Tucson, Arizona - History

History

Tucson, the county seat, has been styled by Miss Sharlot Hall, the Territorial Historian, as the "Mother of Arizona History." It deserves the title. It was certainly an important residence place "for aboriginal people long before historical records. It was a Mexican pueblo and a military post, a presidio, long before the Gadsden Purchase.

Authorities differ greatly regarding the date of its organization as a pueblo. Some claim a date as early as 1555, earlier than the San Augustine settlement in Florida in 1595. Others state that "Chookson" is recorded as a settlement in the latter part of the sixteenth century.

The Padre Marco de Niza set out from Culiacan in the year 1539 to find the cities of Cebola. He reached the Gila River and found the Pima Indians. His reports led to the expedition of Coronado in 1540, who is believed to have followed down the Santa Cruz and then visited the Indian sectlement of Tucson.

In 1694 the Padre Eusebius Francis Kino, accompanied by Padre Mange, reached the Gila River from Sonora by way of the Santa Cruz valley, passing by the sites of the present t<nvns of Tubac and Tucson, visiting the Pima Indians.

"The early origin of Tucson is rather obscure. Coronado's reports of his expeditions to the 'Seven Cities of Cibola/ (X. M.) in 1540-49, though very minute in details, do not mention the valley of Santa Cruz, through which he probably passed, as being inhabited. A claim is made for it by Col. Hodge, in 'Arizona As It Is; (on what data is not stated) that this valley was settled about the year 1560, which would make it the oldest city in the United States but one, it being stated that Santa Fe was settled in i;;5, and San Augstine Florida, in 1565. Three miles below Tucson, and a mile due east from the Casa de Dominie Padre (or the Mission of San Augustin) is what appears to be an old town in ruins, but no clue can be obtained as to its origin, history, or the date and circumstances of its destruct;on. It is again believed that Tucson was commenced as a Spanish military station to protect the Mission of San Xavier del Bac, nine miles south, in 1694, or very soon afterwards. About the oldest inhabitant there, born in Tucson in 1819, is Francisco Leon. As far back as he recollects it was a military post, at which there were stationed about eighty or ninety soldiers. There were about 140 hovels, without doors or panels, and the windows, where there were any. had no frames ; these buildings had a prison-like and singular appearance, inside and out. There were about .three hundred citizens : the cultivators sold their produce to the government. Until about the year 1825 no late frosts were known to injure the fruit trees in blossom : and large quantities of grapes, peaches, pomegranates, quinces, apples and apricots were raised in the valley west of Tucson.'.'

Mexican War, but prior to the Gadsden Purchase, states that Tucson 'has always been, and is to this day, a presidio or garrison, but for which the place could not be sustained. In its best days it boasted a population of a thousand souls, now diminished to about one-third that number. * * *The lands near Tucson are very rich and were once extensively cultivated, but the encroachments of the Apaches compelled the people to abandon their ranches, and seek safety within the town. The miserable population, confined to such narrow limits, barely gains a subsistence, and could not exist a year but for the protection from the troops. More than once the town has been invested by from ,one to two thousand Indians, and attempts made to take it, but thus far without success."

"A few more years and Garcilla, commanding the presidio, announced to the soldiers drawn up in line, the turning over, under the Gadsden Purchase, of that portion of the territory to the United States. On March 10, 1856, all the Mexican authorities and troops evacuated the place. Eleven days previously the first American store in Tucson was s-tarted by the arrival of Solomon Warner, from Fort Yuma, with thirteen pack animals loaded with merchandise. Hooper & Hinton, of Fort Yuma, were interested in the adventure/'

"Late in 1856, Hon. Charles D. Poston made his second visit to Arizona, by way of Texas and New Mexico. He describes Tucson at the time as being a place of from 300 to 400 Mexicans, and about 30 Americans."

But whatever dates history may give us, it is certain that Chookson, Tulqueson, or Tucson, was, for an unknown period, an aboriginal settlement of the forefathers of the Papago or Pima tribes, attracted there by the exceptional advantages of abundant water supply, fertile land and favorable climate. The origin of the place is lost in antiquity but, since the acquisition of Pimeria Alta by the United States, its growth has been marvelous and the Tucson of today is a modern, thriving city with gas, electric light, water, sewer system, educational

The city is beautifully situated on the right bank of the Santa Cruz River on the lower part of the long, detrital slope from the Santa Catalina mountains, at an elevation of 2400 feet above the sea.

Situated upon the main trunk line of the Southern Pacific transcontinental road, at the end of a division, it is the site of the important railway repair shops and depot of crude oil used for the engines. It is also the terminus of the great railway system of the western coast of Mexico, where trains are made up for all points in Sonora and the adjoining states as far south as Mazatlan.

Tucson is acknowledged as the chief science and educational center of the Territory. It is the site of the University, with its score of professors and teachers, and of the United States Agricultural Experiment Station, with extensive chemical laboratories and experimental farms.

Here also we find the Desert Botanical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution, with its corps of investigators under the direction of Dr. D. T. Mac Dougal.

The Territorial Museum is established at the University and the Free Public Library of many volumes is housed in a beautiful building, the gift of Mr. Carnegie, in the principal open square of the city.

Tucson has, for many years, maintained a literary club for women, the pioneer club in Arizona. At a recent meeting of the Federation of Women's Clubs of the Territory, Mrs. S. C. Newsom, Ph. D., of Tucson, was elected President of the Federation.

The public schools of Tucson have between 2,000 and 3,000 pupils, fifty-three teachers, and five principals. Of the five ward school buildings, one is single and four are two-storied ; all are of brick and substantially constructed and well equipped with the customary grammar school apparatus. The new High School building has a basement, a first and second floor, and fifteen recitation rooms, with laboratories for physiography, chemistry and physics, and a fine assembly hall with a seating capacity of more than eight hundred, fitted with desks and opera chairs and is electrically lighted.

Tucson is well supplied with religious organizations and places of worship. Nearly all the Christian denominations are represented in the population.

Tucson, by reason of its varied advantages, and above all its unrivalled climate, is a favorable place of residence, par ticularly in the winter season.

The market gardens of the Rillito and the Santa Cruz valleys insure a constant supply of fresh green vegetables throughout the year, and the proximity by rail to the fruit market of California and western Mexico keeps the market well supplied with citrus and other tropical fruits.

The completion of the railway from Tucson to Mexico along the natural route up the Santa Cruz, has placed the modernized old pueblo in close connection with Sonora and Sinaloa, and, amongst other advantages, will permit of an abundant supply over night of fresh sea-food in great variety from the teeming waters of the Gulf of Cortez, at Guaymas, or at Lobos. Thus fish and oysters, taken from the water in the evening, may be on the table in Tucson in the morning.

of Tubac, are objects of much interest to historians and tourists. San Xavier is well preserved and in use, especially by the Papagoes. Tumacacori is in a ruinous condition and is reserved by the United States as a national monument.

On the hill at San Xavier, surmounted by a cross, and a place of pious pilgrimage, there is a grotto which, like the famous grotto of Massaville at Lourdes, has some important religious significance and attraction to the tourist as w-ell as the faithful devotee.

In addition to the old mission churches and other objects of historical interest about Tucson, archaeologists may find much to attract their attention in buried villages and cities of which there is no record. Chalqueyuma, for example, opposite Rillito, fifteen miles below Tucson, on the bank of the Santa Cruz, shows nearly a mile square of buried foundations. At the mouth of Bear Canyon, the form of ancient dwellings may be traced by the foundation posts of stone, and the form of ancient walled places of refuge may be studied in the ruined walls on the top of Tumamoc hill, west of Tucson.

The natural roads around Tucson and other parts of the country are remarkable for th-eir excellence. The caliche or lime deposit in the soil, has the remarkable property of hardening like cement mortar even when loosely filled in a roadway. It packs and s-ets to a solid mass and encloses the gravel and boulders which are mingled with it as firmly as if in artificial grouting. This granite mixture when worn down by travel and swept clean by the wind looks like an artificial mosaic and is very hard and durable.

Climate

Pima County enjoys the typical climatic conditons which have made Arizona famous for its salubrity and as a delightful resort from the severity of winter in the Middle West and the Eastern Atlantic States. The clearness of the atmosphere gives free passage to the vivifying rays of the sun and at night to free radiation, bringing a refreshing and tonic coolness conducing to rest and recuperation. Arizona is a land of golden sunshine, comparable to the sun-kissed borders of the Nile and even superior in health-giving qualities.

The sun, the great life-giver, is the chief and fundamental factor in climate. It determines the winds, temperature, evaporation, and precipitation. In the clear skies of arid regions it attains its greatest power and greatest vivifying influence felt alike by vegetable and animal life. The chemical activity of its rays is not lost in clouds or fogs, but exerts its full force. The excellence of photographic pictures is a familiar example of this power.

The dry, equable and salubrious climate of Southern Arizona renders the region a favorite resort for persons afflicted with pulmonary complaints.

Special weather reporters and the scientific climatologists admit that Tucson is the center of the most favorable zone in the southwest for the improvement and maintenance of life of consumptives in the United States or even in the world. ( Report of Governor Murphy, 1899.)

It is the avowed opinion of eminent physicians and experts that there is no other portion of the United States which will compare favorably with that in and about Tucson for the relief of pulmonary affections.

The Hon. Whitelaw Reid, is credited with the statement in the New York Tribune that "during five months in Southern Arizona in winter there was but one day when the weather made it impossible for me to take exercise in open air at some time or other during the day. Of course there were a good many days which a weather observer could have observed as cloudy and some were showery, but during the five months from November, 1895, to May, 1896, there were only four days when we did not have brilliant sunshine at some time during the day. Even more than Egypt, or anywhere north of Luxor, Arizona has sunshine. The nights throughout the winter are apt to be cold enough for wood fires and blankets. Half the time an overcoat is not needed during the day, but it is never prudent for a stranger to be without one at hand.

"The atmosphere is singularly clear, tonic and dry. I have never seen it clearer anywhere in the world. It seems to have about the same bracing and exhilerating qualities as the air of the Great Sahara in Northern Africa, or of the desert about Sinai in Arabia Petrea. It is much dryer han any part of the Valley of the Nile north of Cataract. It seems to me about the .same in quality as the air on the Nile between Assouan and Wadyhalfa, and somewhat cooler."

The climatic changes of the region are discussed by the writer in a report to the Desert Botanical Laboratory (Botanical Features of North American Deserts, page 66).

The enormous amounts of degradation of the mountain ranges, the excavation of rocky canyons and the vast accumulation of debris in the valleys as well as the deeply cut water channels in the debris which forms the ancient slopes, all tell of the former larger volume of water and consequently of greater precipitation than we now have..

\Ye are living in an era of dessication dating back probably to the Pleistocene, the era of the glaciers. The rainfall is now desultory, uncertain, spasmodic, excessive at times, as "cloud bursts" so-called, but torrential and temporary, and then scany or entirely wanting.

For the accompanying table, showing the range of temperature in degrees Fahrenheit at Tucson for the year 1909, I am indebted to Director Forbes of the Agricultural Experiment Station at the University. And similarly for the tabular statement of the rainfall at Tucson for fourteen years from 1896 to 1909 inclusive.