TUBAC

Tubac ARIZONA'S FIRST

Three once thriving communities of early Arizona are remnants today of what they were when known from coast to coast-but they still live. Jerome calls itself "America's Newest and Largest Ghost Town." Tombstone, refusing to be considered a ghost, prefers "The Town Too Tough to Die." And little Tubac, what will it call itself now, "The Town that Tried to Die and Couldn't"? September 28th the official dedication of Tubac as Arizona's first State Park and Historical Marker will take place. Maybe with its new designation it will become "The Most Famous Town." Tubac is the littlest and oldest of these three historic spots. Tourists visiting the region may be disappointed to find only a very small village of about seventy-five people, a church, some crumbling adobe walls and a few houses. But it is planned there will be historic markers. Restoration takes research, time and money. How was it chosen for this honor-well that is a story in itself. Briefly two years ago in early February, a couple from West Newton, Indiana, headed west, Frank and Gay Griffin. Frank, like so many before him, had been ordered to a dry climate by his doctor, ending an active life of engineering. Snow in Albuquerque turned them south and they ended buying a home in Tucson. An active man can't just suddenly "do nothing," so Frank went back to an old hobby-reading history. He also had an idea in the back of his head he would like to start a little newspaper. His very first job back home

STATE PARK

had been on a newspaper and he loved the work. It wasn't long until he came across scattered references about Tubac, Arizona's first settlement, and the birthplace of Arizona's first newspaper the Weekly Arizonian. Made to order he thought to himself.

In a month or so Frank and Gay went to Tubac and found it as it is today. This bothered them both. But not like Mark Twain's observation that "Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it"-they were just real upset that everybody talked about what a shame it was for such a historic spot to gradually decay. So they did something about it.

The fall of '56 they bought a lot and put up an adobe office, architecturally in keeping with the period of the town, and planned to reactivate the Weekly Arizonian. 'Round about rodeo time they put out a brochure on Tubac in which they pledged themselves "to work with others in the restoration of Tubac, both physically and culturally, at the same time to help others find 'No law but Love'." Frank and Gay are Quakers and it is fitting that they chose as their banner a famous quotation from Col. Poston (see below). They placed these brochures in hotels and motels. Tourist response was immediate.

But the few people in little Tubac, spurred by the enthusiasm of the Griffins, needed help if they were to see their Utopia restored. The threat of commercialism was yipping at their heels.

The Griffins wrote their plan to every important, influential person they thought would be interested and immediately received enthusiastic moral support.

Then they heard of the Arizona State Parks Board, a group appointed to investigate park sites throughout the state. So dedicated were these two that they bought the three lots on which stood the fast crumbling adobe walls of Tubac's old Presidio. At the November meeting of the Board they outlined their plan, offering to the state of Arizona the deed to this land, title free. It was as easy as that.

Numerous sites were being considered but many had "strings tied to them." In December their gift was accepted, formally so at the January meeting in 1958 and so Tubac comes back to fame.

Now for the story of this quiet little hamlet. To give a fairly true picture of its birth, its heyday and its "almost" demises is frustrating to a "popular" writer with a deadline. It is like cornering beads of quicksilver as they skitter across the written pages, as each predecessor incorporates facts which he has gleaned from others and colored them with his own imagination. Each printed statement adds to or detracts from a fairly accurate story. The writer will use original records of the period, even though they consume valuable time to locate. They may protect the editor from an avalanche of letters.

In the late 1690's Padre Kino probably passed the site of Tubac on his visits to San Xavier del Bac (south of present Tucson). Elliott Cues, historian and translator of the diary of Francisco Garces, which depicts this padre's travels in the region from 1768 to '81, says in a footnote, that the name Tubac is said to be on a 17th century map, but it does not occur on Kino's map of 1701, and Kino makes no mention of the place. Kino did, however, establish missions at Guevavi and Tumacacori (just north and south of the location of Tubac) two years after he founded San Xavier in 1700, claims Dr. Hubert Bolton.

Tubac probably began as a Piman village. The earliest maps of Tubac do show a spring. Indians settled near springs when possible, and it is conceded that the Pima Revolt of 1751 resulted in the establishment of the first Spanish garrison this far norththe little Presidio San Ignacio de Tubac, built in 1752.

So Tubac became the earliest white settlement in the Southwest of which we have definite record.

Twelve years later an unknown friar recorded in "Rudo Ensayo" that the presidio of Tubac was 7 1 (leagues) nnw of Guevavi, a spot where the Piman town of the same name stood prior to the revolt of November 20, 1751, and was then a visita of Guevavi.

The little outpost struggled along unsung and un-

The little outpost struggled along unsung and un-heard until 1758 when the aforementioned Garces was sent to San Xavier. Garces was an active man and soon began to investigate the hinterlands. In 1771 he succeeded alone and on foot to cross the Yuma and California deserts and reached the base of the western Sierras. Ponder that next time you cross to California in your high-powered cars over the paved highway! Now comes a second event concerning Tubac-this time of national importance.

Garcia's reports so fired the imagination of Capt. Juan Bautista Anza of the Tubac Presidio, that he offered to open an overland route to Monterey which had recently been reached and occupied by a Spanish land and sea expedition and a presidio and mission established. Two years later with Spain's blessings, Capt. Anza, with Garces as a guide and twenty some soldiers, accomplished the feat after many hardships but with notable success. In a few short months, he was ordered to lead a colony of settlers to occupy the port of San Francisco to the north and plans included the establishment of a mission. This he did leaving Tubac in October 1775, arriving with his little band in March, 1776. After explor-ing the bay region and selecting sites for a presidio and mission he returned to Tubac. In September the presidio was founded and in Octo-ber the mission, where stands today the great city of San Francisco-daughter of little Tubac.

But Tubac's real renown came four score years later. As a little Spanish Presidio and settlement she had her ups and downs. The Gadsden Purchase of 1876 put an end to that. Tubac came under the stars and stripes and the memory of tales of the Spanish Bolas de Platas down near the now Mexico-United States border beckoned mining men.

One of the first men to arrive in the region was Charles D. Poston. Poston and Tubac are closely linked in the latter's heyday, but the tale is illusive. There is a claim that once upon a time there was a Poston Diary, but today it can't be found. Poston did leave vivid descriptions of life in Tubac and has been quoted often. There is an original manuscript by Poston at the Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society Library written in 1896, but somehow it just didn't have all the facts often quoted as coming from him. At long last was located in OVER-

SEAS

LAND MONTHLY for the months of August, September and October, 1894 his story "Building a State in Apache Land," which contained all the missing data and more.

For a stirring account of the bustling activity of Tubac, when she was really "alive and kicking," listen to Poston. As a member of "The Sonora Exploring and Mining Co. organized 1856 under the laws of Ohiocapital $2,000,000 in 20,000 shares at $100 each. Offices No. 88 Wall St., N. Y." (Mining Magazine & Journal of Geology, Nov. 1859) he arrived in Tubac the latter part of August 1856.

He writes "The Spaniards had located a presidio at Tucson at the base of the Santa Rita mountains on the Santa Cruz, a stream as large and beautiful as the Arno, flowing from the southeast and watering opulent valleys which had been formerly occupied and cultivated There was not a soul in the presidio (at Tubac). It was like entering the ruins of Pompeii the quar-ters could accommodate about 300 men. The old quartel made a good storehouse, and the tower on the north, of which three stories remained, was utilized as a lookout."

The beautiful Santa Cruz washed the eastern side of the presidio, and fuel and grass were abundant in the valley and on the mountainside."

"In the autumn of 1856 we had made the headquarters of the company comfortable, laid in a store of provisions for winter and were ready to begin exploration of the country for mines As soon as it was known that an American company had arrived at Tubac, Mexi-cans from Sonora and the adjoining states came in great numbers to work, and skillful miners could be employed at from fifteen to twenty-five dollars a month and ra-tions . . ."

"By Christmas 1856 an informal census showed the presence of fully a thousand souls (such as they were) in the valley of the Santa Cruz in the vicinity of Tubac. We had no law but love, no occupation but labor, no government, no taxes, no public debt, no politics. It was a community in a perfect state of Nature. As "syndic" under New Mexico I opened a book of records, performed the marriage ceremonies, baptized children and granted divorces."

He goes on to record. "Sonora has always been famous for the beauty and gracefulness of its señoritas. The civil wars in Mexico, and the exodus of male population from northern Mexico to California, had disturbed the equilibrium of the population, till in some pueblos the disproportion was as great as a dozen females to one male; and in the genial climate of Sonora this anomalous condition of society was unendurable. Consequently the señoritas and grass widows sought the American camp on the Santa Cruz River. When they could get transportation in wagons hauling provisions they came in state, others came on the hurricane deck of burros, and many came on foot. All were provided for."

"The Mexican señoritas really had a refining influence on the frontier population. Many of them had been educated at convents and all of them were good Catholics. They called the American men 'Los God-dammes' and the American women 'Las Camisas-Coloradas.' If there is anything that a Mexican woman despises, it is a red petticoat. They are exceedingly dainty in their underclothing-wear the finest linen they can afford; and spend half their lives over the washing machine."

"The table at Tubac was generously supplied with the best that the market afforded, besides venison, antelope, turkeys, bear, quail, wild ducks and other game we obtained through Guaymas a reasonable supply of French wines for Sunday dinners and the celebration of feast days."

"The plaza at Tubac presented a picturesque scene of primitive commerce. Pack trains arrived from Mexico, loaded with all kinds of provisions The winter was mild and charming, very little snow and only frost enough to purify the atmosphere."

"The usual routine at Tubac, in addition to the regular business of distributing supplies to the mining camps, was chocolate or strong coffee the first thing in the morning, breakfast at sunrise, dinner at noon and supper at sunset."

"Sunday was the day of days at Tubac as the superintendents came in from the mining camps to spend the day and take dinner, returning in the afternoon. One