In the early 1980s, we regularly drove from San Diego to see my grandparents in Green Valley, Arizona, south of Tucson. Each visit included an excursion to Saguaro National Park, which flanks Tucson in two distinct districts.
Originally established in 1933 as Saguaro National Monument, the park’s namesake star attraction, Carnegiea gigantea, or the saguaro cactus, was a soul connection at first sight.
More than two million saguaros stand tall across the enchanting landscape. Soaring up to 50 feet and often living beyond 200 years, saguaros are an endemic Sonoran keystone species that supports other wildlife. Animals feast on the saguaro’s white bloom, which is Arizona’s state flower.
To the ancient Tohono O’odham Nation, or the Desert People, once widespread throughout the Southwest, saguaros are sacred and respected as tribal members.
Meeting these multilimbed giants for the first time 40 years ago, they spoke to me with their human-like poses and personalities. These sage Sonorans are sentinels, watching over the land. They are icons and ambassadors, welcoming visitors. And they are storytellers, imparting tales, some cautionary, about the past, present and future.
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Tucson itself is the embodiment of history and humans that inspire. Founded by Spanish colonists in 1775 as Presidio San Agustín del Tucson, the city marks its 250th anniversary this year. Tucson’s origin story reaches much farther back, though. The O’odham’s ancestors, the Hohokam, introduced advanced agricultural, irrigation and community-building practices to the area 4,000 years ago, making Tucson the oldest continually inhabited settlement in North America.
“Tucson offers groups more than just a destination,” said Mary Meade, Visit Tucson’s vice president of sales. “Set against the stunning backdrop of the high Sonoran Desert, the city provides a powerful sense of place and calling, rooted in 4,000 years of human history.”
Here are key Tucson coordinates for answering the call of the past.
Mission Critical Encounters
Around 1692, Jesuit missionary Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, in the region to spread Catholicism and foster peace among Indigenous communities, walked into a Tohono O’odham village. Seasonal farmers known for their hospitality, the residents greeted Kino, marking their first contact with a European and his subsequent founding of Mission San Xavier del Bac.
Completed in 1797, this Spanish Colonial masterpiece is Arizona’s oldest European structure. Nicknamed the “White Dove in the Desert” and the “Sistine Chapel of the Southwest,” the Mission is located on the San Xavier Reservation, one of four federally recognized Tohono O’odham Nation land bases in Arizona. Docent-led group tours are available on a limited basis; book at least a month in advance or go self-guided.
In 2015, UNESCO recognized Tucson as the first Creative City of Gastronomy in the U.S., based on the area’s 4,000-year history of continuous agricultural development, native seed preservation program, significant food-based economy and other distinct attributes.
Recreating the Spanish Colonial walled garden at the nearby San Agustin Mission, Mission Garden celebrates this deep-rooted heritage by showcasing Tucson’s 4,000-year record of cultivating edible crops in the desert.
Divided into themed areas and “timeline plots” based on different historical and cultural periods, the living agricultural museum includes early crops grown by the Hohokam, fruit trees planted by the Spanish and native medicinal plants. Working acequias reveal the pioneering irrigation ditches that sustained area crops through the millennia. Public programs include classes and workshops, with docent-led group tours and onsite kitchen for garden events.
The Garden foots 2,897-foot Sentinel Peak at the site of the former Tohono O’odham village of Cuk Şon, pronounced “chuk shon.” Referring to the mountain’s base being darker than its summit, the name, meaning “at the base of the black hill,” gave rise to Tucson. The Tohono O’odham named the mountain itself Ts-iuk-shan. Offering scenic Santa Cruz Valley views, the peak sports a giant “A” built by University of Arizona students in 1916 and is a popular spot for hiking, biking and driving.
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Nature Puts on a Show
Separated west and east of Tucson into the Tucson and Rincon Mountain Districts, Saguaro National Park offers ranger-led tours, education and other programs. Adventurous groups can hike, bike or go back-country camping.
Two scenic driving loops are another way to experience the majestic saguaro, which put on a spectacular show each spring when blooming along with other flora in the park. Shrubs, wildflowers, succulents, trees and other cacti, including prickly pear and cholla varieties, join in to splash the desert with color.
The region’s flora and fauna also take center stage at the award-winning Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Incorporating a zoo, aquarium, botanical garden and art gallery, the 98-acre campus features numerous animal species in their natural habitat surrounded by 1,200 types of plants. Versatile outdoor rentals include the 100-capacity Taylor Plaza and tranquil 120-person Desert Garden. With retractable windows opening onto a veranda, the Green Room is a panoramic setting for memorable 120-person affairs.
At the University of Arizona’s Alfie Norville Gem and Mineral Museum, groups can dig deep into the mining history of the Southwest, view specimens including precious gemstones and meteorites and see a rare public sample of the ancient Bennu asteroid brought back by NASA from a University of Arizona-led space mission. The size of the Empire State Building, Bennu, after an Egyptian deity, has circled the Earth since the earliest days of our solar system.
Established in 1918, the museum, hosting events for up to 330 people, is one of several tourism-related organizations located in downtown Tucson’s Historic Pima County Courthouse. Other tenants in the 1929 Spanish Colonial Revival-styled landmark include Visit Tucson and the Southern Arizona Heritage and Visitor Center. Courthouse event rentals include the open-air courtyard and historic Dillinger Courtroom.
Retracing the Footsteps of History
Recreating Tucson’s birthplace from 1775, the Presidio San Agustín del Tucson Museum, located on the northeast corner of the original structure, offers a multi-perspective look at life in early Tucson. Popular group programs include docent-led museum tours and 15 themed walking tours around the city.
Mauro Trejo, a native Tucsonan and historian with family roots in Tucson from 1780, leads the two-hour Barrio Viejo (Old Neighborhood) tour of Tucson’s oldest neighborhood, which features the nation’s largest collection of Sonoran row houses, from 1850. Other walking tours include murals, mansions, streetcars, cemeteries and pioneering women.
Educational programs at the museum include culinary and art workshops. Rentals include the entire Presidio Enclosure, combining patio and courtyard spaces, for 375 people. The site is also home to Old Town Artisans, a historic block of shopping and dining.
The Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block also celebrates Tucson’s heritage with compelling exhibits and artifacts. Historic Block highlights include La Casa Cordova, the oldest still-standing adobe home in the Presidio neighborhood, now housing the largest and longest-running nativity scene in the Southwest. Flexible rentals include the lobby and plaza.
“Tucson does not look or feel like any other city,” Meade said. “It is a living narrative where the stories of ancient peoples, Spanish missionaries and Wild West pioneers converge. Groups will feel an instant connection to the past, grounding their experience in uniquely meaningful and compelling ways.”
