Old Tucson Studios was originally built in 1939 by Columbia Pictures on a Pima County owned site as a replica of 1860's Tucson for the movie "Arizona", starring William Holden and Jean Arthur. Workers built more than 50 buildings in 40 days. Many of those structures still stand today.

After Arizona completed filming, the location lay dormant for several years, until the filming of "The Bells of St. Mary's" (1945), starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. Other early movies included "The Last Round-Up" (1947) with Gene Autry and "Winchester '73" (1950) with Jimmy Stewart and "The Last Outpost" with Ronald Reagan. The 1950s saw the filming of "Gunfight at the OK Corral" (1956), "The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold" (1957), and "Cimarron" (1959) among many others.

In 1959, entrepreneur Robert Shelton leased the property from Pima County and began to restore the aging facility. Old Tucson Studios reopened in 1960, as a both a film studio and a theme park. The park grew, building by building, with each movie filmed on its dusty streets. John Wayne starred in four movies at Old Tucson Studios and each production added buildings to the town. "Rio Bravo" (1959) added a saloon, bank building and doctor's office; "McLintock" (1963) added the McLintock Hotel; "El Dorado" (1967) brought a renovation of the storefronts on Front Street; and with "Rio Lobo" (1970) came a cantina, a granite lined creek, a jail and a ranch house.

In 1968 a 13,000 square foot soundstage was built to give Old Tucson Studios greater movie-making versatility. The first film to use the soundstage was "Young Billy Young" (1968), starring Robert Mitchum and Angie Dickinson.

The park also began adding tours, rides and shows for the entertainment of visitors, most notably gunfights staged in the streets by stunt performers.

Old Tucson served as an ideal location for shooting scenes for TV series like "Little House on the Prairie" and later "Father Murphy", featuring Merlin Olsen. "Three Amigos" was a popular comedy shot there in the 80s, utilizing the church set. The main street appears prominently in 1990s westerns like "Tombstone" and "The Quick and the Dead".