The Town of Tubac

     The town of Tubac, near the Mexican border, claims to be the first  European settlement in Arizona.  In 1691, Father Kino, and other Spaniards came up from New Spain (Mexico).  The name Tubac is an English borrowing from a Hispanicized form of and O'odham name that means - rotten!

History Perspective: 1690-92 was the time of the Salem Witch Trials.

A Little History

     In 1751, the Pima Indians attacked Tubac, burning and murdering in an attempt to defend their homeland.  The were defeated, and the Spanish would build the Tubac Presidio to defend the missions and Spanish settlers.  The Presidio would later be moved to Tucson in 1776.  This left the town of Tubac opened to Apache attacks.
     When the United States took possesion of the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, Tubac was all but a ghost town.  However, ancient mines were rediscovered and minerals unearthed.  Tubac soon became a favoirte sport of prospectors, miners, and and jounalists.  The state's first newpaper was printed in Tubac.  The Tubac Presidio State Historic Park was Arizona's first state park, and was established in 1959, with a museum opening in 1964.  Tubac is also home to Arizona's first schoolhouse.
     In 1948, Dale Nichols opned an art school in Tubac and over the years potters, painters, and various other artist have discovered Tubac and made it their home.  Today, more than 80 galleries, shops, and studios are located here.  The Tubac Art Festival is held every February.

Tubac Today

     Tubac is home for between 900-1000 souls.  Yet, the town is quite diverse.  On one hand there are the artistic folk, on the other are the retirees with a very strong conservative base - as in Minutemen groups.  The Minutemen were the civilians patrolling the Arizona border with Mexico and the goal was to report suspicious activity to the border patrol.  However, in 2010, Carmen Mercer, head of the Minutemen, (and located in Tombstone, not Tubac) sent out an e-mail asking her members to be "Locked, loaded, and ready." and to bring "long arms" (that's rifles to those of us who don't have guns in our homes.)  The error in this kind of message was soon discovered when Mercer started getting hundreds of e-mails from questionable sources with some very knee-jerk reactions.  The Arizona Minutemen were soon disbanded so that none of the leaders would be taking on legal responsiblities for any of the members who felt the need to shoot at anything in the desert.  The group has been legally disbanded, but the sentiment remains. 

I love this sign!  Read it carefully.

Susan and friend

Loved this shop!!!!!

We were about 20 miles north of the Mexican border, and we had to go through border patrol.

There were about 30 of these vehicles.



I had to work fast to get this picture of the drug-sniffing dog.  My snapping photos a a border checkpoint had Susan a tad nervous.  However, I honed my border photography at the West Bank/Israel.  I can get very sneaky!