Tumacacori Mission

This is the first Arizona Mission founded by Father Kino in 1691. It is now a ruins. The name comes from two Pima Indian words; chu-uma and kakel. (Don't ask me how they got Too-ma-cock-or-ee from that.)

In 1751 the Pima Indians rebelled and the Mission was moved to it's present site south of Tucson.

The only time I visit our tourist attractions is when I have out of town company. I suppose that's true of most of us. Last March a dear friend from Massachusetts was here and we did most of the touristy things including Tumacacori. The photos I am showing you are the ones I took then.

We had just moved to Arizona the first time I saw this building . Then it was badly eroding and was a crumbling adobe church. It is now part of the National Park System and the adobe has been stabilized, as you can see on the front and sides of the building. The bell tower was never completed. The outer buildings have all disappeared; only the foundations remain.

Many years ago when we returned from Massachusetts we had another visitor from that state. She came in the middle of the summer and the heat was brutal. I took her to see this mission. The church is not air conditioned and after we walked to the church and back she was dehydrated and asked the Park Ranger, "Where's the bubbler?" Of course it came out, "Where's the bubbla?" I will never forget the perplexed look on the poor Ranger's face. I quickly informed him that she was looking for the drinking fountain.

Sometimes our regional colloquialisms get us in trouble. My son, Mark, missed out on a lot of Coca Colas because of that. When we first moved to Massachusetts he was a teenager and the kids invited him for a tonic. He thought they meant the kind of tonic water you use in a gin and tonic. For many months he declined the invitations until he finally discovered that was their term for soda.

I hope you are enjoying my Arizona photos. More on Tumacacori tomorrow. I still can't find out how to put them all in the same blog. It should be simple I know. Oh well, I never was very good at following instructions.