National Register of Historic Places

Tumacacori National Monument

Tumacacori, Santa Cruz County, Arizona
Listed
October 14, 1966
Type
District
Period
Listed
Ref No.
66000193

About this property

Mission San José de Tumacácori (O'odham: Cemagĭ Gakolig crooked limestone place) is a historic Spanish mission near Nogales, Arizona, preserved in its present form by Franciscans in 1828. Mission San Cayetano del Tumacácori was established by Jesuits in 1691 in a location near a Sobaipuri settlement on the east side of the Santa Cruz River. Services were held in a small adobe structure built by the inhabitants of the village. After the O'odham rebellion of 1751 the mission was abandoned for a time. In 1752, the village was reestablished and in 1753 the church of the Mission San José de Tumacácori began construction at the present site on the west side of the Santa Cruz River. This first church structure was erected for use by the mission in 1757. The architectural style of the church is Spanish Colonial. Rumors spread within the Spanish kingdom that the Jesuit priests had amassed a fortune on the peninsula and were becoming very powerful. On February 3, 1768 King Carlos III ordered the Jesuits forcibly expelled from the Viceroyalty of New Spain (colonial México) and returned to Spain. They were replaced by Franciscan missionaries. Alejo García Conde, intendant-governor of Arizpe, officially granted the mission land to the resident O'odham in response to an 1806 petition. The initial grant, made on December 17, 1806, included a fundo legal and an estancia. A series of interviews with natives and legal decisions in 1807 clarified and extended the boundaries of the mission. The deed to Tumacácori was lost in 1841. The mission was declared abandoned in 1843, and accordingly auctioned in 1844. Francisco Alejandro de Aguilar purchased it for five hundred pesos, on behalf of his brother-in-law, Manuel María Gándara. A small O'odham community continued to live and farm on the mission, until an 1848 Apache attack killed nine of them and the survivors abandoned the site. The mission is now part of the 360 acres (1.5 km2) of Tumacácori National Historical Park, which contains three separate sections and is open to the public daily. Like most missions in New Spain, Tumacácori was staffed by Jesuit missionaries until the 1768 Jesuit expulsion from Mexico, and Franciscan missionaries afterwards. == Historic Mission San José de Tumacácori gallery == These are images of the inside of the Tumacacori Mission and of the Cemetery grounds. Di Peso, Charles C., 1956; The Upper Pima of San Cayetano del Tumacacori: An Archaeohistorical Reconstruction of the Ootam of Pimeria Alta. The Amerind Foundation, Inc. Dragoon, Arizona. Dobyns, Henry F., 1959; Tubac Through Four Centuries: A Historical Resume and Analysis. Prepared for the Arizona State Parks Board 15 March 1959, Reformatted by Tubac Presidio State Historical Park August 1995 and revised. Available on line at: http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/tubac/index.html

Location

Tumacacori, Santa Cruz County, Arizona
31.56927, -111.05030

Categories

HISTORIC - ABORIGINALHISTORIC - NON-ABORIGINALCONSERVATIONEXPLORATION/SETTLEMENTARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Tumacacori Museum
Colonial
0.1 mi
Tubac Townsite Historic District
Listed
2.9 mi
Tubac Presidio
Colonial
3 mi
Old Tubac Schoolhouse
Industrial
3 mi
Atascosa Lookout House
Industrial
11.4 mi

Questions about this property

When was Tumacacori National Monument listed on the National Register?

Tumacacori National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 14, 1966.

What type of historic resource is Tumacacori National Monument?

Tumacacori National Monument is classified as a district in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Tumacacori National Monument?

The period of significance for Tumacacori National Monument is recorded as the listed era.

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