Masthead

In Old Tucson

Tucson, “The Old Pueblo,” has grown up around one of the oldest Spanish towns in the United States. Today, however, except for a few adobe bricks under glass on the courthouse lawn, there is little left, except in names and history books, to remind a modern city of its many years as a walled outpost of New Spain.

From the time Padre Eusebio Kino, Jesuit missionary from Spain, came into this region at the end of the Seventeenth Century, hopeful of Christianizing the Indian population, until the surrender of the warring Apache, Geronimo, in 1886, the struggle of Old Tucson for survival was a desparate one, and against great odds.

After the Civil War the town outgrew its old adobe walls and began to tear them down and spread out over the valley; and, unlike some of the Arizona gold and silver boom towns, Tucson has had a continuously progressive existence. From its beginning, and until outnumbered by Phoenix in 1920, Tucson was the largest town in the territory or state a distributing center for a mineral, livestock, and agricultural region, as well as a winter resort city of health-giving sunshine, and tourist center.

In 1700, Padre Kino started to build the mission of San Xavier del Bac, about nine miles to the south of the present city of Tucson, near the Indian settlements of the Papagos and Pimas. These Indians, for the most part, were docile and willing to adopt the religion and customs of the invaders. Gradually Kino was followed into the valley by Spanish ranchers and mining men, who began to take the country from the Indians. But the Apaches, from the beginning and for two centuries thereafter, were the white man's shrewdest and most implacable enemies.

In 1751 the Pima themselves rebelled and plundered San Xavier Mission. The Spanish evacuated the region but returned the following year and garrisoned fifty men at nearby Tubac. During the next decade there were Apache attacks, and growing dissatisfaction among native tribes. The Jesuits were expelled from Spanish provinces in 1767, and mission work was taken over by the Franciscan Order.

In 1768 the Franciscan padre, Tomas Garces, was placed in charge of San Xavier and the surrounding area. Apache raids did not deter Garces from his work among the Indians. However, the danger from these raids became increasingly serious and in 1776, a presidio was established at Tucson for greater protection of San Xavier.

The present beautiful and interesting church of San Xavier, built near the site of the original structure, was supposedly completed in 1797, the date found on the sanctuary door. This mission is the farthest north in the chain established in this region and is generally conceded to be the greatest of all the old Spanish missions, as well as the best preserved. This church is also the only one of the chain still in use.

When the Spanish garrison was moved to Tucson, a twelve-foot adobe wall was built around the presidio. This diminutive walled city for a long time marked our extreme western frontier. The valley was richly productive, mining was successful, and the hills were covered with herds of wild cattle.

On the withdrawal of soldiers and missionaries from Southern Arizona before and after the war of Mexican Independence, the Apaches resumed their depredations, and most of the settlers left the country; only a few remaining at Tucson. It was not until after the Civil War that Apache and other warring Indians were finally subdued and banished to reservation.

In 1846 the American flag was first raised over Tucson by Lt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke, who led the Mormon Battalion through the settlement en route to the Pacific. Mexican troops evacuated before Cooke's arrival, but repossessed the town after the Mormons passed on.