Tumacacori National Monument, Arizona

A typical frontier mission church which illustrates Spanish colonial endeavor and commemorates the introduction of Christianity into what is now southern Arizona.
To hold the far-flung frontiers of the Spanish Empire of 250 years ago in South Central America and Mexico and to bring Christian civilization to hundreds of native tribes, Spain sent soldiers and missionary priests into the wilderness. Missions were founded among the settled tribes, and presidios (military posts) were set up on the borders of the hostile tribes. The frontier missions were both churches and centers of European culture and civilization. By such means, the outlying provinces of Spanish America were extended and secured.
The mission of San Jose de Tumacacori was a northern outpost of a mission chain constructed by Franciscan priests in the late 1700’s, on sites established by the Jesuits, in what was then the Province of Sonora. As a reminder that Spain was active on the frontier in the Southwest long before the United States became a nation, Tumacacori remains today an inspiring symbol of the faith, courage, and vigor of the early missionary priests and of the great loyalty and devotion of the Indian converts.
One of the greatest missionaries was Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, a Jesuit, who introduced European culture to this region. He founded his first Sonora mission in 1687, and explored and mapped the Upper Pima Indian country, now southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico. Wherever he went, he spread the Christian doctrine, gained friends among the Indians, and established missions. He initiated ranching on this frontier by introducing cattle and other livestock. To such beginnings some of our thriving modern towns owe their existence.
Mission church prior to stabilization
Father Kino came first into what is now southern Arizona in 1691, when he visited, at the request of the inhabitants, the small Pima village of Tumacacori, which he called San Cayetano. The village was a few miles from the site of the present mission. He said Mass under a brush shelter built by the Indians for that purpose. By 1698, according to Father Kino, Tumacacori had an “earth-roofed house of adobe,” fields of wheat, and herds of cattle, sheep, and goats. At every opportunity he and his successors visited Tumacacori to hold services and to encourage ranching and farming. When a missionary was assigned to Guevavi, to the southeast, Tumacacori became a visita of that mission, that is, a place where the missionaries went and occasionally held services. After the Pima Rebellion of 1751, the village was moved to the site where the mission now stands. It was renamed San Jose de Tumacacori. A small mission was erected here and a presidio was established at Tubac, 3 miles north of Tumacacori.