OFFICIAL GEOCACHE OF TUMACACORI NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK: WELCOME!
(Quickest access to this geocache is through the mission grounds of Tumacácori. Operating hours are 9-5pm and entrance fees are $10/adult and free for kids under 16 and federal pass holders. Pets are not permitted in the mission grounds. If you are visiting before or after hours, with pets, or do not wish to pay the entrance fee, please access this cache from the Anza Trailhead to the north. Find another geocache there, too!)
In October 1775, Lt. Col. Juan Bautista de Anza,commander of the Tubac Presidio, departed Tubac with thirty families. These colonists had gathered from across the frontier of New Spain to follow Anza north. They would become the first settlers to travel overland to the distant Spanish province of Alta California. There, the expedition would plant the diverse cultures of the Sonoran Desert on the shores of the Spanish empire at a new settlement called San Francisco.
As colonists from New Spain traveled north, their Catholic faith and traditions traveled with them. To the Spanish, the frontier was full of indigenous souls to be saved. Friar Pedro Font served as a spiritual leader and diarist of the Anza Expedition. Upon departing Horcasitas, Font impressed upon the colonists that they must have patience in the hardships of the journey, and designated the “Most Holy Virgin, our Lady of Guadalupe” the patroness of the expedition. He told the settlers “to hold themselves lucky that God had chosen them.”
Friar Font conferred near here with the priests of Mission Tumacácori, while the colonists assembled at the Tubac Presidio.