But an interesting phenomenon occurs at higher elevations in this somewhat unique desert environment. South from the twin cities of Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Mexico, elevations reach more than 5,000 feet. Here cactus gives way to trees. In the winter and summer rainy seasons, the rolling hills are green. To the immediate east are the foothills of the Western Sierra Madre Mountains.
Wooded summits offer views of verdant river valleys.
Some of the landscape is much like southern Bavaria. In Och's time, the mountain foothills were largely the home of the Opata Indians, the Sonoran desert the domain of the Upper Pima peoples. The latter area, which includes southern Arizona, became known as the Upper Pimeria, or Pimeria Alta. Beyond geographical similarities with his home land, Och's sense of an overwhelming German presence in the region at the time was not overstated. The American West of Hollywood was a 19th century phenomenon.