Tumacacori Mission - National Historical Park

Southern Arizona is full of history. Despite being a desert, albeit a ‘lush’ one by desert standards, it has the distinction of having been inhabited and farmed longer than virtually any other place in the US. The Spanish were the first Europeans to explore the area and claim it for Spain. In addition to military people, the exploration expeditions included religious people - priests, etc. - whose job it was to convert the native peoples to Catholicism and provide education to make them subjects of the king.

Explorations in the 1600’s and 1700’s occurred throughout Mexico and what is now the southwest US states, and a key aspect of these explorations was to establish complexes around the centerpiece - a mission church. In addition to the church, a mission would typically have quarters for military men, stables, land for growing crops and places of trade. In some cases, local Indians moved to the mission complex as well. The area of Tumacacori at the time of the missions was watered by the perennial Santa Cruz River, which borders the mission grounds only a short walk away. In our current time, the Santa Cruz for most of its length is dry except following summer monsoon rains for which southern Arizona is noted.

The missions of the exploration and Spanish settlement era were showpieces of architecture and wealth compared to anything else that existed at the time. Church interiors were decorated with fine paintings and statuary, with a soaring domed roof overhead, and must have been incredibly impressive to see for the first time. The Tumacacori mission is now managed as a National Historical Park. The church has been partially restored, but the interior, although walkable and interesting, lacks the fine art and decoration of its heyday. (Not too far to the north, the mission church at San Xavier del Bac on the other hand, is spectacularly restored and still serves as an active church, although it is closed as of this writing due to the COVID-19 virus.) It serves local residents, mostly the Tohono O’odham tribal nation, second largest tribe in the US behind only the Navajo nation.

The grounds include a visitor center (also temporarily closed, though as of this writing the grounds remained open) that is well-stocked with books about the area’s history, flora and fauna. The mission church, of course, behind which is a walled-in cemetery. There are a number of graves in the cemetery, but most of them are completely unmarked. Over the years, the area was also used for livestock and other things, so the current graves, though old, are not original residents of the complex. Partial remains of a storage room and a house structure, plus a Tohono O’odham ramada, built with traditional desert materials, are also available to see. Open grounds to the north of the buildings contain a picnic area and are the location of an annual Fiesta.

The mission complex is a photographer’s dream location. The old architecture, partial decayed buildings and walls, and the lonely cemetery with unknown graves provide a lot of subjects. One of the pages on this website contains a few images I shot to try to capture some of the age and historical feel of the mission.

In the image below, I tried to capture the feel of the old cemetery in a monochrome photo. The wooden cross contains no name, and except for the rocks piled on the grave is the only indication of a burial. The twisted old tree and its gnarled shadows on the wall add to the mood. The empty hollow in the wall behind the grave probably contained religious statuary or relics but they were taken or destroyed a long time ago. In first seeing this site, I wondered - Who is buried here? What was their life like? It was surely much different than what we experience today.

An anonymous gravesite in the far corner of the cemetery.