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Estrategias relativas al Patrimonio Cultural Mundial. La Salvaguarda en un Mundo Globalizado: Principios, Prácticas y PerspectivasStrategies for the World’s Cultural Heritage. Preservation in a globalised world: principles, practices and perspectives

Stratégies pour le Patrimoine culturel du monde. La conservation, dans un monde globalisé: principes, pratiques, perspectives

THE HISTORICAL AND ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES OF THE SANTACRUZ RIVER VALLEY, ARIZONA

Michael F. Weber *

In southern Arizona and northern Sonora there is a harshdesert region connected by river valleys and ancient cultures.In the midst of this harsh desert, these river systems fed bysprings and summer rains create oasis areas for richagriculture and provided routes to travel north and southfrom deeper in Mexico. Contact between peoples in theregions is thousands of years old. In the Tucson area someof the oldest corn agriculture is to be found north of centralMexico going back 3,000 years. Major irrigation canals largeenough to divert the entire course of the Santa Cruz Riverwere constructed over 1,000 years ago. What is true ofTucson is also true of many sites along the Santa Cruz River

Where water was dependable agricultural settlementswere dense. The river was not always dependable andsome of its flow was at times subsurface. In the Tucsonarea this meant additional dependence on springs oneither side of the river.

In the 1680’s Jesuit missionaries led by Eusebio FranciscoKino moved north into the land of the northern Pimas orO’odham. Missions and visitas of missions were establishedbeginning in 1687 at Misión Dolores in Sonora south of thecurrent border followed by San Ignacio 1687, Guevavi early1690’s, and San Xavier near Tucson in 1700. The missionariesbrought new plants, especially wheat and fruit trees and

domesticated animals such as horses, cattle and sheep. Thisadded considerably to the indigenous diet and created yearround agriculture. As missionaries moved north so did otherHispanics, soldiers, miners, ranchers and merchants. By the1750’s a company garrison of troops was establishedatTubac and in 1775 the Tubac presidio was moved to Tucson.

In the mid 1600’s Apache Indians moved in from the northeastand conflicts between these raiding peoples and theO’odham, Opata, other native peoples and Hispanics definedmuch of the history of the Spanish and Mexican periods.The establishment of Spanish missions and government alsocreated the opportunity and reason for native tribes in the

area to travel throughout Sonorain search of work. By themiddle ofthe 19th century the region was amixture of several varieties ofHispanic (Catalan, Basque,Castilian, etc.) others from Europe,many native people and after 1853people from the United States withroots in northern Europe. Themodern Southwest of United Statesand Northern Mexico was born.

The ancient trade routes that broughtnative people north from centralMexico were basically the sameroutes used by Spanish explorers andmissionaries. These routes becamethe Camino Reales or royal roads.Even today modern highways areclose to the original routes.

The term Los Caminos Reales refers to a relatively welltraveled route guarded by presidial troups. They were notexactly the same in all times of colonial history but generallyfollowed similar routes. A Royal Road came north from thestate of Sinaloa through the towns of Alamos and San Miguelde Horcacitas where it split, one route going northwest tothe Santa Ana area and then along the Magdalena river toAltar and north from Altar, eventually reaching Tucson.

Another route went north along the San Miguel river toMisión Dolores then north through the town Santa Cruz alittle further north it split, one route crossing the mountainsand going to the Santa Cruz valley and north to Tucson the

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Sección 6: Conciencia social Section 6: Public awareness Section 6: Sensibilitation du public

other route went east to join up with the camino real thatstretched from Santa Fe, New Mexico south through Chihuahuaand on to Mexico City. See circa 1780 map Arizpe to Chihuahua.

From Tucson the route went north and then went to theCalifornia coast. There it continued north to San Francisco

Los Caminos Reales de Arizona

A series of sites are currently being developed to preserveand interpret the history and ecology along the north/southCamino Real in Arizona from Tucson to just north of theborder with Mexico

Tucson

Downtown Tucson is undergoing a major revitalization effortunder the name of Rio Nuevo. This effort includes thedevelopment of an historic park comprised of the Misión

18th and 19th century documents and books looking forinformation about everyday life and create a visual archiveof 18th and 19th century paintings, drawings and artifacts.The goal of which is to provide an interpretive base for whatis to be known as the Tucson Origins Historic park. Thearchaeological excavations and historic research will befinished in December. A computer model based on historicphotos and paintings of the Mission site and otherarchaeological and historic evidence is being created to givethe mission a three dimensional visualization. Beginning inthe fall of 2002 an interpretive plan will be created with thehope of opening the historic site in five years. This site isdirectly on the Camino Real. There is strong political pressureto reconstruct the chapel and convento site. This probablywill happen.

San Agustín on the west side of the Santa Cruzriver and the Presidio de Tucson in what is nowthe center of downtown Tucson. Neither of thesesites have standing structures and both sites areundergoing extensive archeologicalinvestigation. Both sites also contain significantpre-Hispanic indigenous houses, storage pits andirrigation canals. The Misión San Agustín sitehas irrigation canals and habitations going back3,000 years which includes evidence of someof the earliest agriculture in the southwesternUnited States. The project is in the historicalresearch phase with a major study being done toboth review

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Mission San Agustín circa 1855

San Xavier del Bac

This mission was established in the last part of the 17th

century by Jesuit Father Eusebio Francisco Kino and thecurrent church was constructed at the end of the 18th century.It was built in the Mexican baroque style and is the bestpreserved church in northern Mexico and the southwest partof the United States. It still is an active church for the peoplewho built it, the Tohono O’odham. It was rapidly deterioratingwhen a major conservation project was begun about 10 yearsago. The conservation process is nearing completion. Animportant feature of the process was that the four membersof the Tohono O’odham nation were trained as conservatorsto enable continued maintenance of the mission after theconclusion of the project.

SanXavier

del Bac

Canoa Ranch

The county of Pima owns a large part of this ranch whichwas an active ranch from the Spanish colonial era until the1960’s. A number of structures have survived from the 19th

and 20th centuries. The ranch borders the Santa Cruz riverand like Rio Nuevo in Tucson contains many archaeologicalsites going back thousands of years. The county ispreserving the surviving structures and beginning to developan interpretive plan for its use. The county has just createdan oversight committee for the site to begin developinginterpretation and management plans. An historic adaptiveuse plan is just going to bid. It is an important site that hasnot been developed. It has great potential to interpretranching, water use and environmental studies in a largelyundamaged landscape.

Main Altar, San Xavier del Bac

Canoa Ranch

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Tubac

Tubac is the location of one of the presidios established inthe mid eighteenth century to protect Spanish and Indiansettlements from raids by the Apache as well as to quell anypossible native uprising. Like the Tucson presidio, it is anarchaeological site. Part of the site has been interpreted aspart of an Arizona state park. The rest of the site whichcontains the majority of presidio period housing has beenacquired by a non profit group and will be interpreted to thepublic. An interesting aspect of the site is that archaeologicalexcavations have revealed that there is an exact correlationbetween the foundations of structures found and a mideighteenth century manuscript map of the presidio. Thesetting of the site is also good. No modern structures areclose to the site and it is possible to experience the landmuch as it was in the eighteenth century. Work is beginningto interpret the presidio. “Tubac map and site plan”

Excavation at Tubac

Tumacacori National Historic Park

Tumacacori has as its purpose the interpretation of thenorthern missions of Mexico. This mission was establishedat the beginning of the 18th century by the Jesuit priestEusebio Francisco Kino. The present church was built inthe early 1800’s by O’odham and Yaquis labor. The missionwas abandoned in 1848 and the remaining O’odham familieswent to San Xavier del Bac. Later the area became used forranching and in 1904 became a national monument. The parkhas received funding to make a new interpretation of themission and has been expanded to include two more missionstructures. One, Calabasas, was a visita (branch mission) ofTumacacori and the second is Guavavi, at times a visita ofTumacacori and other times a mission in its own right.

The addition of these two sites expands the Historical Parkto within a few miles of the border with Mexico and completesan almost continuous line of historic and archaeological sitesextending from Tucson to the frontier with Mexico, a distance

of 55 miles. Tumacacori is also in the processof adding several hundred acres of land tobuffer the park from encroachment and toreclaim land previously used by the missionfor fields and orchards. This will greatlyenhance the ability of Tumacacori tointerpret the mission in the context of itsenvironment.

Tubac, 1768

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Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail

The Anza trail celebrates the expedition made in 1775 thatwent from Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico north through Sonoraand Arizona and founded San Francisco, California. Thistrail is the same route as the Camino Real. The trail has beenestablished as a national historic trail and is in the process ofdeveloping interpretation and programs for its entire length.A recent planning phase has located original campsites inPima County which include Canoa Ranch to the north ofTucson. Plans are in process to create non motorized trailsfor horseback and hiking throughout the county.

As can be seen there is a wealth of historic sites, on the CaminoReal from Tucson to the border with Mexico. All of these siteswhile differing in emphasis share a number of things in common.They all have evidence of a long and complex history beginningwith indigenous people who developed agriculture in theregion. They all share a river environment, they were all on anorth/south trade route over 1000 years old and they all showthe interaction between humans and the environment.

The next phase of the project is to create an interconnectionbetween all of these sites and projects. In the United Statessuch an interconnection would be the creation of an HeritageArea. In the U.S. “a National Heritage Area is a place designatedby the U.S. Congress where natural, cultural, historic andrecreational resources combine to form a cohesive, nationallydistinctive landscape arising from patterns of human activityshaped by geography. These patterns make National HeritageAreas representative of the national experience through thephysical that remain and the traditions that have evolved inthe areas. Continued use of the National Heritage Areas bypeople whose traditions helped to shape the landscapesenhances their significance.” The Santa Cruz River valleybetween Tucson and Nogales, Sonora is a perfect example ofjust such an area. Tied together by routes that became a caminoreal and by the river environment the various peoples whosemovements and migrations created a cultural mix whichcontinues to this day. The designation of a National HeritageArea creates the mechanism for the interrelationshipcoordination of the sites to present a cohesive and completeinterpretation of the area. This in turn will promote cultural andecological tourism and increase the preservation andpresentation of significant aspects of history and theenvironment. Besides the content in common, each site in theregion has a different and unique focus that combined withother sites will present the complex and completeunderstanding of the region. In order for the heritage area tobe established the county of Pima is taking the lead in creatinga committee of stakeholders and interested people to work onan area plan. The first task will be to create an inventory of thecultural and natural features of the landscape. Once this isdone the definition of this area will have a concrete form whichwill enable it to be classed as a National Heritage Area.

Even before the creation of a National Heritage Area

educational programs are being developed. The almostsimultaneous development of all these sites creates a greatopportunity to provide and important interpretation of animportant part of the history of Sonora and Arizona. Itprovides the possibility to coordinate the interpretation ofeight different locations with different aspects of the samehistory.

These sites run for 55 miles from Tucson to just north of theinternational boundary with Mexico. In addition, Sonora iscurrently developing its tourism with a focus on the Spanishmission chain within Sonora. Work is occurring between theU.S. National Park Service and the Institute of Anthropologyand History in Mexico to restore and stabilize these missions.At some time it should be possible to connect efforts in Sonoraand Arizona in a larger heritage area. Because of the nature ofthe sites in Arizona (only two have major architectural featuresthat are not ruins) the focus is education.

Education Programs Now in Place

Anza Trail Website – Web de Anza

This website created by the Center foe Advanced Technologyin Education at the University of Oregon is an experiment inthe creation of curriculum material using internet technology.It is text based that uses transcriptions in both Spanish andEnglish of diaries and letters from the Juan Bautista de Anzaexpeditions of 1774, 1775. These expeditions explored andthen settled San Francisco California. The website is a resourcein understanding the history of the Spanish colonial experienceof the U.S. west and southwest. Along with the transcriptionsof text are maps, illustrations and links which explains the texts.Teachers use this material to create curriculum material for usein their classes. Many of these curriculum plans are also put onthe website. Classes in Spanish and social studies are thepredominate users. The site is binational, at least one middleschool in Hermosillo Sonora has created curriculum materialposted on the web. The website directly relates to the physicalsites in the Santa Cruz River Valley and is arranged by dailydiary entries. It is an extraordinary merging of school and historicsites. Many of the schools use field trips to the actual locationas part of their study.

Archaeological Training Session for Teachers

Tucson as part of the development Tucson Origins HistoricPark through the auspices of Desert Archaeology and theArizona Historical Society has created a series of 2 dayworkshops and in-service programs that instruct teachershow to use the current archeology being done on the historicsites to develop and use this curriculum in grade schoolclasses. In Arizona fourth grade is required to teach statehistory. This project will hopefully train teachers to uselocal historic sites for that requirement.

Projects involving students

Also as part of the Tucson Origins Project three grade schools

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are working with the Arizona State Museum to create oralhistories, and local histories involving the mission SanAgustín and the Presidio de Tucson. One of the schools iscreating an exhibit exploring the Misión San Agustín andthe presidio. These schools are multicultural whose studentsare Native American, Hispanic, Anglo, Chinese, etc.

Festivals and period interpretations

Tumacacori National Historic Park has several festivals duringthe year that involve the bringing together of many culturesin celebration of history and tradition in performances, crafts,and food. Demonstration of traditional foods occurs onweekends.

Tubac Presidio Historic Park interpretive programs involvescostumed interpreters, period foods, and crafts.

This focus on education both adult and school oriented isnow being worked into the interpretive plans of Tucson,Canoa, and Tubac. During the next few years as thesefacilities are fully developed and opened, the Santa Cruzvalley between Tucson and Nogales Sonora will become a

showcase of regional history that will increase cultural andecological tourism and local participation and appreciationof the preservation of our heritage.

Further interactive interpretive projects are being developedfor Tucson Origins Historical Park, Canoa Ranch and theTubac Presidio. The interpretive goal is to have sites thatare visited repeatedly by local citizens as well as tourists

Michael F. Weber

PhD History, University of New Mexico 1986. Owner Estrada-Weber Cultural Connections a consulting firm providing HistoryEducation, Museum Services and Products 1997-present. Director,Arizona Historical Society 1988-1996, Southern Arizona director,Arizona Historical Society 1982-1988, Deputy directory, Museumof New Mexico 1974-1988. 30 years experience in the developmentof international exhibits on history and preservation, developmentof programs with Mexico and Spain, preservation of adobearchitecture creation educational resources for the schools. Presentlycreating an historical database for the creation of a new museum forthe city of Tucson.

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