named two streets in honor of pioneers Federico and Lupe Ronstadt. If you have a street to suggest or a story to share, email azjournalist21@gmail.com