Being directly on the US-Mexico border, Nogales, Arizona is maybe 1/15 the size of Nogales, Sonora. In 1880, Jacob Isaacson built a trading post here and the settlement that grew up around it was named Isaacson. However, when the first post office was opened in 1883, the Postal Service renamed the town Nogales (meaning "walnuts" in Spanish). Most business in Nogales centers around the importation of vegetables and produce from Mexico. On the other hand, about 60% of the sales taxes collected in Nogales come from Mexican shoppers who cross into the US to buy stuff daily. Nogales (on both sides of the border) is also home to one of the largest clusters of maquiladoras (manufacturing plants) along the border. The maquiladoras are here to take advantage of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), which allows manufacturing and assembly of America-bound materials on the Mexican side of the border (primarily to take advantage of labor and operating cost differentials - yet another case of the "outsourcing" of jobs).

As a historic city, Nogales has more than 200 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Among them are Tubac Presidio and Tumacacori National Historic Park.

Nogales, Arizona
Arizona on the left, Sonora on the right, border crossing in the center