Business View Civil & Municipal l November 2022

149 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 9 C I TY OF SHOW LOW, AR I ZONA and as the Gateway to the state’s White Mountains, which offer more than two million acres of pristine and protected national forests and 50 lakes and streams that host world famous fishing opportunities, boating, kayaking, swimming, and relaxing. The region offers an abundance of world class hunting, hiking, skiing, and cycling, as well as mountain climbing and anything else an outdoor enthusiast could imagine. Steve North, Economic Development Manager for the City of Show Low boasts, “We have some of the best and most unique outdoor recreation opportunities in the state. We also have several hundred miles of trails in the area, both non- motorised and motorised trails that visitors take advantage of, and they are all well maintained so, very popular.” Show Low is located in Navajo County on the Mogollon Rim in east central Arizona. The city was established in 1870 and incorporated in 1953. Over the past decade it has grown exponentially with a year-round population of nearly 13,000. That number booms in the summer months with tourists and second homeowners to almost 170,000. The city borders the Fort Apache Reservation, which contains the Sunrise Park Resort ski resort with 65 runs – operated by the White Mountain Apache Tribe. North says, “It’s very popular in the wintertime and a well-maintained resort, year-round, and so we enjoy visitors in all four seasons. We do quite a bit of marketing in the wintertime to take advantage of that and to attract additional visitors to the area.” North says the city has focused on attracting entrepreneurs to the city for more than a decade to grow industry in the area, as a result they have quite a few entrepreneurs that have come to the area to start small businesses. A lot of those businesses and industries focus on the manufacturing and sales of outdoor adventure, sports, and clothing, as well as those that produce eco-sustainable forest products, for instance Forest Energy Corporation, that makes wood pellets for home heating pellet stoves, long-