Santa Cruz County

Bienvenidos a SANTA CRUZ COUNTY

When they greet you in Santa Cruz County the salutation often might be Bienvenidos instead of Welcome, but nod appreciatively because in either Spanish or English the salutation will be friendly and sincere. Spanish and Mexican influences are strongly felt in the county, and well they should be. By mere chance of geographical juxtaposition, the people of Santa Cruz County and Sonora, Mexico are neighbors. By their mutual problems, interests and goals, by mutual understanding and respect one for the other, they are friends.

The county itself wears a Spanish name-Santa Cruz, (holy cross). The name comes from the river, one of the oldest place names in Arizona. Father Kino used that name in the late 1690's, and it has been used ever since. Many places in Santa Cruz County have the lilt, tilt and the musical assonance of Spanish: Nogales, Amado, Santa Rita Mts., Carmen, Chiminea Mt., Mt. Fraguita, Guajolote Flat, San Rafael Valley, Oro Blanco, Pajarito Mts., Ramonote Peak and Salero Hill, to name a few.

Santa Cruz County was established March 15, 1899, created out of parts of Pima and Cochise Counties. Names suggested for the county included Papago County and Grant County, but happily the history-drenched name of the Santa Cruz River was the name decided upon. Last official census figures give the county's population as 14,000 but with its slow, steady growth in the past decade, the population of Santa Cruz County is larger than that and it will grow larger. The county has a lot in its favor for a future as illustrious as its past. R.C.

Arizona is a land of contrasts and surprises. The variety of terrain and climate noted by early-day explorers, plus today's development and activities, amazes newcomers to the state. From Tucson, a desert city, you can leave winter relaxation around a swimming pool, jump in a car, and within forty minutes be skiing down a mountain slope. By contrast, on a hot summer day you can drive up the same well-graded, paved mountain road to reach cooling breezes in pine forests, in half an hour. In the rainy season you can cross a dry wash drenched in sunshine and minutes later at the same place witness a raging torrent rushing down, engulfing everything in its path. Man has played a part in bringing about one of the greatest contrasts the reclamation of a desert into highly productive agricultural land. Nowhere in the state is this seen more impressively than in the short trip from Tucson up the Santa Cruz Valley to Nogales, the gateway to Mexico and the 1968 Olympics. Travelers can enjoy the wide variety of interests offered by this route by planning an itinerary which will take them through an area where history was written by Spanish Conquistadores, missionaries, American pioneers and explorers. Here they can see what man has done to make the valley productive and a delightful place in which to live. Coming into Tucson on U.S. 80 (Interstate 10) from the east and U.S. 80 and 89 (Interstates 8 and 10) from the west and north, travelers already have passed through vast desert areas. Those without the time or inclination to venture off the main highways often consider Arizona an arid land of cactus and desert. There is a real reward for those who go south from Tucson to Nogales.

You will backtrack two of the New World's greatest explorers, Father Eusebio Francisco Kino and Juan Bautista De Anza. The highway is flanked by mountains on either side. In the valley are mature and budding subdivisions scattered along the way. Cattle ranches with famous brands include Canoa, El Sopori and the vast Spanish land grant, Baca Float. On the floor of the valley along the river are many fine Spanishtype homes, usually with productive farms adjacent. Well-known guest ranches, Rex, Kenyon and Santa Cruz, feature riding, hunting, camping and relaxation and are operated mainly for winter tourists. Good restaurants are open year around: Qué Pasó at Green Valley, Halfway Station, Cow Palace and Barney's at Amado, Tubac Inn and Tubac Valley Country Club, at Tubac and Casa Molina near the Pete Kitchen Museum. State Highway Picnic and Rest Areas are spaced for convenient stops and road signs point out side trips for the more curious, leisurely tourist. Traveling in either direction on U.S. 80, watch out for Interstate 19 which is the completed north end of the planned freeway to Nogales. From 19 you see the Tucson Mountain chain on the western skyline, its many jagged peaks projecting upward like teeth on a giant saw. Beehive Peak is the most prominent in this range. Far in the distance, Baboquivari Peak still stands as a landmark just as it guided covered wagon trains enroute to California. It is about three and a quarter miles to the end of the freeway at Valencia Road where you can go west on a side trip to San Xavier Mission or east to join U.S. 89 for Nogales. The Mission is in sight at this point: a glistening white spot in the distance. The site of San Xavier Mission was estab-lished by Father Kino in 1692 as one of his twenty-four missions scattered over a 50,000 square-mile-area known to the Spaniards as Pimería Alta, part of what is now Arizona. If you pass up San Xavier this time, you should go east on Valencia to U.S. 89 and turn right, or south, to Nogales. A mile to the south and a little to the left the Hughes Aircraft Company manufactures guided missiles for the U. S. Defense Department. Then off to the right a few miles farther south are enormous piles of waste. To reach valuable underground copper ore for the Pima and Mission Mines, trucks hauling 60-ton loads, and operating around the clock since early 1950, have piled up waste at the rate of 50,000 tons a day. In the distance behind the dumps, the Sierrita Mountains rise up on the horizon and look down on man's intrusion into what was formerly a peaceful desert slope.By this time you are in a highly developed irrigated farming area with cotton, grain and hay being the main revenueproducing crops. Here are innumerable small pecan trees, expected to be a high-income crop when they produce in seven years. To cut down development costs and utilize as much land as possible while they are maturing, strip farming is carried out between the rows of pecan trees. An ambitious plan calls for 4,500 acres planted with nearly 380,000 bearing pecan trees having a gross crop-value of more than $1,000 an acre compared with $100 to $300 for present crops.

Next, at Sahuarita, cooperative and privately owned cotton gins are scenes of feverish activity when cotton is harvested in late fall and early winter.Just below Sahuarita is a Rest Area and a left turnoff to Madera Canyon and the Santa Rita Mountains. In the Coronado National Forest is a delightful small recreation area with privately owned cabins, a motel and restaurant.

From the Rest Area, a long white and green fringe on the distant horizon catches your eye. The five-year-old village of Green Valley is in sight five miles away. Then the highway veers right, crosses a bridge over the Santa Cruz River bed and heads to the west and higher ground.In the distance more waste piles, 300,000 tons a day from the Anaconda and Esperanza Mines, loom up taking the form of surrounding hills, although man-made. Soon after the highway turns left there is a good gravel road off to the right if you want to take a close look at the copper mining operations of Anaconda and Esperanza in the Twin Buttes area. The Arizona State Department of Mineral Resources estimated the 1966 figure for copper, molybdenum, gold and silver mined by the four open pit mines in the Santa Cruz Valley at $116,000,000.

Farther up the highway a flashing light signals the approach to Green Valley, a young but highly developed town with a shopping center, civic headquarters, medical center, recreation area, two golf courses and the Qué Pasó restaurant. Retired families live in 400 homes, 105 town houses and there are 1,150 apartments for rent.

Cruising along on bench land you now look down on numerous irrigated fields where cotton, grain and hay usually are raised. Where there is hay there is livestock so occasionally you can see small groups of cattle grazing along the road. Large white stand pipes of varying heights, sticking up around the fields, control the flow of water in an elaborate irrigation system. As the demand for housing increases, much of this agricultural land is destined to be taken over for subdivision developments like Green Valley, already expanding south. The spectacular Santa Rita Mountains, crowned with Mt. Wrightson, are now well on your left as you proceed south and continue to gain altitude. Not far past Green Valley large cottonwoods and willows partially hide Canoa Ranch with its substantial home and rugged corrals.

Then you soon reach Halfway House, about midway between Nogales and Tucson. A little farther on, near Amado is the Cow Palace with its man-made lake, picnic area, various services and a rock shop. Looking east across the lake, Elephant Head Butte stands out in sharp contrast to the Santa Rita Mountains, of which it is a part.

Innumerable arroyos and canyons making up the rugged, serrated western face of the Santa Ritas abound in mineralized rock. There are both abandoned and operating small mines reached by roads best negotiated by four-wheelers and pick-ups. Rockhounds take off from the Amado store a mile to the south and have easy going past Rex Ranch until they reach the foot-hills. The trip can be quite rewarding for those who have the time and inclination. Some striking scenes are there to be photographed after you get back into the canyons and look out to the west. There is an effective view of the Four Sisters Peak from a few miles up Montosa Canyon and you pass a typical old-time cow camp with corrals and loading chute.

Close by the Amado store the Amado Greyhound Park, Barney's Italian Restaurant and the Santa Cruz Chili Company's processing plant are convenient to visit. At this point the Tumacacori Mountains begin to rise up in the west offering spectacular views of their rugged terrain. There are more fine homes down in the valley and cattle ranches tucked in behind the nearby hills include extensive and elaborate Rancho El Sopori.

Farther on the entrance to Tubac Valley Country Club is well-marked with a large adobe archway. The golf course covers much of the rich land where cattle of the old Otera Ranch grazed only a few years ago. The Club House and elegant dining room have been built within the extensive old stables. A subdivision is well under way with fine custombuilt homes and a guest casita complex bordering the fairways.

Just south of the club, a historical site marker on the left identifies Tubac as the oldest white settlement in Arizona. Juan Bautista De Anza had a garrison there in 1774, outfitted a small expedition and blazed a trail to Monterrey on the Pacific. Triumphantly returning to Tubac he then led 234 Spanish colonists, including many children, back to Monterrey the following year. It was this group that later went on farther north and founded San Francisco for the Spanish Crown.

The Tubac Presidio State Historical Park has an interesting museum with an impressive collection of artifacts and historical data. Tubac boasts a popular hand-screened fabric shop featuring original Arizona designs for draperies, dresses and napery. Several artists have established studios in Tubac.

After the Gadsden Purchase in 1853, Tubac held a prominent place in Arizona Territorial history. It was an active mining center and the first newspaper, The Arizonian, was published there in 1859. Apache raids caused the abandonment of Tubac in 1864. Kenyon Ranch, one of the oldest guest ranches in Arizona, is nearby.

Around the bend you find Carmen, a predominantly Mexican-American settlement where several beautiful roadside shrines have been built and maintained by private families.

Soon the dome of Tumacacori Mission is seen above the high adobe wall built by the National Park Service after the mission compound was set aside as a National Monument. There is an easy self-guided tour of the mission grounds with a numbered brochure and place markers. The various dioramas and displays in the museum, are realistic and enjoyable.

On the bench land just off the highway to the west, rock-hounds and adventurers can have a field day as they take up the search for legendary silver bullion said to have been buried by the missionary fathers before Apache raids. The area is pock-