Tubac Things to Do Tips by matcrazy1

FIVE FLAGS OVER TUBAC

Every visitor to Tubac is welcomed by five flags which represent seven different governments which ruled Tubac through its fascinating history - the first European settlement and once the largest town in Arizona:
1. Native American settlement (some 9,000 BC - 1752)
2. Spanish national flag (1752 - 1821)
3. Mexican national flag (1821 - 1853)
4. US national flag (1853 - 1861 and 1865 - now)
5. The Confederate Territory of Arizona flag (1861 - 1865)
6. Arizona Territory of the USA (1865 - 1912)
7. Arizona State flag (1912 - now)

There is a large writing on a tall poll (picture 2): Tubac, "Where Art & History Meet" and: founded in 1752. Well, not at all, Tubac already existed that year - read my next tip. I enjoyed my tour around Tubac looking for information on and art of Native American, Spanish, Mexican and Anglo-American culture.

Start your tour from Tubac - Santa Cruz Visitor Center to get free map and leaflets on Tubac and the Santa Cruz River Valley.

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Phone: +1 (520) 398.0007
Address: P.O. Box 4632, Tubac, AZ 85646
Directions: Tubac - Santa Cruz Visitor Center is located at the entrance to Tubac. Follow the direction signs (picture 3).
Website: http://www.toursantacruz.com
Other Contact: info@toursantacruz.com

Things To Do: Prehistoric Tubac and Indian art

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Updated by matcrazy1

on Feb 16, 2007

INDIAN MOTIF ON POTTERY, TUBAC

It is believed that the Tubac area has been inhabited over 11,000 years. First to come were the Elephant Hunters, who hunted in the dense Arizona forests and along numerous lakes and streams for the huge elephant-like mammoth. The Hohokam lived in the area between 300-1500 A.D., followed by the Pima and native O'odham, who greeted the Spanish.

I found enjoyable metal artistic imaginations of prehistoric people marching through Tubac (see picture 2) and carrying stones (picture 3). You may find some information on these prehistoric times in the museum of Tubac Presidio State Historic Park. Apart from that look at Indian art offered in numerous shops and galleries of Tubac (see pictures 4-5). Some of them are copies of archeological findings of Hohokam and Pima people: animals and geometrical drawings found on rocks, jewelry and pottery found in shallow Indian graves.

HOHOKAM - Those Who Are Gone
This word is used by archeologists to identify a group of people that lived in the Sonoran Desert, currently southern Arizona and Mexican states of Sonora, and Chihuahua. Hohokam means "those who are gone" or "all used up." The Hohokam may be the ancestors of the modern Pima peoples in Southern Arizona, and local oral tradition.

PIMA - River People
The Akimel O'odham or Pima means "river people". They are closely related to the Tohono O'odham meaning "desert people". Both groups used O'odham language which is the second most widely-spoken Native American language in the US, with over 12,000 speakers in the USA and many more in Mexico. The name "Pima" apparently comes from a phrase that means "I don't know", used repeatedly in their initial meeting with Europeans.

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Phone: +1 (520) 398-2252
Address: P.O. Box 1296, Tubac, Arizona 85646
Directions: Museum is in Tubac Presidio State Historic Park (southeastern part of Tubac), follow the direction signs, map here
Website: http://www.answers.com/topic/pima#after_ad1

Things To Do: First European town in Arizona, St. Ann's church

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Written by matcrazy1

on Feb 15, 2007

ST. ANN'S CHURCH, TUBAC

In 1691 Jesuit priest Eusebio Francisco Kino established a mission farm and ranch at Tubac, the site of a small Piman village. It was the first European settlement in Arizona. Spanish colonists began settling the area in the 1730s raising cattle, sheep and goats along the Santa Cruz River. This area of New Spain (southern Arizona and northern Mexico) was called the Pimer�a Alta (upper land of the Pimas).

Nowadays there is a very charming parish Saint Ann's church built by Bavarian carpenter in historic part of Tubac adjacent to park grounds. I liked especially wooden top of its tower. I was looking for an old cemetery by the church but there was none. I've got to know that some graves were transferred to the Tubac town cemetery (established around 1800), some are probably hidden beneath the church floor.

The current church building was opened to Roman catholic parishioners in 1917. The first church (Iglesia de Santa Gertrudis) was built at this sight in 1761 - 1767 by Spanish soldier and explorer Juan Bautista de Anza II (real Spanish name :-). The second church was erected in 1912 and called St. Ann's, but rainstorms two years later caused it to collapse.

Warning: the church is closed except for holy service (see picture 2) and events called St. Ann's Church Open House.

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Phone: +1 (520) 398-2646
Address: 18 Calle Baca, Tubac, AZ 85646
Directions: Next to Tubac Presidio State Historical Monument. Map: follow the link below.
Website: http://maps.citysearch.com/map/view/1730837

Things To Do: Historic old town on Anza Trail

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Written by matcrazy1

on Feb 15, 2007

PRESIDIO (SPANISH FORTRESS) ON ANZA

TRAIL, TUBAC

I've got to know that Tubac was one of the stops on the Camino Real. What's that?

El Camino Real means the Royal Road or the King's Highway in Spanish. It was the name of a series of pre-automobile highways (mainly trade routes) linking the various New World colonies of Spain. There are numerous historic sights along these old routes. Tubac and its Spanish fortress (see pictures) was one of the stops on the Camino Real currently known as Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail or shorter Anza Trail from Mexico to the Spanish settlements in California.

The other most known Camino Real are:
1. California Mission Trail: the 600-mile (966-kilometer) trade route from Mexico to California (San Diego to Sonoma)
2. El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail from Mexico through Texas (San Antonio) to Louisiana
3. El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail: a 1600 mile (2560 km) long trade route between Mexico City, Mexico and Santa Fe, New Mexico
4. Old Spanish National Historic Trail from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Los Angeles, California.

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Phone: +1 (520) 398-2252
Address: P.O. Box 1296, Tubac, Arizona 85646
Directions: Tubac Presidio State Historic Park is located in southeastern corner of Tubac, follow the direction signs. Map here
Website: http://www.nps.gov/nts/nts_trails.html
Other Contact: http://www.tubacaz.com

Things To Do: El Presidio (Spanish fortress, 1752)

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Written by matcrazy1

on Feb 15, 2007

PRESIDIO (SPANISH FORTRESS), TUBAC

A Presidio ("el presidio" in Spanish) is a type of fortress built by the Spanish in North Africa during the 16th century to protect against pirates. But presidios were located in the southern United States as well.

Prompted by many grievances, Pima chief Luis of Saric led a bloody rebellion destroying the Spanish settlement of Tubac in 1751. The Presidio San Ignacio de Tubac was founded in June of 1752 in Tubac, Arizona. The fifty cavalrymen garrisoned at this remote military post were to prevent further rebellion, protect colonists and the mission, and further explore the Southwest.

Currently there is Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, the first state park in Arizona, which contains the Visitors Center, ruins of former presidio, a museum with underground archeology exhibit displaying the excavated foundations of the Tubac Presidio, and a picnic area.

Things To Do: On the way to establish San Francisco!

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Written by matcrazy1

on Feb 15, 2007

SPANISH CANNON, TUBAC

Threatened by the establishment of a Russian fort immediately north of the San Francisco Bay area, the King of Spain sent Juan Bautista de Anza from Tubac to establish an overland route to and a presidio and mission in the San Francisco area. The expedition left Tubac on January 8, 1774, reached Monterey in central Californian Pacific Coast and came back to Tubac (map here) in late May. Members of the next Anza expedition founded in 1776 what is now San Francisco.

Several years later, the Tubac garrison was moved north to Tucson, leaving Tubac undefended against Apache raids. As a result, the presidio was reactivated in 1787. Look at Spanish cannons on wooden wheels put in the Tubac Presidio State Historic Park. In the park museum you may find some more information on Tubac history.

Things To Do: Mexican power and art

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Updated by matcrazy1

on Feb 16, 2007

SLEEPING MEXICANS :-), TUBAC

When the Emperor Napoleon of France put his brother, Joseph, on the Spanish throne in 1808, ties between Spain and her American colonies weakened and the movement for Mexican independence grew stronger. The Mexican War of Independence began in 1810 and continued until 1821, when rebel troops entered Mexico City and the Treaty of Cordoba was signed, whereby Spain recognized Mexico's independence.

Thus Tubac became part of an independent Mexico in 1821. I could find few information on that period in the museum of Tubac Presidio State Historic Park. However there are quite many typical Mexican gifts on display and sale in Tubac including:
- figures of sleeping Mexicans wearing Mexican hats called sombreros,
- mysterious stone circles of a few men which I called "circles of brotherhood" (see picture 2 and 5),
- Mexican sun (picture 3),
- jewelry in pre-Columbian Mexico style (picture 4). I had already seem them in Tijuana, Mexico a few days before.

Things To Do: The USA and silver

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Written by matcrazy1

on Feb 15, 2007

SILVER JEWELRY, TUBAC

In the museum of Tubac Presidio State Historic Park I got to know that Tubac along with what is now southern Arizona and southern New Mexico (map here) was bought from Mexico by USA in 1853. Under the agreement called Gadsden Purchase, the U.S. paid Mexico $10 million (equivalent to about $230 million now) for 29,640 square miles (76,770 square km). It's about $12.1 per acre. I wonder how much is the land in Arizona now. The purchased land was incoporated into the New Mexico Territory.

With the arrival of the Americans came Charles D. Poston, "the Father of Arizona." He established the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company in Tubac. Silver mines which operated in the area gave great income but they didn't survive till now. Instead the mines I could easily find a lot of silver jewelry in Tubac shops.

The Father of Arizona printed his own money to pay his employees, performed marriages, granted divorces, officiated baptisms, and even established Arizona's first newspaper in 1859 that I could read on historical marker (see picture 2). The following year, Tubac became the largest town in the state.

Things To Do: Confederate Territory of Arizona and Apaches

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Written by matcrazy1

on Feb 15, 2007

INDIAN WARRIOR, TUBAC

In the museum of Tubac Presidio State Historic Park I got to know that the New Mexico territorial legislative adopted a resolution in favor of the creation of the Arizona territory in 1858 but US Congress was very slow. In April 1860, impatient for Congress to act, a convention of thirty-one delegates met in Tucson and adopted a constitution for a provisional territorial government of the area south of 34 degrees north - that is what is today southern New Mexico and southern Arizona (map here). In 1961, a convention met again in Tucson and declared that the territory formed the previous year was part of the Confederacy called the Arizona Territory of the Confederate States of America. Confederate armies under the banner of Arizona fought until the end of the war in the West in May of 1865. Read here.

Soldiers from Tubac were called away to fight in the American Civil War which didn't reach Tubac (it reached Tucson though). The town was again unprotected from the Apaches. The routing of the railroad through Tucson to the north and the discovery of silver around Tombstone to the east meant that Tubac would never regain its importance.

I couldn't find much information in the Presidio museum on both American Civil War and the Apache Wars which were fought during the nineteenth century between the U.S. military and many tribes in what is now the southwestern part of the United States. But I could easily find a lot of Apache and Navajo art in Tubac. See my pictures.

Things To Do: Adobe buildings

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Written by matcrazy1

on Feb 16, 2007

ADOBE BUILDING, TUBAC