Visitors and émigrés have sought healing in Southern Arizona since at least the early 19th century. Any tubercular patient lucky enough to flee the crowded, disease-ridden tenements of the Northeast or the malarial bottomlands of the South was invariably advised to seek the high and dry air of the Southwest. Nineteenth century medicine being what it was, physicians had little else but this general, somewhat specious advice to offer the scores of Americans who suffered from TB, fevers, dysentery, and other ailments of the chest and the blood.

Scholar Billy Jones, in his book Health-Seekers in the Southwest 1817–1900, estimates that some 20–25 percent of those who moved to the Southwest during the great migrations of the 19th and 20th centuries did so hoping to cure some ailment, creating a kind of “Health Frontier.” In Tucson this resulted in the haphazard construction of vast tent-cities on the outskirts of town, populated by consumptives and often destitute men and women not long for the world.

Medical science has since cured most of the diseases that once brought sickly travelers to the desert, but that hasn’t stopped today’s visitors from seeking health of a different breed. Tucson has long rivaled its ritzy northern neighbors Scottsdale and Sedona as a place where the afflicted, both physically and psychically, can find solace — usually very expensive solace in a fine Tucson Resort.

Canyon Ranch (8600 E. Rockcliff Rd., 520/749-9000 or 800/742-9000, www.canyonranch. com), perhaps Tucson’s most famous resort, is representative of what the other top resorts offer. Here you can not only pamper yourself silly with spa treatments (an activity sure to lead to optimum, albeit temporary, good health), but then it’s off to appointments with a staff nutritionist, chiropractor, acupuncturist, and internist. A personal trainer will work with you on keeping in shape longterm, while a meditation and hatha yoga classes will help you get in tune with your spirituality. After one of your three gourmet (but healthy) meals every day, you can attend lectures and classes on various topics in healthful living.

For an experience reportedly so meaningful, it’s not surprising that you’re going to have spend accordingly. A minimum three-night stay at Canyon Ranch is going to set you back $2,600–5,020 per person, depending on accommodations. That’s all-inclusive, however; for that price you get three gourmet meals a day, spa treatments galore, consultations with all the medical professionals on staff, and unlimited activities. The high season at Canyon Ranch is September 23–June 7th, after which, as it is with all Tucson’s resorts, prices drop rather dramatically.

It’s no wonder that guests often come away from a few days at a Tucson spa with a new outlook on life. One young woman who spent three days at Miraval, Life in Balance Resort & Spa (5000 E. Via Estancia Miraval, Catalina, 520/825-4000 or 800/232-3969, www. miravalresorts.com), a favorite spot of no less an authority on living life to the fullest than Oprah Winfrey, said that she thinks of her life as having two general periods: before Miraval, and after Miraval.

Hacienda del Sol Guest Ranch Resort (5601 N. Hacienda del Sol Rd., 520/299-1501 or 800/728-6514, www.haciendadelsol.com) offers casitas for $495 a night, and a historic courtyard room goes for $175 a night on the weekdays. Loews Ventana Canyon Resort (7000 N. Resort Dr., 520/299-2020 or 800/234-5117, www.loewshotels.com/hotels/ tucson, $345–495 day) was rated number 31 of the Top 100 golf resorts in the nation by Conde Nast Traveler. The resort has a popular star-gazing program and a desert setting you won’t soon forget. There’s also The Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa (3800 E. Sunrise Dr., 800/937-8461, westinlapalomaresort. com, $299–489 day) and the Westward Look Resort (245 E. Ina Rd., 520/297-1151 or 800/722-2500, www.westwardlook.com $139–339 d), which promises health seekers, just as the desert has done for generations, a “rejuvenating resort environment inspired by the beauty of its pristine natural surroundings.”