Tumacacori National Historical Park ⓘ

What are the moments that punctuate your life? That change the course of things for years or generations to come?

Native people kill pioneering Jesuit missionaries in Florida and on Chesapeake Bay. These failures, and a rebellion at a mission in what would become Carolina, cause Jesuits to shift efforts to New Spain.

Father Eusebio Francisco Kino is first Jesuit missionary permanently assigned to the Pimería Alta .

Father Kino visits Tumacácori and Guevavi at request of O'odham from those villages and San Xavier del Bac . The Father Visitor there with Kino, impressed by this tribe and their land, decides to expand the missionary effort there.

Pima Revolt: A coordinated O'odham rebellion erupts across the Pimería Alta. More than 100 people are killed and property destroyed at several missions. Tumacácori and Guevavi are temporarily abandoned.

In response to the revolt, a presidio is built at Tubac , and Tumacácori is moved to the west side of the river. Name is changed from San Cayetano de Tumacácori to San José de Tumacácori.

Mission headquarters is moved from Guevavi to Tumacácori; for the first time the mission has a resident priest.

Franciscans redecorate church, build adobe dwellings for the O'odham, and wall-in the mission.

Franciscans begin building larger church . Lack of funds soon brings construction to a halt.

Mexican Independence: Church construction resumes, but Spain withdraws aid to missions, and the work ceases.

Mexico orders Spanish-born residents to leave the country. Only the native-born Mexican priests are left to care for missions, causing an extreme shortage of priest administrators. Tumacácori becomes a visita again.

War with Mexico cuts supply lines. The Apache increase attacks, and the winter is extremely cold. In December soldiers abandon Tubac; the last residents leave Tumacácori.

President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Tumacácori National Monument on 10 acres of land donated by local homesteader Carmen Mendez.

First custodian ( Frank "Boss" Pinkley ) assigned to Tumacácori. Clean-up and stabilization begins a year later.

Visitor Center and Museum are built according to traditional mission style as observed in northern Sonora.

Congress creates Tumacácori National Historical Park which includes the old monument land and the missions of Guevavi and Calabazas.

Approximately 310 acres of neighboring land is authorized by Congress to be added to Tumacácori National Historical Park. This includes the historic orchard area, one mile of Santa Cruz River corridor, and a section of the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail .

From January 1691, beginning with Padre Eusebio Kino, until the administration of Padre Custodio Jimeno in 1767, missionaries of the Catholic religious order called the Company of Jesus (Jesuits) operated the Missions of Guevavi , Tumacácori , Calabazas , and Sonoitac . Tumacácori and Guevavi were the first missions established in what is today Arizona, soon followed by Sonoitac. Calabazas was established later. Aside from those Jesuits who administered the missions from outside the area (home mission listed beside their name), each of them lived at Guevavi and visited the other three missions. Continue further down this page for more of this chronology.

Eusebio Francisco Kino ( Dolores ) January 1691 - March 1711 Juan de San Martín July 1701 - fall of 1701 Agustín de Campos ( San Ignacio ) 1711 - 1731 Luis Xavier Velarde ( Dolores ) 1711 - 1731 Juan Bautista Grazhoffer May 1732 - spring of 1733 (died at Guevavi) Phelipe Segesser 1733 - 1734 (absent at least five months) Gaspar Stiger ( San Xavier ) 1735 - spring of 1736 Ignacio Xavier Keller ( Suamca ) spring of 1736 - May 1737 Alejandro Rapicani June 1737 - fall of 1740 José de Torres Perea February 1741 - spring of 1744 Ildefonso de la Peña spring of 1744 Ignacio Xavier Keller ( Suamca ) summer of 1744 - May 1745 Joseph Garrucho May 1745 - November 1751

A revolt of O'odham people in the Altar Valley on Sunday, November 21, 1751 effectively closed the missions down, and Guevavi and its visitas did not get another resident missionary until the winter of 1753.

Francisco Xavier Pauer December 1753 - January 1760 Miguel Gerstner January 1760 - May 1761 Ignacio Pfefferkorn May 1761 - May 1763 Custodio Ximeno June 1763 - July 1767

The Jesuits were expelled from the northern provinces of New Spain in July of 1767 and it was a full year before the Franciscan order of Catholic missionaries began to replace them.

Some of the other Jesuit missionaries who served in, or as superiors to those who served in the Pimería Alta and had an effect on the area are included below.

Luis María Marciano Bartolomé Saenz Luis María Gallardi Alonso Ignacio Benito Espinosa Bernardo Middendorf Juan Bautista Nentvig Jacobo Sedelmayr Carlos de Roxas

Beginning with Juan Crisóstomo Gil de Bernabe in in the spring of 1768 and ending with Ramón Liberós in the spring of 1828, Catholic missionaries of the Franciscan religious order lived at Tumacácori and administered the missions of Tumacácori , Guevavi , Calabazas , and Sonoitac . After the expulsion of Padre Liberós by the new Mexican government because of his having been born in Spain, Tumacácori never had another resident missionary. Other Franciscans tried to keep the missions opperating by visiting them from a distance, but Guevavi, Sonoitac, and Calabazas were abandoned in that order. Eventually, in December of 1848, Tumacácori was also abandoned. Following is a list of Franciscan priests who served at Tumacácori:

Juan Crisóstomo Gil de Bernabé May 1768—March 1772 Francisco Sánchez Zúñiga Spring 1771—September 1771 Juan José Agorreta Mid-October 1771 for a few weeks Bartolomé Ximeno July 1772—summer 1773 Gaspar Francisco de Clemente November 1772—early 1775 Joseph Matías Moreno October 1773—early 1775 Pedro Antonio de Arriquibar Early 1775—March 1780 Tomás Eixarch Early 1775—late summer 1776 Juan Bautista de Beldarrain Two months, late 1776 Joaquín Antonio Belarde September 1777—spring 1779 Baltazar Carillo April 1780—October 10, 1795, death Narciso Guitérrez July 10, 1794—December 13, 1820, death Florencio Ibañez December 1795—early 1796 Mariano Bordoy March 1796—late summer 1799 Ramón López March 1796—May 29, 1797 Ángel Alonso de Prado May 1797—January 1798 Manuel Fernández Saravia February 1804—mid-June 1804 Joseph Ignacio Ramírez de Arellano November 1804—May 1805 Gregorio Ruíz Late 1805—late 1807 Francisco Pérez June 1813-June 28, 1814 Juan Bautista Estelric December 1820—May 1822 Ramón Liberós Late May 1822—April 1828, expelled Juan Maldonado Mid-June 1824—about November 1824 Rafael Díaz Late 1825—1841

After the expulsion of peninsular-born Spanish priests in 1828, Díaz resided at Cocóspera and rode the circuit to the presidio at Tucson and stopped at Tumacácori from 1837 until 1841 when he died. He was pastor to the entire northern Pimería, San Ignacio to Tucson.

Other Franciscan missionaries who served in the Pimería Alta and were familiar with Tumacácori and its visitas include:

Preservation work at Tumacácori has been ocurring for decades, as has the evolution of preservation technique and philosophy.

It takes a tremendous amount of knowledge and skill to properly preserve the park's historic adobe structures. Each year, 2500 staff hours are spent in preparation for field work. This includes assessing the work that needs to be done, priortizing preservation projects, purchasing materials, planning logistics, and communicating with partners to clarify the goals of each preservation project. It is during this process that unforeseen problems are brought to the table and past experiences are reviewed to improve the quality of preservation work. Reports are completed after each project that will serve as future reference. Additional time is spent training new staff and outreach to local educational institutions.

Another 2500 staff hours are spent each year on "hands-on" preservation techniques to maintain the structures at the park's mission sites of Tumacácori, Calabazas, and Guevavi. Materials used for preservation are the traditional types of materials that were originally used to build the missions. The appearance of each work site is documented before and after each project. An international collaboration known as TICRAT (Taller Internacional de Conservación y Restauración de Arquitectura de Tierra) brings architectural conservators and specialists from multiple agencies together.

From a contemporary preservationist: Of Adobe, Lime, and Cement: The Preservation History of the San José de Tumacácori Mission Church by former Chief of Resource Management

From an early preservationist: Mission San Jose de Tumacacori by Tumacácori's first superintendent, Frank Pinkley. From the field: Dirt Cheap: A Conversation with Adobe Brick Maker David Yubeta

Mission 2000 is a searchable database of Spanish mission records of the Pimería Alta (southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico) containing baptisms, marriages, and burials from the late seventeenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. Names of persons associated with each event (i.e., priest, baptized, parents, godparents, husband, wife, witnesses, deceased, etc.) and personal information about each person are included. It is an on-going project taken from the original mission records and updated on the Internet when there is more information.

Searching in Mission 2000 is based on names in the database. If you do not find what you are interested in, try a different spelling, or type only the first few letters of the name. Since ancient spellings varied greatly, a partial spelling will list all entries with those particular letters. Each person listed in the results will have a Personal ID Number shown in blue. Click on the number of the person you are interested in to see his or her specific personal information. Included with the personal information will be a listing of all Event ID Numbers, shown in blue, with which that person is associated. Click on any of those numbers for a display of information concerning that particular event.

Misión 2000 es un base de datos en el que puede buscarse nombres contenidos en los registros de las misiones españolas de la Pimería Alta (al sur de Arizona, EEUU, y al norte de Sonora, México), en el cual hay bautismos, casamientos, y enterrados desde el último del siglo diesisiete hasta el mitad del siglo diesinueve. Los nombres de las personas asociadas con cada evento (por ejemplo: sacerdotes, los bautizados, padres, padrinos, esposos, testigos, los muertos, etc.) e información personal de cada persona son incluidos. Es un proyecto en progreso sacado de los documentos originales y revisado en el Internet quando hay mas information.

La busqueda en Misión 2000 es fijada en los nombres del base de datos. Si Ud. no encuentra la persona en quien tiene interés, pruebe un otro deletreo, o marque solamente las dos o tres primeras letras del nombre. Porque los deletreos antiguos variaron mucho, un deletreo parcial dará todos los nombres con esas letras particulares. Cada persona registrada en la resulta tendrá un número personal de identificación (Personal ID) enseñado en azul. Marque el número de la persona con quien Ud. tiene interés a ver su información personal. Incluido con la información personal será una lista de los números de eventos (Event ID), también enseñados en azul, en cual esa persona está asociada. Marque cualquier número para un despliegue de información concerniente a ese evento particular

From his arrival in the Pimería Alta in 1687 until his death in 1711, Padre Kino established over twenty missions. Missions were communities established to convert Native Peoples to Christianity and the Spanish way of life.

The Jesuit religious order of Catholic missionaries administered them until the time of their expulsion in 1767. From 1768 until after Mexico earned its independence in 1821 the missions were operated by the Franciscan religious order of Catholic missionaries . Some are still in use today while others have fallen into ruin.

The mission sites of San José de Tumacácori, Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi, and San Cayetano de Calabazas are administered by Tumacácori National Historical Park; the park offers tours of its three mission sites.

San José de Tumacácori Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi San Cayetano de Calabazas San Ignacio de Sonoitac San Xavier del Bac Santa María Suamca Nuestra Señora de los Dolores de Cósari San Ignacio de Cabúrica Santa María Magdalena San José de Ímuris La Purísima Concepción De Caborca San Diego del Pitiquito San Antonio Paduano de Oquitoa San Pedro y San Pablo de Tubutama Nuestro Padre San Francisco de Átil Nuestra Señora del Pópulo del Bisanig Nuestra Señora de los Remedios de Doágibubig Nuestra Señora del Pilar y Santiago de Cocóspera Santa Gertrudis del Sáric

When Father Kino first came north to the Opatería, his last jumping off point before moving up the valley to establish his home mission of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores de Cósari , was the already established mission to the Opata Indians called Los Santos Reyes de Cucurpe .

Other nearby missions to the Opata and Pimas Bajos Indians include: Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Arizpe San Ignacio de Cuquiárachi

The wealth of Tumacácori, such as it was along the frontier of New Spain, lay in its cattle and livestock. Ranching was an important economic and cultural driver in the region.

G uevavi Ranch The first working livestock ranch in what is today the State of Arizona, it was established by Juan Bautista de Anza in 1728 near the Guevavi Mission . After having been an working cattle rance for over 250 years, it is today operated as a bed and breakfast known as Hacienda Corona .

San Mateo Ranch Established about 1730 by Captain Juan Bautista de Anza , the San Mateo Ranch was located where the Río Rico golf course is today, near the Calabazas Mission .

Sicurisuta Ranch Located at what is today Peña Blanca Lake , the Sicurisuta Ranch was established by Juan Bautista de Anza in the 1730's.

Sópori Ranch Just west of the town of Amado, Arizona, the Sópori Ranch, established by Juan Bautista de Anza in the early 1730's is still an operating ranch today.

Santa Barbara Ranch Located in the San Luis Valley on the upper Santa Cruz River about ten miles south of the present international border between Arizona and Mexico, the Santa Barbara Ranch was established by Diego Romero in 1726 or 1727.

Santa Ana Ranch Santa Ana was an estancia, or ranching community (and still is) south of Magdalena, Sonora.

The State of Arizona takes its name from a ranch started by Bernardo de Urrea sometime between 1734 and 1736. The general area around his ranch was also known as Arizona . He and a majority of the first explorers, settlers, and miners in the area were Basque and it is they who probably gave the Basque name Arizona (the good oak) to the region. Oak trees are abundant both at the original ranch and the entire area between present-day Nogales, Arizona and Saric, Sonora. Bernardo de Urrea's Arizona Ranch lies about 40 miles southwest of Tumacácori in what is today Sonora, Mexico.

Prospecters and miners rushed to the area of the great silver discovery of October,1736. It was given the name San Antonio de Padua by Justicia Mayor Juan Bautista de Anza when he arrived on the scene in November and ordered that all the silver that had been taken from the site be impounded and brought to Urrea's Arizona Ranch, some fifteen miles down the canyon. Because his escribano (scribe), Manuel José de Sosa , dated all the impounding documents at Arizona , people in faraway places like Guadalajara and Mexico City were soon referring to the silver as the "silver of Arizona ." Thus, Arizona quickly became a household word associated with great and sudden wealth. Contrary to popular myth, however, the silver, or the area, were never referred to as Arizonac , even though both Arizona and Arizonac are viable Basque words. Arizona is simply singular (the good oak tree) and Arizonac is plural (the good oak trees). Long before Arizona became associated with the United States of America, the area just south of the present international border at Nogales, and a particular ranching community within that area, was known as " Arizona ." The earliest known records of a place called " Arizona" date back to the spring of 1736.

In the year 1521, in a cave near a town in Spain called Manresa, on the road to Barcelona, a limping, crippled, thirty year old halted his travels to spend a few days in rest and recuperation. He remained for ten months. During this time he wrote what came to be known as the Spiritual Exercises, which became one of the foundational documents of what would eventually be known as the Society of Jesus - the Jesuits. The young, weary traveler was Inigo de Loyola, who later took the name Ignatius. Grievously injured in the battle of Pamplona, Loyola vowed a lifetime of dedication to God if he were allowed to live. So began the religious conversion of the future founder of the Jesuit order. In the centuries following, few human societies have aroused such profound admiration as well as such deep animosities as has the Society of Jesus.

From January 1691, beginning with Padre Eusebio Kino, until the administration of Padre Custodio Ximeno in 1767, Jesuit missionaries operated the Missions of Guevavi , Tumacácori , Calabazas , and Sonoitac .

Guevavi is a name derived from the O'odham word for big spring, ge'e vavi , or big well, gu waihe. This settlement of O'odham people was first visited in January 1691 by Catholic Jesuit Fathers Kino and Salvatierra. They established it as a mission, naming it San Gabriel de Guevavi. Subsequent missionaries called it San Rafael and San Miguel, resulting in the common historical name of Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi.

In 1701, Guevavi was established as a district headquarters and Juan de San Martin was assigned as the first resident priest. A small church was started that same year. Father San Martin left in 1703. Fathers Agustín de Campos and Luis Xavier Velarde visited occasionally after that. Father Grazhoffer , in 1732, reestablished Guevavi as cabecera and completed the church. Unfortunately, he died the following year - possibly of poison. Father Garrucho , resident priest from 1745 to 1751, recorded 148 burials, many from disease. In 1751, Father Garrucho contracted the building of a 15 foot by 50 foot church, the ruins of which still exist today.

The first captain of the Tubac presidio , Juan Tómas de Beldarrain , was wounded by Seri Indians and died at Guevavi. His body lies buried beneath the altar steps of the church. The mother of Captain Juan Bautista de Anza , Beldarrain's replacement, is also buried in front of the altar.The Pima revolt of 1751 , later Apache raids, disease, and the removal of the Jesuits in 1767 caused much disruption to mission life. The first Franciscan priest, Juan Crisóstomo Gil de Bernabé , arrived in 1768 and began the mission with about fifty families. Unfortunately the Apaches attacked in 1769 and killed all but two of the few Spanish soldiers guarding the mission. In 1770 and 1771, the Apaches continued their attacks and the cabecera was moved to Tumacácori . Antonio de los Reyes, Bishop of Sonora, on 6 July 1772 wrote a report on the condition of the missions in the Upper and Lower Pimeria Alta.

Architectural Conservation Laboratory, Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania

Guevavi was abandoned for the last time in 1775. After sitting forlornly abandoned since the 1770s, Guevavi's ruins were added to Tumacácori National Historical Park in 1990. The late Ralph Wingfield, a local rancher, donated the ruins to the Archaeological Conservancy which, in turn, donated it to the National Park Service.

Guided tours to Guevavi and Calabazas are offered by reservation during the months of January, February, and March.

The Spanish colonial endeavor always approached missions as a system. They would be established in sequence with one another, connecting existing native communities known as rancherías. The Spanish mission system was organized around missionary sectors. Each sector could have several rectorates which were, in turn, responsible for the cluster of missions. Nuestra Señora de los Dolores became the rectorate for the Kino missions and Padre Kappus was the first Superior. Each mission would consist of a cabecera , or resident headquarters, and visitas , or outlying (“visited”) mission stations. Tumacácori began its mission life as a visita, under the authority of its southern cabecera, Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi. The early resident priests at Guevavi would have travelled to visitas and neighboring missions as distant as San Xavier and Suamca. Later the tables would turn and Tumacácori would be promoted to cabecera and its priest would minister to visitas at Calabazas and Guevavi.

Amongst its three mission sites, Tumacácori National Historical Park is the only National Park Service unit displaying an entire, original institutionalized Spanish mission landscape including

Mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi is the only preserved earthen Jesuit cabecera in the United States. It has well-preserved associated cultural sites and features, which include an associated village site. The site of Guevavi is relatively undisturbed with few post-Jesuit mission period archeological resources present. Guevavi has remnants of the first mission church built in what is today Arizona. The church is the only known standing Jesuit earthen mission architecture found in the United States. Mission San Cayetano de Calabazas includes the only known remaining standing Spanish colonial visita in the national park system. Calabazas preserves a history of diverse and extensive adaptive reuse including a mission period visita and ganadera, Mexican governor’s residence, U.S. cavalry camp, customs house, and a post office.

On November 20th in 1751, a coordinated attack on Spanish missions and settlements was carried out by O'odham rebels. The Spanish were caught completely unaware.

The O’odham had conflicted with other native peoples for years. The limited resources of the desert meant friction between the Seri to the south, the Apache to the east, and on occasion, the Colorado River tribes in the west. The O’odham were highly successful farmers, who had learned to live with all the quirks of the land they called home.

The balance of power had been shifted by the Spanish missionaries and settlers. The O’odham, due to their location and their mostly sedentary lifestyle, were most easily influenced and compelled to become part of the Spanish hierarchy. The O’odham of the Pimería Alta had found a mostly harmonious life cooperating with the Spanish and in some cases, becoming Christians and part of the mission system.

Beneath the surface there was always resentment at those missionaries who acted as monarchs, disregarding thousand of years of desert farming techniques, forcing changes in marriage and lifestyle and prohibiting any ceremony arbitrarily perceived as pagan.

By the end of the first few days, more than 100 people had been slain, included two priests recently arrived in the Pimería Alta. The missions at Guevavi, San Xavier, and all throughout the region emptied as fears mounted. The O'odham who didn't join the cause found themselves caught between Spanish retaliation and the rebels who targeted anyone appearing to support the Spanish empire. After the bloody night, the rebels retreated, and for the next several months they raided, stealing cattle and horses. Spanish heavy cavalry moved north and turned west toward the rebel base at Baboquivari. They met a large force of mounted O’odham near present day Arivaca and quickly defeated them, leaving 49 dead O’odham on the field. Resistance continued, though not in any flourish of battle. Though a new fort was established in the Santa Cruz Valley in June 1752, the troops spent their time hunting down pockets of rebels who had created a hideout in the center of sacred O’odham country. Eventually, the rebellion would end and life would continue in the missions of the Pimería Alta.

A revolt in 1751 led by O'odham warrior Luis Oacpicagigua caused the Spanish government to realize that the frontier mission system could not be successful on its own. A military presence would be needed for protection of the frontier. In 1752 a fort was established near the site of the abandoned O'odham village at Tubac.

Though open revolt had ended with a peace agreement, tensions were still high. The new garrison of Tubac would continue campaigning against rebel holdouts, delaying construction. By February of 1753 San Ignacio de Tubac was constructed. The Tumacácori Mission enjoyed the protection of nearby soldiers until the garrison was moved north to Tucson in 1776. In 1782, the Spanish government raised a company of O'odham soldiers. The experiment proved an immediate success. They were hard-fighting, and tallied success after success. They wore Spanish uniforms, though it was reported that they stripped to the loin cloth when fighting Apaches. The bow and arrow, lance, rawhide shield, and war club were used until they were armed with muskets. In 1787 the Pima Indian Company became the garrison of the Tubac Presidio. The company, when not fighting Apaches, rebuilt the fort and the church. The eighty-man Indian Company remained at Tubac into the Mexican era of the 1830s, allowing the town to grow and prosper.

The legend says: Plan of the Presidio of San Ignacio de Tubac in the Province of Sonora, located at 32 degrees and 3 minutes latitude north, and 252 degrees and 24 minutes longitude counted from the Tenerife meridian. Explanantion: A. Captain's house; B. Guardhouse; C. Cemetery; D Church begun at the expense of the captain. Note: all of the building materials of ths presidio are adobes. Scale: two hundred fathoms. Joseph de Urrutia The map also shows the roads to Tumacácori, Altar, San Xavier del Bac, and Sonoitac; the Tubac River (today the Santa Cruz River); and the ditch for irrigating.

The site of the Tubac Presidio is now the Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, where you can explore the timeline of human settlement in the Santa Cruz River Valley, dating back to the O'odham settlement in the 1500s. It protects museum exhibits, artifacts, original artwork, and excavated portions of the original adobe foundation, walls, and plaza floor of the 1752 Commandant’s quarters. Credit for the Tubac Presidio becoming a State Park belongs, in large part, to interested and generous residents of the community. Frank and Olga Griffin were active in preserving the local history, establishing the Tubac Restoration Foundation, and influencing the Parks Board to establish Tubac Presidio as the first Arizona State Park. The Griffins made the initial donation of three lots to the Parks Board on December 21, 1957. Tubac Presidio State Historic Park was officially dedicated on Sunday, September 28, 1958.

Tubac Presidio State Historic Park was due to close in March 2010 due to the loss of state funds. The community of Tubac came together and succeeded in crafting a Public-Private Partnership that allowed the park to remain open to the public.

Now operated by the Friends of the Tubac Presidio and Museum, the park features a museum, underground display of the Presidio ruins, Arizona’s first printing press, a picnic area, and access to the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail.

Members of the Jesuit order served not only as missionaries, but also as educators. Although they were not allowed to accumulate wealth for themselves, the Jesuit order succeeded in accumulating wealth (land and buildings) and power for their order. This power, along with their dedication to the pope in Rome, caused the Catholic monarchs concern.

King Carlos III of Spain signed orders on February 27, 1767 to expel all Jesuits from his lands. The first person in Sonora to learn of the edict was Governor Juan Claudio de Pineda. On July 11, the governor opened a sealed packet that had come by special courier from the viceroy.

Governor Pineda chose six officers whom he trusted to be more loyal to himself and the King than they were to the Sonoran Jesuits. These six men, Juan José Bergosa, José Antonio de Vildósola, Bernardo de Urrea , Lorenzo Cancio, Sebastián Azcarraga, and Juan Bautista de Anza , each received a sealed packet with instructions that the message was to be opened in secret after sundown on Thursday, July 23, 1767.

The instructions were precise. The officers were to arrest fifty-two Jesuits in Sonora and Sinaloa, treating them with "the greatest decency, attention, and humanity." They were to take them to the village of Mátape. The officer assigned to arrest father Custodio Ximeno of Guevavi was Bernardo de Urrea. The seasoned soldier, who had lived in the Pimería Alta for more than forty years and served as captain of the Altar Presidio since its creation, was so upset by the assignment that he was unable to complete it. Somewhere south of San Ignacio he went home in tears, leaving his son Lieutenant Miguel de Urrea to complete the job.

From Mátape, the priests were marched to Guaymas. There they were held for nine months in a stone warehouse before being put on a ship. They were carried across the Gulf of California to Puerto Escondido (Baja California), then down to the port of San Blas. From San Blas, the priests walked overland to Mexico City, then to the port of Vera Cruz. From there they sailed to Europe.

Twenty priests died before reaching Mexico City. 71-year-old Padre Nicolás Perera, a family friend of the Tubac Presidio’s Captain Anza, was the first to perish, on August 29, 1768. The thirty-two surviving priests were kept in exile upon arrival in Europe. The Jesuit order was suppressed for forty-one years before finally being restored by Pope Pius VII in 1814.

Father Narciso Gutiérrez, who succeeded father Carillo, was born in Calahorra, Rioja, Spain, about 1765. [1] At that time the Jesuits still administered the missions of Sonora. In the summer of their expulsion in 1767, he had barely started to walk. About the time the Yuma Indians revolted in 1781 and put to death four friars on the Río Colorado, the Spanish Franciscans invested the 16-year-old Narciso with the habit of Saint Francis in the Convento de San Julián at Agreda, a couple of days south of Calahorra. [2]

He received his pentente at the Franciscan Convento in Santa Domingo de la Calzada, Spain, about 500 miles south of Cádiz. In July 1789 he set out for Cádiz and checked into the government hospice at the Puerto de Santa Maria across the Bay of Cádiz on August 2, 1789. Twenty-one friars would sail from Cádiz on December 1789. Father Narciso spent time at the College of Santa Cruz de Querétaro, Mexico, after his arrival there on March 23, 1790.

Not yet 30, Father Gutiérrez rode into Tumacácori on July 10, 1794, where he worked with the old missionary, Father Baltazar Carillo for a year. On the morning of October 10, 1795, he listened to Father Carillo’s final confession. That afternoon he was dead. The next day, on a Sunday, he presided at the funeral and buried him inside the crumbling Jesuit church just at the top of the steps in the center before the main altar.

There were examples of laxity in the missions of Sonora. When the College of Querétaro’s Master of Novices, Father Antonio Bertrán returned from a home mission in Sinaloa, he confirmed the worst. [3] There had been distressing reports of misconduct by the missionaries in the field. There were stories of undisciplined friars mixing with money, commerce and women. He could not ignore the stories. [4]

Bertrán singled out several individuals about whom he had heard specifics. Among them was Father Gutiérrez, compañero to old Carillo. Gutiérrez had written to another of the new young missionaries a most unfraternal and indiscreet letter. [5] It was time to act! The Guardian and Discretory of the College of Querétaro commissioned a Father Visitor. They chose Father Diego Miguel Bringas de Manzaneday Encinas, the College’s procurdador, who would be impartial in dealing with “los viejos,” veterans of the Mission of 1769 and the “los nuevos” (new arrivals) mostly of the Mission of 1789.

After making a number of visits on the way, Father Visitor Bringas rode on to Pimería Alta. From Tubutama, Father President Iturralde met Bringas at Tumacácori. At Tumacácori in the first week of October 1795, the two superiors conferred in private about the full range of mission crises. One involved Gutiérrez, already accused of conduct unbefitting a friar. Tumacácori’s long-time missionary Carillo might not last a month. Young Gutiérrez, the Father Visitor warned, must not be permitted to succeed Carillo or anybody else. He was not suited for the missions. Perhaps the best solution, in the event of Carillo’s death, would be to transfer him to Tubutama as Iturralde’s compañero. There the Father President could keep an eye on him. After these talks, Iturralde returned to Tubutama and Bringas rode north to San Xavier and to the Río Gila.

Father President Iturralde attempted to fill the vacancy created by the death of Carillo. He unsuspectedly touched off, among the religious, an open display of what he termed politely “human frailty.” During the two years following Carillo’s death, the people of Tumacácori and Tubac saw a succession of five missionaries not one of whom, except Gutiérrez, was happy at Tumacácori.

Iturralde sent 55-year-old Florencio Ibañez to Tumacácori out of spite. According to Iturralde, Ibañez was a born troublemaker. He was a musician, an artist and a poet. He had spent most of the time at Sáric, 20 miles up the Altar River from Tubutama. He built a church there and quarreled with his brethren. By December 1795 he was minister at Tumacácori and Tubac. Because Gutiérrez had not been well (he had a skin disease) Father President still had not removed him. Besides, Iturralde felt Ibañez and Gutiérrez deserved each other. Relations between the two friars were anything but cordial. Five months earlier Ibañez had roasted Gutiérrez in a letter to the College of Querétaro. He said he was materialistic, and shortly after he arrived at Tumacácori he convinced Carillo to fire the mayordomo for dishonesty. He said Gutiérrez took charge of economic affairs and kept all the keys except those for the livestock. Sick old Carillo let him have his way. Evidently Gutiérrez wanted to build the new church so long overdue. Ibañez said all this hastened Carillo’s death. [6]

Even before Ibañez arrived, Father Narciso prejudiced the mission Indians against him. Then, alleged Ibañez, he put four Indians, including Tumacácori’s Governor Luis Arriola, up to going to Father Visitor Bringas in protest. They said the new Father had pillaged the mission and also made them get up at the crack of dawn for mass on work days. In his own defense, Ibañez pointed out, he was only following Bringas’ instructions. Ordered to pay 1,000 pesos each to San Xavier and Cocóspera, he had found in the Tumacácori storehouse a great surplus of clothing that he sold to those two missions and Sáric. Also Bringas told him to teach the Indians to pray. The only time they had to pray was early in the morning before working in the fields. Ibañez and Gutiérrez did not have to suffer each other’s company for long. Father Visitor Bringas decided to send Ibañez to the College of Querétaro. Yet when Ibañez humbled himself before Bringas at Arizpe, the Visitor sent him to Caborca, where two new interns, Father Mariano Bordoy and Father Ángel Alonso de Prado, received him with raised eyebrows as if they were saying, “so this is the mischievous one, the gossiper, the spy of los viejos come to check on our behavior.” [7] While Ibañez endured the contempt of the two missionaries and plotted his return to Sáric Father Iturralde was having his trouble prying Gutiérrez away from Tumacácori.

Father President had determined to send the two interns, Father Mariano Bordoy and Father Rámon López, to relieve the stubborn and supposedly ailing Gutiérrez. When the two interns reached Tumacácori in mid-February 1706, they presented father Gutiérrez with Iturralde’s order summoning him to Tubutama. Still he balked. Only two weeks before, Gutiérrez had informed the Father President that his condition had improved, “that only his skin had not healed over.” Suddenly he was crippled. He wrote for permission to travel south to Arizpe for treatment. [8] Iturralde denied the request but three weeks later he relented. The pass to Arizpe was sent but Gutiérrez did not go. He did not open the letter thinking it contained another summons to Tubutama. Gutiérrez was saying, reported Father López from Tumacácori, that he would remain sick until Bringas departed Sonora for the College and that he would manage to stay at Tumacácori. In early May, Iturralde lost patience. In answer to Father President’s latest summons, Gutiérrez said he could not ride a horse. That did it! Iturralde ordered him by holy Obedience, which no friar could refuse without breaking his solemn vows. Gutiérrez finally went to Tubutama. He was there from May 1796 to December 1797. He resented his removal to Tubutama and Iturralde’s surveillance. In 1797, during the Easter season, Fathers Gutiérrez and Ibañez performed their annual spiritual exercises at Sáric and emerged as allies.

Fathers Rámon López and Mariano Bordoy did not get along and got on each other’s nerves. Finally López left Tumacácori on May 29, 1797, and was replaced by Father Ángel Alonso de Prado, another of the ill-suited interns who came in with Father Bringas. After only a week at Tumacácori, he wrote to the Father Guardian of the College saying he was not suited for the missions and wanted to return t the College. Evidently Bordoy and Prado had seen to patching up the Jesuit church because it was no longer split in two.

In January 1798, Gutiérrez was back at Tumacácori and Prado was preparing to leave for the College. Back at the College, Prado would be elected Father Guardian three times before his death on December 28, 1824. [9] As for Gutiérrez, who shared Tumacácori with Mariano Bordoy during 1798 and 1799, he had come home to stay.

At Tumacácori, Father Gutiérrez resolved to build a proper church. In his favor he would have an Apache “peace” such as it was and a decade of relative prosperity. Against him was napoleon in Europe and unrest in New Spain. He lost Mariano Bordoy in 1799 to other missions.

When Father Moyano, who succeeded Iturralde as Father President, drew up his first State of the Missions report in May 1803, he could point to a half dozen new, brick and mortar churches built under Franciscan supervision. Most of the others had been repaired and renovated. Only two churches in all Pimería Alta did he judge substandard—Caborca and Tumacácori. At Caborca, Father Andrés Sanchez was about to begin construction. At Tumacácori a church was, in Moyano’s words, “currently being built anew.” Father Narciso Gutiérrez had already begun his church.

Like Sanchez at Caborca, Gutiérrez took the magnificent San Xavier del Bac of Father Velderrain as his model and goal. Unfortunately for him, circumstances would impose a whole series of retrenchments. Perhaps he was too optimistic. He staked out the foundation some 50 feet behind the little Jesuit church. The new church would be oriented north-south and would have the adjoining convento to the east. It would measure some 100 feet long on the outside, nearly twice the length of the old church. In 1802, Gutiérrez brought in additional laborers and craftsmen. Moyano’s figure for that year credited Tumacácori with a population increase of 70 percent over 1801. [10]

The problem for Gutiérrez now became one of economics, how to sustain a long-term construction project with no more resources than his poor pueblo could muster. The mission had livestock, more than ever before, but prices had fallen. He could try to raise surplus wheat, but that would depend on the weather. As Father Moyano pointed out, the only industry in the mission aside from pottery and basketry was the weaving of blankets and sarapes from the wool of mission sheep. Unfortunately Tumacácori flocks had been nearly wiped out by the Apache raid of June 1801. Because these raiders often came by way of the deserted visita of Sonoita, Moyano urged reoccupation of the site and a strong enough guard to hold it but that came to nothing. [11]

In the middle of the Santa Cruz Valley the new prosperity was evident but limited. Stock wearing the Tumacácori brand grazed for 20 miles along the Santa Cruz River from south of Guevavi. Travelers on the valley road noticed the massive foundation of Father Gutiérrez’ church, great river boulders set in mud mortar.

Still Tumacácori was poor. Once Father Sanchez began building at Caborca, Gutiérrez could not keep up. His project lagged. When Father President Moyano made out his second State of the Missions report, he described Tumacácori’s old church as “very deteriorated and narrow.” Construction of a new one had begun but he mentioned no progress since the last report. In contrast, at Caborca, Sanchez had the walls up and already had begun the barrel vault roof. Tumacácori’s population was down and Caborca’s up from two years before. It was an indication of how the two jobs were going.

The Apaches were partly to blame. San Xavier, Tumacácori, Cocóspera and San Ignacio had the greatest and most frequent peril and damage. Those and other outrages kept the missions of the north and east poorer than the others, retarding the growth of herds and activities of their people.

For five years Gutiérrez managed pretty much on his own, doing double duty as missionary and chaplain. [12] Between 1804 and 1807, Father President sent him, in rapid succession, three eager but luckless compañeros. The first was Father Manuel Fernández Saravia. Whether on business or sick leave, Gutiérrez was away between November 1804 and May 1805.

The second compañero was a devout but sickly Mexican, Father Joseph Ignacio Ramírez de Arellano. When Gutiérrez returned in May, he was battling an epidemic. Arellano rode back to San Xavier. The third compañero in three years joined him later in 1805, another Mexican, Gregorio Ruíz. He stayed through 1806 and most of 1807.

With some misgivings father Gutiérrez watched the new settlers arrive in the valley. Tumacácori herds were increasing despite the Apache raids. The friar foresaw trouble over the land. The poor squatters did not bother him as long as they recognized the land belonged to the mission. It was the ambitious potential ranchers who might file a claim on allegedly vacant lands or lands with imperfect titles. The legal process was known as denuncia. [13] Any day it could be used against the mission, particularly to the south, where Calabazas and Guevavi had been “abandoned” for longer than the three full and consecutive years stipulated by law. Worse, Tumacácori possessed no legal papers setting forth its title or boundaries. These papers had been lost sometime before 1806. Father Gutiérrez summoned Governor Juan Legarra of the Tumacácori pueblo and other justices late in 1806 and suggested that they petition for a formal re-grant of mission lands. Legarra petitioned the intendente of the province, Don Alejo Garcia Condé, for an adjudication and survey of the land for the fundo legal (farming purposes) and the estancia (grazing land) to replace the old title. Complying with this request, Condé issued a royal patent to the Indians of the pueblo of Tumacácori and instructed Manuel de León, the commander of the presidio at Tubac, to measure and mark off the four square leagues to which each pueblo was entitled, plus two sitios of grazing land previously occupied by the pueblo of Calabazas, a total amount that would have exceeded 26,000 acres. The needed land that was actually surveyed for use by the Indians, however, was a little les than one-fourth of a square league. The combined pueblo and estancia lands totaled about 6,770 acres. The grant was dated April 2, 1807.

One unusual provision in the new title was the stipulation that, in the event the lands should be abandoned for a period of three years, any person might claim them. As fate would have it, Tumacácori declined during the 1830s and 1840s. In 1842 the Mexican government under Santa Anna began selling church lands valued at $500.00 or less. In 1844, although not totally abandoned, Tumacácori was sold along with the stock from Calabazas and adjacent lands to Francisco Aguilar for $500.00 at a public sale. [14] Early in 1808 the legion of Napoleon occupied Spain. Three years later a terrifying race war erupted in New Spain. Although the fighting never reached Hispanic Arizona, economic stagnation did. The missionaries’ annual stipend stopped coming. Most of the Tubac garrison left for detached duty in the south.

By now Father Gutiérrez was one of the “los viejos,” the old ones. The old guard of the missions could hardly believe the scandals of “los nuevos,” the liberated new friars who arrived from Spain between 1811 and 1813. physical attacks on the Father President, kept women and drunken fandangos, all by Querétaran friars, devastated morale. Also the reformers reached out with the Spanish Constitution of 1812 to free the Indians from oppression once again.

In the winter of 1812-1813 Francisco Pérez came to Tumacácori as compañero to Gutiérrez. [15] He and Narciso did not see eye to eye. Gutiérrez had been painfully afflicted by what sounded like a severe case of shingles.

It was at this time that there was another inspection of the missions by Fathers Cevallos and Fontbona. Cevallos, as Bringas had 20 years before, took an instant dislike to Gutiérrez. He had heard rumors about the long-time Tumacácori missionary’s unFranciscan commercial activities and temporal irregularities. He recommended Father Narciso’s removal. [16] That did not happen. It was about this time that Pérez left Tumacácori. [17]

The reason for the inspection of 1814 was to explain and implement the Spanish Constitution of 1812. The Spanish Constitution of 1812 and the inspection of the Pimería Alta in 1814 gave extreme discomfort to Gutiérrez and most of his fellows.

The Constitution of 1812 meant the election of Alcaldes nationals, payment of wages to any Indian for any job not done for his own sustenance and the allotment of the farm lands, first to the mission Indians, next to recently converted Indians and the last to settlers. All this had a ring of the 1767 instructions to missionaries (similar to secularization). The issue had not changed. It was still a question of how much authority the missionary should have over his Indians.

On paper the 147 Indians and mixed breeds of Tumacácori wee, per capita, the richest mission residents in all Pimería Alta but, according to Cevallos, they lived in poverty. [18]

When Father Narciso’s license to retire to the College of Querétaro arrived at Oquitoa, a tired and disconsolate Father Moyano hid it so he would remain at Tumacácori. Gutiérrez, however, knew of it and rode over to inquire. Moyano begged him to stay on.

The old friars hated the new permissiveness. “Corruption has come among us with the last shipment of priests,” wrote Gutiérrez. “The cause that fills us old ones with grief, while the new ones are very cocky.” The scandals of 1815 were very sensational.

In mid-October 1816, the fatal effects of an epidemic were felt at Tumacácori. In the next two months Gutiérrez entered 25 deaths in the mission book of burials. By 1818 hard times fell on Tumacácori. Bread was scarce, meat plentiful. There was no market for cattle. Because of lack of water (drought?), stock that left the area and limits of the mission was too expensive to round up. All over, people suffered an economic crisis. Mission industry foundered for lack of cash to pay for skilled labor and tools. Little wonder the building of the new church had stalled.

From the time Narciso Gutiérrez buried his predecessor in 1795 until he took to his bed for the last time in November 1820 he was Tumacácori’s most enduring priest, some 26 years.

After Gutiérrez had secured the mission lands by title in 1807 he encouraged settlement. By 1808 several gente de razón families had reoccupied Calabazas, which he called thereafter the mission rancho. Farther south at Guevavi a sizable mining operation had started in 1814. Doubtless he saw that the mission got its fair share of the yield.

Father Narciso talked of going home to Spain but he never did. [19] He endured more than double the compulsory ten years in the missions. Still he chose not to use his license for the College. In deference to Father Moyano, he did not abandon Tumacácori.

When father Gutiérrez’ time had come on Wednesday, December 13, 1820, the blue-eyed friar with the long nose died alone and unprepared without the holy sacraments. He was only 55.

They carried his body in a wooden box past the open walls of the church he had begun nearly two decades before and into the narrow little adobe church the Jesuits had built before he was born. On Friday morning they put the box in a hole dug beneath the steps of the main altar on the Epistle side. They did not even record the burial. His successor could take care of that. [20]

On Friday, December 13, 1822, Father Liberós, who followed Father Gutiérrez, and Father Estelric removed the remains of Fathers Carillo and Gutiérrez and reburied them beneath the floor of the sanctuary on the Gospel side of the still unfinished new church. In February 1935, both were removed and reburied beneath the floor of the mortuary chapel at San Xavier del Bac.

The 1822 reburial of Carillo and Gutiérrez has led to some confusion as to when the new church was finished. It probably was not finished at that time.

Also, according to Kessell, there was an error in recording the death of Gutiérrez. His death was recorded as December 13, 1821, written as an error for 1820. Father Estelric reached Tumacácori after Gutiérrez died. He received Bernardo, Bishop of Sonora, on New Year’s Day 1821. Estelric was at Tumacácori nearly a whole year by the date of December 13, 1821.

The error was compounded at San Xavier where Gutiérrez’ death is recorded as December 13, 1821. [21]

[1] Certification of sailing, Marqués del Surco, Cádiz, December 17, 1789, AGI, Mex., 2735.

The present church at mission San José de Tumacácori was started around 1800 under the direction of Franciscan missionaries. They had determined that they needed a newer, bigger church than the one previously established by Jesuit missionaries to better serve the population. The walls were made from large sun-dried and fired adobe bricks. The foundation is laid in trenches and consists of rocks, rubble and mortar. The church foundations were laid in the early 1800s, and in the early 1820s the church was dedicated for use. The original plans had called for a church that was crossed shaped, with a three-story bell tower and a barrel-vaulted roof. The plan for a vaulted roof was changed to a flat roof supported by beams that spanned the width of the church. On top of these, running the length of the church, were smaller boards, topped with a layer of dirt and plaster. Due to budgetary constraints and a change of plans along the way, the final structure consisted of a long nave, with a sanctuary opposite the main door.

Historic preservation within the National Park Service practices the principles of stabilization rather than restoration. Exterior plaster, because it bears the brunt of weathering and erosion, tends to get the most frequent treatment. Nearly 14% of the original surface finish on the façade remains intact and the rest is repair work that has been done over the past many decades. Expert masons treat the repair plaster with a soft tan/peach-colored stain, a significant change from its original garish colors. Interior plaster is stabilized in place, but not restored or rebuilt. Original pigments survive under protected areas like overhangs and interior surfaces. In the summer, the interior of the church, due to its thick walls, is much cooler than the outside temperature. The difference between the hot summer sun, and the cool, dim interior is a pleasant contrast.

" Father Kino , whose first visit to the O'odham community of Wa:k (Bac) was in 1692, began to build a church there in 1700. It apparently never got beyond its foundations, however, and in 1751 the Jesuit Father Visitor Jacobo Sedelmayr said of the Indian community, 'It is still very backward without a catechist, without obedience, and without any church other than a ramada and a wretched house. It is clear to see that this village has been visited very little.' San Xavier's first church, other than a ramada, was a flat-roofed, hall-shaped adobe building begun shortly after the arrival of Jesuit missionary Father Alonso Espinosa in 1756. It was serviceable at least by 1763, although given the fact that Espinosa failed to level the site and there were no stone foundations, there must have been structural problems from the outset. "The adobe church built by Father Espinosa was the one inherited by Father Francisco Garcés when he arrived at San Xavier in 1768 as its first Franciscan minister." (The Pimeria Alta: The Southwest Mission Research Center)

Bishop Antonio de los Reyes on 6 July 1772 wrote a report on the condition of the missions in the Upper and Lower Pimeria Alta. Following is his report on San Xavier del Bac as translated by Father Kieran McCarty:

The mission at Bac with one outlying mission station is located on a long, flat lowland. To the east lies a land, little known and occupied by the wandering and warlike Apache nation. To the west lie the settlements of an infinity of pagan Indians, meek and docile, who people the land all the way to the Gulf of California, a distance a little more than a hundred leagues. To the south at distances of eighteen and twenty leagues lie the two missions at Guevavi and Suamnca and the Presidios of Tubac and Terrenate. To the north lies the little-known land stretching some forty leagues to the Gila River. The village of San Xavier at Bac is situated on open ground with an abundance of water and good land where the Indians cultivate a few small fields of wheat, Indian corn, and other crops. The church is of medium capacity, adorned with two side chapels with paintings in gilded frames. In the sacristy are four chalices, two of which are unserviceable, a pyx, a censer, dish and cruets, a baptismal shell, all of silver, four sets of vestments of various colors, with other ornaments for the altar and divine services - all very poor. According to the census Book, which I have before me, there are forty-eight married couples, seven widowers, twelve widows, twenty-six orphans, the number of souls in all - two hundred seventy.

"Improvements in the architectural situation at San Xavier had to await the arrival in 1776 of Father Juan Bautista Beldarrain, a Basque friar. Building San Xavier was an expensive proposition, but Father Beldarrain was able to borrow $7,000 pesos - the equivalent of more than twenty years of a missionary's salary - from a businessman, Don Antonio Herreros. The friar's only collateral was wheat from crops not yet planted - almost as if he expected Don Antonio to join him in his vows of poverty. The good Padre was never able to repay the debt; he died at San Xavier in 1790, the new church still undecorated and otherwise unfinished. It was Beldarrain's successor at San Xavier, Father Juan Bautista Llorens, who oversaw its completion by 1797.

"Sometime early in the nineteenth century, probably in the 1820s, Father Espinosa's old church was torn down and its adobes, wooden columns, and ceiling beams were re-used to build a convento wing extending east from the east bell tower of the Franciscan structure. Today's church itself has interior and exterior walls of fired bricks set in lime mortar with an interior core filled with stone rubble over which lime mortar was poured periodically as the walls went up. The east bell tower, as well as interior decoration of a room apparently intended for large meetings of friars, was never finished. After the new temple at San Xavier was ready for use in 1797, Father Llorens directed his attention toward other building projects. One was the Tucson visita where he began either a renovation or a replacement for the Garcés chapel." (The Pimeria Alta, Southwest Mission Research Center)

Following is Bishop Reyes' report on San Cosme y Damian de Tucson, a visita of Bac, as translated by Father Kieran McCarty:

The outlying mission station of San José at Tucson is located six leagues to the north of San Xavier. There is no church or house for the Missionary. To take advantage of the fertility of the soil there are gathered together to form a village an increased number of Indians, both Christians and pagan. They have not been able to draw up a census book, but they judge that there are more than two hundred heads of families.

After passage of the Antiquities Act of 1908, a single person could establish a national monument by presidential proclamation. Tumacácori National Monument's establishment under this authority should have been this simple, but it wasn't.

The story begins on January 16, 1821, when the legislature of Durango granted a tract of land in northeastern New Mexico to Luis María Baca. Fourteen years later, the Mexican government awarded part of the grant to colonists who founded what became the town of Las Vegas. After the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was ratified, the Baca heirs presented their claim to the United States Congress, which allowed them to select in five detached parts a quantity of New Mexico land elsewhere in the public domain equal to that which they had lost. Before 1863, Arizona was part of the Territory of New Mexico. These detached segments were called "floats." The 100,000-acre segment they selected in southern Ariona encompassed much of the Tumacácori-Tubac-Calabazas area. It became known as Baca Float No. 3.

A survey of Baca Float No. 3 was ordered in 1864. Apaches killed William Wrightson and other members of his survey party and the survey was not completed. Subsequently, there were sales of land, disputes concerning locations of survey markers, denials of various claims because of legal technicalities, approval of claims, overturned decisions, and so on. The Secretary of the Interior finally announced he would dispose of the land via homestead laws, and it was then in 1899 that Carmen Méndez filed his claim for 160 acres which including the ruins of an old Spanish colonial mission site.

Carmen Méndez, the Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society, the Forest Service, and several local groups and individuals became interested in preservation of the ruins. The Méndez family donated ten acres of their land to the government and on September 15, 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt issued his Executive Order establishing Tumacácori National Monument. This pre-dates the National Park Service so Tumacácori was cared for by the nearest federal agency, the Forest Service, a branch of the Department of Agriculture.

The Baca case was still winding its way through the courts, however, and on June 22, 1914 the Supreme Court dealt a shocking blow to the sixty or more people happily going about their business on what they believed to be their own land. The 94,289 acres of Baca Float No. 3 were awarded to claimants James E. Bouldin, Jennie N. Bouldin., Helen Lee Bouldin, and Eldon M. Baily. Local families were evicted from their homes and the government had lost title to Tumacácori National Monument.

The displaced landowners were allowed to select land elsewhere, and no one seemed too concerned about the status of the national monument. But everything fell into place when the Bouldins' and Baileys' quit-claim deed to Tumacácori was recorded in 1917. The Solicitor General said there was no need to proclaim Tumacácori National Monument a second time, and with this final decision in April of 1918 the years of confusion of land titles came to an end.

Born on June 29, 1693 in the Basque village of Hernani , Gipuzkoa , Spain , Juan Bautista de Anza (he spelled it Anssa , his son of the same name spelled it Anza ) was the eldest son and second child of Antonio de Anza, the town pharmacist, and Lucia de Sassoeta. At the age of nineteen, in 1712, he migrated to New Spain , coming first to Culiacán, Sinaloa where his mother had relatives already established. Anza did not stay there long, however, and was soon involved in silver mining in Álamos , Sonora . From there he became involved in the discovery and exploitation of two important silver mining camps, or boomtowns, between 1716 and 1720 at Aguaje southeast of present-day Hermosillo , Sonora and Tetuachi south of Arizpe. He bought other mining properties at Basochuca , Sonora , north of Arizpe and, at least, by early 1721 he was a lieutenant in the Sonora militia. Shortly after that, on August 2, 1721 , he joined the regular cavalry as an alférez, or second lieutenant, at the Janos Presidio under Captain Antonio Bezerra Nieto . As a soldier he was described as being "of sound body, white [and] bearded with faded auburn hair." Soon after beginning his military career at Janos he married the Captain’s daughter and quickly rose to the rank of first lieutenant.

In November of 1726, he was promoted to captain and assigned to take the place of Captain Gregorio Álvares Tuñón y Quirós at Fronteras , who had been at odds with the citizens of Sonora for years and had just been removed from office and ordered to Mexico City to stand trial for fraud and misuse of the king’s resources. Anza quickly set about whipping the Caballería de las Fronteras (Cavalry of the Frontier) into shape and providing protection to the communities of Sonora from the Apaches. He assigned soldiers to the San Luis and upper Santa Cruz River Valleys in the Pimería Alta , and settlers began to move into the area. He, himself, established the Guevavi , San Mateo , Sicurisuta , and Sópori Ranches, the first livestock operations in what is today southern Arizona .

At the time of the fabulous silver discovery near the Arizona Ranch in 1736, he was not only the captain of the sole presidio in Sonora , but he was justicia mayor , or chief justice, of Sonora as well. Thus, it fell to him to decide what course to take in establishing legalities at the new site. Because of his impounding of all the silver while Mexico City made the determination of to whom it belonged, and because of his using the house of Bernardo de Urrea , his good friend and deputy chief justice, at the Arizona Ranch as a base of operations, he inadvertently elevated the name Arizona into prominence. Thus, he and his escribano , or scribe, Manuel José de Sosa , who wrote all the documents pertaining to the silver, were indirectly responsible for the forty-eighth state of the United States having the name Arizona .

Anza continued as a soldier and statesman for the next few years, petitioning the viceroy for permission to discover and establish a route between Sonora and Alta California . Unfortunately for him, however, his dreams were cut short following a routine supply trip to Suamca , Guevavi , Tumacácori , and San Xavier del Bac . Returning home from that expedition on May 9, 1740, he evidently rode a little too far in front of his soldiers and was ambushed and killed by Apaches somewhere between Santa María Suamca and the ranch that would become the Terrenate Presidio . It would be left to the next generation of soldiers and his own son of the same name to discover the route between Sonora and California .

To learn more about Juan Bautista de Anza, the father, go to Mission 2000 by clicking ( here ) and following the blue ID numbers . To return to Soldiers , click ( here ).

Tumacácori National Monument (now National Historical Park) was established in 1908 to protect, preserve, and tell the story of the old Spanish and O'odham mission ruins. In 2005, more than 300 acres were added to the park, reuniting the church grounds with a small piece of historical mission property, and placing more than a mile of Santa Cruz River riparian environment, mesquite bosque (forest), and a section of the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historical Trail ("Anza Trail") within the park. The park's many environments, both natural and cultivated, make its small area proportionally diverse.

The heritage orchard and gardens of Tumacácori represent the marriage of nature and culture in the mission system.

From the tops of the mountains to the bed of the river, the natural landscapes of the Santa Cruz River valley are the backdrop of life.

There's a reason Tumacácori is a birding hotspot and home to threatened and endangered species.

Tumacácori protects rare riparian habitat and the Anza Trail provides visitors the access to enjoy it!

November 13 and December 11, 2026 January 8, February 12, March 12, April 9, May 14, 2027 10:00 am-11:30 am

250 years ago, as the Declaration of Independence was being written on the other side of the continent, a group of colonists from New Spain led by Juan Bautista de Anza passed by here on their way to what would become San Francisco. The trails the colonists followed existed for millennia as Native pathways, and now, our modern freeways overlay the same routes. Each path in this wide network holds many stories, including your own. Join a park ranger on a walk along the Anza Trail 250 years after the expedition. Explore how this trail continues to connect us to the land, to the past, and to each other.

Hike approximatily two miles, with a ranger, on the Anza Trail by the light of the moon. Meet at the Anza Trailhead across from the Tumacácori Post Office. Find out more about Sunrise, Sunset, and Night Sky Programs .

January - March, select days 11:00 am - 11:45 am Tours are only available on certain days; call the Visitor Center to check status.

Tours begin at the visitor center and last approximately 45 minutes. Additional tours may be given during the winter season and at other times of the day and year when staffing permits. Call, email , or inquire at the visitor center information desk.

Will you be missing the guided tour? Use the self-guided tour offered in English and Español, to read or to listen.

Select weekdays January thru March 9:00 am-1:00 pm Re servation Required at www.recreation.gov, $30 fee required.

Special tours are offered to two missions historically associated with Tumacácori, Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi and San Cayetano de Calabazas. Their fragile ruins, protected by the National Park Service, are normally closed to the public and can be visited only as part of these special reserved tours. See more details at Calabazas and Guevavi Tours .

Special tours, school programs , and special interest talks may also available by advanced request. For further information about these offerings, please email us or call the park at 520-377-5060.