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One
of only 3 known drawings of the Presidio San Agustín
Del Tucson. This image is a depiction of life inside the fortress, an 1850 woodcut by James Bell, highlighting the ways that the Spanish soldiers and missionaries interacted with local native populations. |
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The Site: located where modern downtown Tucson exists today. Using our modern streets to locate the fort, the presidio was was built in a square bounded by Church, Washinton, Main and Pennington streets. The site was first occupied during the Early Agricultural
Period at least 2,000 years ago, and a large Hohokam village existsed on the site dating to about AD 900-1200. Hohokam artifacts are abundant in the area,
suggesting a substantial village was present between 1,500 and 500 years
ago.
History: The
The
Presidio San Agustín del Tucson was established by Hugo O'Connor on August 20'th, 1775. This date is celebrated as Tucson's brithday, even though the founding of the San Agustín Mission took place in 1770, within the O'odham village of "Chuk-Shon" from which the name Tucson is derived. The fort started out as a small wooden stockade, and quickly grew to be one of the largest forts in New Spain. After the Mexican revolution of 1821, the fort was the northenmost outpost for the Mexican Army in the state of Sonora. In 1854, the fortress was turned over to the American Territorial government, and the presidio was soon dismantled.
Archaeology: Excavations on the northeast corner of the presidio were first conducted by Emil Haury and Students from the University of Arizona in 1954. These "digs" were sponsored by Tucson Newspaper Publisher George Chambers, who left behind an interesting message to future Tucsonans. Since this time, Desert
Archaeology Inc. has conducted a number of excavations on portions of the presidio wall, as well as areas thought to contain intact presidio era deposits. Ss part of the Rio Nuevo project, In 2002, Desert archaeology returned to the presidio, to re-excavate Haury's original excavations and to further explore the northeastern corner of the fort. The excavations were design to determine the
integrity of the presidio deposits and to provide information to urban planners
in the design of the Tucson Origins Heritage
Park. The archaeologists were surprise to find the deposits from the presidio remarkably intact, just one inch below the asphault of a parking lot north of the Transamerica building.
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