History of Tucson, AZ
The city started becoming a permanent settlement in 1692 when a Jesuit missionary named Eusebio Francisco Kino stopped along the River. He created a mission in the region that was named the Mission San Xavier del Bac. This mission worked to support the Indian tribes that were friendly and settling in the area. They improved the crops, which included beans and corn and worked on irrigation systems from the river to the fields. The official birth of the city of Tucson is considered to be 1775 when Hugo O'Conor established the Tucson Presidio. The Presidio was an impressive structure to protect residents from Apache Indian attacks and renegade warriors moving through the area. The city was named Tucson prior to 1821, though no elaborate reason is given in any history books. It held the name as many countries claimed ownership of it, from Spain, to Mexico and then the United States. Tucson was the site of several skirmishes and a battle during the Mexican-American War. Tucson was considered a part of Mexico up until 1853, when it was given to the United States with the Gadsden Purchase. The San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line put up a stage station in the city in 1857. This is when the city started to grow and people built houses and businesses in large numbers. The mail line changed ownership in 1861 and attempted to keep running, however several incidents forced the line to shut down, including numerous attacks by Indians. The attacks occurred out of the city limits, so residents within the populated areas remained safe, however traveling outside of the city was dangerous. Arizona became a US territory in 1863. Tucson was named the capitol city between the years of 1867 to 1877. Fort Lowell had been constructed and it was meant to protect a larger number of citizens from Indian attacks. Tucson is also famous for being the city where the Earps lived, including Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan. Once Morgan was murdered, Wyatt, who had been a US Marshal, deputized a few friends and sought vengeance on who they thought caused the murder. The brothers then fled the city. The Southern Pacific Railroad came in to the city. The added transportation made the city grow to a bustling population of over 8,000 residents in the 1860s and 1870s. Arizona was voted the 48th state of the United States in 1912. The population remained consistently between 7 and 9,000 people until after World War I. Many soldiers who had fought in Europe were exposed to the toxins and the dangers of the weapons and came back to the United States and moved to Arizona and especially Tucson, where the air was clean and dry and their lungs and bodies could recuperate easily. The city of Tucson continues to grow as the age of the US population grows and retires to warmer and moderate climates. Phoenix became a larger city by 1920, but Tucson is still one of the largest cities in the southwest corridor id the US.
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