The marker for Mount Lemmon!

In the 1950s a United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar Station was built on the top of the mountain. The radar station was eventually inactivated and that site is now the University of Arizona SkyCenter.

With so much of the top of the mountain ringed by security fencing and covered in buildings visiting this marker is really only a for curious enthusiasts of one sort or another, if you are looking for great views or fun hikes this is not the spot...

Mount Lemmon is named for Sarah Plummer Lemmon. Born in Maine in 1836 she arrived in Santa Barbara California in 1869. There she met John Gill Lemmon and the two were married in 1880. Jon wrote an account of their honeymoon in 1881 - A Botanical Wedding Trip:

We had been married on the Thanksgiving before, and this was our wedding-tour. My wife, being as enthusiastic and as devoted to botany as I, was the first to propose that, instead of the usual stupid and expensive visit to a watering-place, idling our time in useless saunterings, and listening to silly gossip, we should wait a few weeks, devoting the time to study; then, at the right time, make a grand botanical raid into Arizona, and try to touch the heart of Santa Catalina.

Eventually the pair was helped to the top of the mountain by E.O. Stratton who had a ranch on the east side of the Santa Catalina Mountains.