The Travelling Tylers: The Magical History Tour is waiting to take you away, Waiting to take you away....

(OK, convince me that iconic Beatles music isn't running through your head right now....)

A few days ago, we moseyed back to Tubac, a small town just north of Nogales (and more on that place at a later date) to take up the invitation to explore the (European) history of the area via a couple of state and national historic sites, Tubac Presidio and Tumacacori.

Tumacacori is the ruins, somewhat restored, of one of 3 Spanish mission communities in the area. Established in 1691 by Father Kino, a Jesuit, it morphed into a Franciscan operation after the Jesuits were expelled from Mexico by the Pope. How does that work, you might wonder. Well, he did so on the request of the King of Spain who felt the Jesuits were gaining much, much too much economic and political power.

You have to imagine some of the mission. Well, actually, quite a lot of it. Like the priest's residence.

The Spanish colonial architecture church dates to the late 1700s and early 1800s. The bell tower was never completed as, once the California gold rush began in 1848, good help (or any help, for that matter) was exceedingly hard to find. No doubt people were also inclined to forgo the spiritual for the material at that point.

Tumacacori and Tubac, a small village about 5 miles further up the Santa Cruz River, are side by each on the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. This trail follows the path of a Spanish explorer, Juan Bautista de Anza, from the Mexican border to San Francisco. His mission, in 1775, was to get his sorry butt up to SF to (a) establish a mission; (b) establish a presidio or fort; and (c) deal with the threat of the Russians who had established a port north of SF and were eyeballing California and points south with great interest.

According to the brochure, Juan "charted the route" through the mountains. An alternate story told by native peoples is that the Spanish were guided by the native people of California along trails they had been travelling for centuries.

Though you have to imagine quite a lot of Tubac Presidio as well, it does contain a complete building in the form of the Old Tubac Schoolhouse, built in 1885 and the second oldest intact schoolhouse remaining in Arizona. Pretty interesting stuff, too:

Note the punishment is in lashes and the greatest number is allotted to "Using cell phone during class". Perhaps not entirely historically authentic....

So.... I wonder what else is in the bucket of "unseemly conduct" for women besides marriage?

I'm not sure I could answer all these questions. How about you?

We meandered back through the Village of Tubac which bills itself as the place "where art and history meet". And truly, there are a lot of art galleries and working artists. There are also a lot of regular shops, all selling regular kitsch at inflated prices.