Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón: Difference between revisions

Fort Tucson
Tucson, Arizona
The recontructed northeastern bastion of Fort Tucson in 2009.
Type	Army fortification
Site information
Controlled by	Arizona
Condition	tourist attraction
Site history
Built	1775-1783
Built by	Spanish Army
In use	1776 to 1886
Materials	adobe, mesquite, earth
Battles/wars	Spanish-Apache War *First Battle of Tucson *Second Battle of Tucson *Third Battle of Tucson *Fourth Battle of Tucson Mexican-American War War *Capture of Tucson (1846) Apache Wars American Civil War *Capture of Tucson (1862)
Garrison information
Occupants	Spain  Mexico  United States Confederate States

Presidio San Augustin del Tucson or Fort Tucson is a presidio located within Tucson, Arizona. The fortress was built by the Spanish conquistadors during the eighteenth century. The presidio was the founding structure of what became Tucson. The origional walls ans bastions vanished over the years though a reconstructed bastion was built in 2008 over foundations of the origional structure.

A company of Spanish Army soldiers founded Tucson in 1775 and completed it in 1783, they came from the Presidio San Ignacio de Tubac which is roughly sixty miles south of the new site. The new presidio was chosen to be placed on the right side of the Santa Cruz River near a what was then a Pima pueblo. The fort was constructed to be in the shape of a large square, walls with bastions for corners. Over time the fort was built stronger and stronger due to several Apache Second Battle of Tucson attacks. By the time the Apache major threat was over in the late 1880's, the walls were mostly gone. The Spanish built the fort to protect communication and trade routes across northern Sonora and southern Alta California, now the present day states of Arizona, Mexico and California. Captain Juan Bautista de Anza commanded the construction of the fort and about foifty to sixty men. After the structure began to take shape the families of the predidio garrison were sent for. When they arrived they established the settlement. Jacals sprang up both inside and outside of the walls, all of the buildings were origionally built of adobe brick and mesquite tree limbs. The San Augustin church was also built. Three hundred years ago the Santa Cruz flowed well and several irrigation canals were dug around the presidio. They were used for the citrus groves and other crops grown to support the population. Tucson flourished under Spanish reign but the population never reached more than 1,000, not until the United States controlled the city.

• Cooper, Evelyn S, (1995), Tucson in Focus: The Buehman Studio, Arizona Historical Society, Tucson. ISBN 0-910037-35-3.
• Walker A Tompkins, Santa Barbara History Makers McNally & Loftin, 1983 p.105. ISBN 0-87461-059-1
• Bancroft, Hubert Howe, (1888), History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530–1888. The History Company, San Francisco.
• Dobyns, Henry F, 1976, Spanish Colonial Tucson, University of Arizona Press, Tucson. ISBN 0-8165-0546-2.
• Drachman, Roy P, 1999, From Cowtown to Desert Metropolis: Ninety Years of Arizona Memories Whitewing Press, San Francisco. ISBN 1-888965-02-9