Mission San José de Tumacácori

Mission San José de Tumacácori, near Nogales in southern Arizona, began in 1691 as a Jesuit mission near a Sobaipuri settlement along the Santa Cruz River and was later rebuilt at its present site after the O'odham rebellion of 1751. Franciscan missionaries assumed control in 1768 after the Jesuits were expelled from New Spain. In 1806 and 1807, mission lands were legally recognized and their boundaries clarified for the resident O'odham. Although Franciscans preserved the mission’s present form in 1828, it declined soon after, was abandoned in 1843, and was finally left after an Apache attack in 1848. Its ruins remain a major surviving example of Arizona’s Spanish mission frontier history.

Tumacacori-Carmen, Arizona · United States