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Spanish Mission Tubac
Barrio de Tubac Arizona
To see what an unrestored mission church might look like, drive south less than an hour to Tumacacori National Monument, which preserves the ruins of a mission founded in 1691 by Father Eusebio Kino, the Jesuit missionary who was one of the first Spaniards to explore what is now southern Arizona. A few miles away lies the community of Tubac, which was founded as another of the region's presidios and today is filled with gift shops and art galleries. Tubac's biggest claim to fame is as the starting point for an expedition led by Juan Bautista de Anza in 1775. De Anza led nearly 250 settlers across deserts and mountain ranges on the first overland route to California. When the group finally reached the Pacific Ocean, they founded San Francisco.
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