Tucson, Arizona

Tucson, nicknamed the Old Pueblo, is Arizona's oldest and second largest city. Its population is a reflection of the various cultures that developed the region: Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and European American. Its physical character is shaped by the limitations of the desert. Located 60 miles from the Mexican border, Tucson sits on the Santa Cruz River and is closely surrounded by the Santa Catalina, Santa Rita, and Tucson mountains. The Santa Cruz flowed only during periods of runoff from the mountains. During dry times underground water fed natural springs in the area. The name Tucson comes from the native Pima words Chuk Shon, meaning the spring or “dark base” at the foot of what is now called Sentinel Peak.

People have lived along the Santa Cruz River for 11,000 years. About 2,000 years ago a group of people that archaeologists call the Hohokam lived here. They developed the practices of irrigated agriculture and built villages throughout the area. They departed around 1400, leaving only an archaeological record, and were replaced by the Pima.

The Spanish arrived in this part of what they called Pimaría Alta around 1699 with the Jesuit missionary Eusebio Francisco Kino. Missionaries established the Mission San Agustin (without a resident priest it was a visita) on the west bank of the river in 1757. The Pimas and the Spanish became allies in their conflicts with the Apaches, a fiercely independent Native people. In 1775, Colonel Hugh O'Conor, Commandant Inspector of the Frontier Provinces of New Spain, chose the Tucson area as the site for a new presidio (fort) to defend against the Apaches. Built on the east side of the Santa Cruz, the presidio San Agustín del Tucson attracted Spanish settlers and Pimas. The town became part of Mexico following its break with Spain in 1821 and grew slowly.

U.S. troops briefly captured Tucson in 1846 during the Mexican-American War but later returned it. In 1853, negotiator James Gadsen purchased Tucson and the rest of southern Arizona for the United States. Tucson's residents became American citizens in the territory of New Mexico. European Americans, many of them from the Southern United States, started to arrive in the 1850s. The new residents forced Tucson to join the Confederacy in 1861 and named it as the capital of the Confederate Territory of Arizona. Union troops captured Tucson in 1862. President Abraham Lincoln made Arizona a separate territory the following year, but Tucson lost the capital because of its Confederate sympathies.

Tucson regained the capital from Prescott in northern Arizona in 1867 only to lose it in 1877. Although unsuccessful in regaining the capital, Tucson won the territorial university in 1885. Town boosters were initially disappointed, but the University of Arizona became a major economic force and is a key aspect of Tucson's identity. Tucson incorporated in 1871.

The Southern Pacific Railroad reached Tucson in 1880, changing Tucson's character and economy. White residents imported brick and wood to construct buildings in East Coast architectural styles, rejecting the use of adobe and regional styles. The railroad ruined the once-powerful wagon freighting businesses and ended the economic dominance of Tucson's Hispanic families. Tucson's population grew to 7,000 people while the percentage of Hispanics began to drop, from 90 percent in 1864 to 67 percent in 1878.

...