Willcox Playa
The Willcox Playa is a large endorheic dry lake or sink (playa) adjacent to Willcox, Arizona in Cochise County, in the southeast corner of the state. It is part of the Sonoran Desert ecoregion and is the remnant of a Pleistocene era pluvial Lake Cochise. Portions of the dry lake bed have been used as a bombing range by the US military. Most of this area is currently used by the Electronic Proving Ground, based at Fort Huachuca. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1966 for its fossil pollen captured underground, the thousands of sandhill cranes that roost in the area and the largest diversity of tiger beetles in the United States.
| Willcox Playa | |
|---|---|
View facing east across the Willcox Playa toward the Dos Cabezas Mountains from a point just east of Cochise, Arizona. | |
Location in the state of Arizona | |
| Location | Cochise County, Arizona |
| Nearest city | Willcox |
| Coordinates | 32°08′28″N 109°50′53″W |
| Area | 2,369 acres (959 ha) |
| Designated | 1966 |
The playa itself is roughly 8 miles wide by 10 miles long, with an area of approximately 40 square miles.