HISTORY OF THE TUBAC PRESIDIO

INTRODUCTION

The history and fate of Tubac is closely linked with the fate and fortunes of the state of Arizona. Founded in 1752 as the first permanent European settlement in the state of Arizona, the Tubac Presidio of San Ignacio was originally established as a response to the Pima Revolt of 1751 and the need for protection for the ever-increasing number of settlers in this area of southern Arizona. Tubac is a place of many superlatives, and combined with a boom-and-bust cycle repeated over the centuries; the history of Tubac goes back centuries further than the founding of a simple Spanish fort.

THE SANTA CRUZ | RIVER OF THE HOLY CROSS

The story of Tubac’s founding is found in its proximity to the Santa Cruz River. Born in Arizona, in the southern mountain watersheds near Sonoita, the river passes through Mexico before making its way back south into the United States. The Santa Cruz River was a key passageway for Spanish explorers seeking to first explore what was then called the Pimería Alta, or the northern range of Spain’s territorial conquest that was inhabited by Pima Indians. A ribbon of life in an otherwise desolate, hot, and dry desert, the presence of the Santa Cruz River defines the narrative of human occupation in southern Arizona. Owing to the underlying soils and bedrock, the river itself over its entire course is generally underground, with perhaps a rivulet of water here and there, until the monsoon rains cause the river to overflow its banks. The only indication of water is often the surrounding dense, lush, riparian habitat; a cool and shady juxtaposition to the desert heat. However, there are places where the course of the river exhibits surface flow, with bedrock existing just below; in these areas the promise of the river comes alive with striking riparian bosques and the trills of thousands of birds that alight here during their annual migration. Human occupation has always depended on available natural resources, and here, where the Santa Cruz River bubbles up to the surface year-round, there could be no more hospitable place to be found in the desert. 

PREHISTORIC OCCUPATION

The early flowing water of the Santa Cruz River was appealing to all kinds of life forms. In the early Pleistocene, this area was home to North American mammoths, bison, camels, horses, and other now-extinct megafauna (Lamberton 2011). Surely they were attracted to the perennial flow of water and the dense vegetation, which would provide a veritable feast for herbivores. These megafauna went extinct over 10,000 years ago, leaving plenty of room for prehistoric peoples to make this place their home. People had farmed the Santa Cruz for over 3,000 years before the Spanish arrived at its banks (Lamberton 2011), utilizing its fertile alluvial soils deposited by thousands of years of seasonal flooding, as well as developing a sophisticated system of irrigation channels that brought water from the banks of the Santa Cruz to the agricultural fields below.

These prehistoric people, generally referred to as the Hohokam, grew crops common to the area, especially the southwest triumvirate: corn, beans, and squash, all adapted for the conditions of the desert. Some cotton was brought up from Central America sometime during this pre-Columbian period. In addition to agricultural harvests, the Hohokam were very good at harvesting and utilizing wild foods, gathering mesquite pods, cholla fruits, and other desert plants to round out their diets. The canals dug by the Hohokam are the oldest known in North America (Lamberton 2011) and can still be seen today in some areas. When the Spanish arrived, instead of trying to superimpose their own system on the river, they took these prehistoric canals and improved upon them to create their own system of irrigation canals, called asequias.

The prehistoric Hohokam have disappeared from the Santa Cruz River valley, but their descendants can be found in the neighboring O’odham peoples, who too have a long and storied history in this area, as we shall soon see. The name Hohokam comes from the modern Pima word meaning “ancient ones” or “those who have gone” (Trimble 1977). The modern O’odham or “the people” as they call themselves are composed of the Pima, Papago, and Sobaipuri tribes, as well as the Tohono O’odham, as they are commonly referred to today.

THE SPANISH PERIOD

The early Spanish explorers were conquistadores, who, driven out of Africa by Portugal in their quest for riches, and lured by stories of Eldorado, ventured to the new world in search of gold and other treasure. These early conquistadores were more interested in the treasure they sought than the people they found inhabiting the New World. Francisco Coronado was the most well-known of these original Spanish conquistadores, coming to New Spain in 1540 and eventually exploring the New World from California east to Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma (Trimble 1977) as well as everywhere in between. Coronado encountered native North Americans in Arizona and fought with them, the first documented clash between people in the United States (Trimble 1977). Eventually Coronado and every other Spanish explorer were recalled to Spain in 1542, save for 3 priests who chose to remain and were never heard from again (Trimble 1977). Onate returned to the United States in 1595 with 400 colonists and the first permanent heads of cattle and settled near El Paso, but returned to Spain in 1607, marking the end of the period of the Spanish conquistadores in the New World (Trimble 1977).

The next Spaniards to set foot in the new world came with a different mission: converting the native inhabitants to Catholicism, and eventually collecting taxes and other profits from them. The entire area beyond the Santa Cruz River valley was then known as the Pimeria Alta. It was so named by the Spanish missionaries, as this was the land of the Pima Indians, on the north edge of Spain’s territory in the New World. Jesuits came to this area in the 1560s, but didn’t establish a permanent mission until 1591, when they settled San Felipe, in what is now Sinaloa (Dunmire 2004). From there, the Jesuits expanded ever northward, establishing cabesas (main churches) and visitas (small ranches where services were offered weekly) as they went. The most well-known of these traveling Jesuits today is Father Kino.

FATHER KINO

Padre Eusebio Kino first came to the Pimeria Alta in 1687, where he established his first mission at Dolores, Sonora in 1687 (Trimble 1977). He first journeyed into what is now Arizona in 1691, making it as far north as Bac before returning to the mission at Dolores. He made many more journeys into southern Arizona, setting down the roots of missions everywhere he journeyed, eventually founding over 29 missions and 73 visitas in the Pimeria Alta, as well as travelling an estimated 75,000 miles (Trimble 1977). When he was young man he experienced a serious illness and was given up for dead, but somehow miraculously survived, attributing the miracle to his patron saint, Francis Xavier (Trimble 1977). In thanks, he dedicated his life to missionary work, as well as adding the name of Saint Francis to his own. As a young man in his native northern Italy, Eusebio Kino had studied agriculture, viticulture, and animal husbandry, and he brought those interests to his missionary work in the New World (Dunmire 2004).

As the padres traveled into the New World, they sought out land that would be suitable for European crops. Often times this coincided with where people were already living; the settlements existed, and the church simply moved in with them (Trimble 1977). Father Kino himself traveled with seeds and cuttings, making the establishment of the garden his first priority (Dunmire 2004) in whatever permanent settlement he established. Although he did not settle in Tubac, he did found a mission just a few miles upriver at Tumacacori. For Father Kino, the gardens were an important part of his missionary work. He saw the native inhabitants as struggling to produce enough food (which may or may not have been true), but he believed that it would be easier to convert them to Catholicism if they saw that their new life also came with greater abundance (Trimble 1977). At the Tumacacori mission (among others) the locals lived within the mission grounds and participated in the agricultural work in return for a share of the yields, all of the while operating under the watchful guidance of the Jesuits. Kino was much loved by the local inhabitants, as he was a gentle man and did not exploit their labor, and did not mistreat anyone. Kino also brought horses, cattle, and other livestock to the area, the legacy of which lives on in cattle ranching operations all over southern Arizona today, as well as throughout the entirety of North America. As Marshall Trimble remarks, “perhaps Kino’s greatest legacy to the natives was the bringing of fruit trees, crops, vegetables, sheep, mules, and cattle into Arizona. The padre was the area’s first cattle-baron” (1977:77). Kino died in 1971 in Magdelena, in current-day Mexico, dedicating a new mission. He had dedicated his whole life to his missionary work in the New World, right until the very end.

The Jesuits were expelled from the New World in 1767, after King Carlos III of Spain became fearful of their influence in the New World (Trimble 1977). The mission at Tumacacori thrived for a time after the Jesuits were expelled, replaced soon after by Franciscan missionaries. Tumacacori was constantly under siege by bands of Apache, who were not agriculturalists and preferred to conduct raids. The Apache threat to the mission and the surrounding area partly led to the founding of the Tubac Presidio of San Ignacio in 1752, but what brought the issue to the forefront was the Pima Revolt of 1751.

THE PIMA REVOLT

The Pima Revolt was largely a response of the native inhabitants to the occupation by the Spaniards. Father Kino was well known for being a kind and gentle man, but this was the exception to the rule of the treatment by most Spanish explorers. There were other problems, in that the native inhabitants were reluctant to give up their nomadic lifestyles; they disliked the work that was forced upon them by the Spanish and the ways that they were punished if they did not perform the work or did not perform it correctly; the language gap and feeling of racial superiority on the part of the Spanish became an issue; and most of all, most of the native inhabitants did not have elected or clearly defined leadership positions, so it was not possible to negotiate with or surrender to the Spanish as a whole (Trimble 1977). The Spanish had also taken away the fertile valley agricultural lands for the missions from the original inhabitants, forcing them to work at the missions to reap the benefits of the fertile agricultural soil that had previously been theirs. All of these issues caused resentment to grow among the local inhabitants, and combined with Spain’s financial problems and dwindling manpower in the region led to an explosive conclusion. More than 100 men, comprised of varying tribes throughout the Pimeria Alta, massacred more than 100 settlers near Spanish encampments. A peace was eventually negotiated, and the Presidio at San Ignacio del Tubac was founded to control the Pimas, as well as several other presidios throughout the Pimeria Alta.

FOUNDING OF THE PRESIDIO DE TUBAC

The first mention of the site of Tubac in the history books was in 1726, when Jesuit missionary Father Augustin de Campos mentions baptizing children there (Wormser, 1975). There is some debate about the provenance of the name “Tubac”, but one compelling story tells it thusly: In the Tohono O’odham language, the place was called “tschoowaka”, or roughly translated, “rotten”. A Tohono O’odham village located at present-day Tubac was attacked by enemy raiders, who were promptly killed and left unburied, so it seems like the accurate translation for the word Tubac may in fact be closer to “the place where some enemies rotted” (Lamberton 2011).

After the Pima Revolt in 1751, Governor Ortiz Parilla established a presidio at Tubac with 50 soldiers under the command of Juan Tomas Belderrain. The soldiers were encouraged to bring their families with them, and Tubac became a permanent settlement, with women and children. Belderrain was killed by Indians shortly thereafter, and command was then taken of the Presidio by Juan Bautista de Anza, who held the post for over 15 years (Lamberton, 2011).

JUAN BAUTISTA DE ANZA

Juan Bautista de Anza was of Basque descent, born in the Pimeria Alta into a famous family of soldiers. His father was killed by Apaches when he was young. De Anza today is most well-known for the National Historic Trail that bears his name, celebrating his journey to the founding of San Francisco. What is not well known is that these expeditions were launched from the Tubac Presidio.

In 1773, the Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa granted Juan Bautista de Anza permission to travel to the existing missions of California and then to travel northward, in search of suitable places to establish new missions (Wormser 1975). De Anza was the commander of the Tubac Presidio at the time of his departure, and personally financed the journey himself (Lamberton 2011). De Anza brought with him Jose Joaquin Moraga, and together they went north to California in 1774, leaving Tubac in the hands of the settlers (Wormser 1975). This expedition led to the founding of San Francisco, and they returned to Tubac later that year to gather settlers to take with them to found a new colony at this site of San Francisco. Upon their return from their successful journey to California, they then travelled to Mexico City to seek settlers. While there de Anza was promoted to Lt. Colonel (Wormser, 1975). He was also given financing in the form of mules, horses, cattle, and 2 year’s pay as an enticement for new settlers to travel to the new colony.

The settlers recruited from Mexico City were joined by more prospects from San Felipe in Sinaloa, as well as any settlers drawn from Tubac, and departed from the Presidio of Tubac on October 23rd, 1775 (Wormser 1975). The party consisted of 177 settlers from Sonora, 63 from Tubac, and 114 children (including 4 born en route). Amazingly, the party sustained only one fatality, a woman who died in childbirth near the present-day Canoa Ranch, whom is buried at the mission at San Xavier del Bac. The journey to San Francisco had emptied Tubac of most of its occupants. Coupled with the increased threat from the Apache raiders, most settlers who remained moved onto to safer areas, and the presidio itself was moved to Tucson in 1776.

POST-PRESIDIO LIFE AT TUBAC

Life was difficult for those few who remained in Tubac. Apache raids intensified with the soldiers gone; one year, the raiders made off with all of the cattle and corn in town (Lamberton 2011). Many people moved near the fort at Yuma Crossing to escape the raids. The Jesuits were expelled in 1827 due to controversy between land owners and the Church (Trimble 1977), and their property in Tubac had been auctioned off, while the adobe buildings fell to ruins (Wormser 1975). Between 1821 and 1835 (but largely after 1930) more than 100 mines, settlements and ranches were wiped out, and 5,000 people were killed in the Tubac area (Trimble 1977).

In 1871, Tubac received an attachment of the San Rafael Company to help protect the few settlers that remained, and to combat the Apache raids. This attachment was compromised of Spanish officers and Piman soldiers (who were eventually replaced with Yuman soldiers from Sonora). In addition to defending the fort and its nearby settlers, the company rebuilt the adobe buildings located around the presidio that had been originally occupied by Indians (Wormser 1975). In 1789, the commander of the presidio, Lt. Nicolás de la Errán gave the first Spanish land grant to Toribo Otero (the land which is presently the Tubac Golf Resort) and helped kick off a new era in Tubac history, one of renewed exploitation of the local natural resources; namely, land, and minerals.

RANCHING, MINING, AND LAND GRABS

Tubac eventually became the center focus area for mining operations taking place in the nearby Santa Rita and Arivaca Mountains (Wormser 1975). Don Toribo de Otero put the 400 acres of his land grant to good use, planting orchards, and served his community by serving in the military (Lamberton 2011). These mining claims were not originally worked because of the ever-present threat of Apache raids in the area.

Tubac also became the victim of political upheaval in the area of the present-day border, with the War for Mexican Independence and the declining influence of Spain on the region. Nothing in Tubac felt finalized until the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave the US all land north of the Gila River, and the 1853 Gadsen Purchase, which gave Arizona the form that we see today. Now that Tubac was in the United States and there was a safe route back east (Wormser 1975), the gold rush was on.

GOLD IS DISCOVERED

Gold had drawn settlers away from Tubac in the 1840s.  The promise of gold in California proved too much of a temptation, and the increased Apache threat was a significant disincentive to stay. The Gadsen Purchase changed the direction of the fortune-seekers, sending them back to the Territory. Tubac was reoccupied by 1850, and by 1853, there were even about100 friendly Apaches who had settled in the area (Wormser 1975). In 1854, Charles Poston and Herman Ehrenberg sailed from San Francisco to the Sea of Cortez, then traveling overland, through Alamos, drawn by Tubac’s potential. Together they formed the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company, with mining interests in the Sopoi, the Santa Ritas, and Arivaca. Poston and Ehrenberg made Tubac the headquarters of their new mining operation, and fixed up some of the old presidio buildings to house their venture. Poston, known as the “Father of Arizona” quickly became a town leader, performing marriages, baptisms, and divorces, as he was legally authorized to do so as county clerk, but the church put a quick stop to that (Wormser 1975). Poston clearly enjoyed his tenure in Arizona; it was said that “Poston spent much of his leisure time sitting in one of the natural pools of water in the Santa Cruz River, reading newspapers, smoking Mexican cigars, and pondering the imponderables” (Trimble 1977:215).

Business was good for a time; Poston’s mines made $3,000 a day in silver, and continued to boom until 1861 when federal troops were withdrawn from the area, and the Apache took over (Trimble 1977). Poston and Ehrenberg’s mining company eventually failed; they reorganized it as the Santa Rita Mining Company, and opened the famed Heintzelman mine in Arivaca. Rafael Pumpelly and Samuel Colt (of the firearm fame) came to have interests in the Santa Rita Mining Company. Eventually William Wrightson replaced Poston. Wrightson had brought a printing press with him, and founded Arizona’s first newspaper, The Weekly Arizonan, in Tubac in 1859.This printing press is still in working condition and can be seen in the museum at the Tubac Presidio State Park.

LAWLESSNESS PREVAILS

During this time, Tubac was a part of Dona Ana County, whose county seat was Mesilla, located near present-day Las Cruces, New Mexico (Wormser 1975). Enforcement of the law was difficult, given the distance and general inaccessibility of this new Territory, and Arizona was generally a lawless place. Apache raids had declined for a time, due to a policy of appeasement (consisting largely of guns and liquor) but this period of peace was not to last for long. The Daily Arizonan reported that between 1857-1861, 111 Americans and 57 Mexicans had died violent deaths in Tubac; this when the average population of Tubac was between 700 and 800 at a time (Wormser 1975). The famed Apache leaders, Cochise and Mangas Coloradas, reigned over the Apache raids. The increased raids came to be too much for the town to bear, and Tubac was abandoned, yet again. Adobe buildings in Tubac crumbled, and the Heintzelman and Santa Rita mines were abandoned. Charles Poston returned to Tubac in 1864 with J. Ross Browne, who reported that there was not a soul between Tubac and Tucson save the crumbling ruins (Wormser 1975).

FT. CRITTENDEN

Tubac was not abandoned for long. People once again returned in 1865, after John N. Goodwin, the 1st Territorial Governor, ordered a Mexican garrison stationed at the Presidio, which was then called Ft. Crittenden. This resurgence was short-lived, as the troops were withdrawn in 1868. The withdrawal had a domino effect, with the Arizona Mining Company then calling it quits. Apache raids once again increased. After the Camp Grant Massacre in 1871, General George Crook was brought in to solve the “Indian Problem”, but his only focus was on the Chiracahua Apaches, and so the raids went on (Wormser 1975). People came, seeking their fortunes in Tubac, but left disappointed shortly thereafter. Still, some settlers remained. By the late 1870s life went on, with kids in the school (which can still be seen in the park today), and the area where the presidio once stood full of adobe ruins.

RECOVERY PERIOD

In 1882, the official town papers were issued for Tubac; the townsite was surveyed and laid out in 58 blocks (Wormser 1975). The town did not grow much, due to Apache raids, and T. Lillie Mercer, a local merchant, organized a volunteer cavalry called the Tubac Scouts, of which he was captain, in order to defend the town against these raids (Wormser 1975).

By the early 1900s, Tubac had a justice of the peace, a constable, a schoolhouse with several teachers, and 443 people, according to the 1910 census (Wormser 1975). There was a general store, and mass was held by visiting priests from Nogales. The Southern Pacific Railroad reached Tubac in 1910 (Wormser 1975), and with it came the outside world. Arizona was admitted to the Union in 1912, and officially became a state. Some Tubac settlers had a setback in 1914, when the Supreme Court handed down a decision in the infamous case of the Baca Float, in which the heirs to the original land holdings in New Mexico were allowed to select an equal quantity of land elsewhere. They chose a piece of land straddling the Santa Cruz River, encompassing Tubac and its extents. The Supreme Court found for the Baca claimants, and forced some long-time Tubac settlers off of their land (Wormser 1975).

Tubac flourished in the 1920s, with two trains a day bringing mail, and more students attending the local school. In the 1930’s, the main economic driver became gentlemen’s ranches, generally owned by Easterners, who were drawn by the unparalleled landscape and idea of the western lifestyle. By 1948, only 3 Tubac residents actually owned their own farms (Wormser 1975), and there were only 15 families in Tubac, as many of these ranching families lived on their ranches outside of town.

TUBAC AS AN ART COLONY

Dale Nichols started an art colony in Tubac in 1948. Although the art colony failed after a year, a new identity for Tubac was born, and the Santa Cruz Valley Art Association was formed to encourage this new identity. The Tubac Center for the Arts was built in 1972 and continues to be an important facet of the community. Tubac also hosts the Festival of the Arts every February, which is the longest run annual art gathering the United States and is internationally renowned. Today, Tubac sells itself as the place “Where Art and History Meet”, with over 100 art galleries and art happenings year-round.

TUBAC TODAY

Today Tubac is known largely for two things: art, and golf. In 1958, William R. Momon built a golf course on the old Otero Ranch, and the Tubac Golf Resort and Spa is a big draw. The village itself is now known mostly as an artists’ colony. With the closing of the border after the 9/11 attacks, people became wary of visiting the border, and much of the commercial trade moved from Nogales to Tubac, breathing new life into the old Presidio. Tubac was recently named 1 of 14 “Up-and Coming, Must See Destinations in 2014” by Conde Nast Traveler and the Tubac Golf Resort and Spa was rated “1 of 10 Best Places to Escape the Cold” by USA Today.