Sonoran Pioneers in the Arizona Territory

Our Spanish Colonial heritage is perhaps the best known chapter in Arizona's epic history.  There are dozens of books on the Conquistadors, missionaries, and soldiers of the Spanish presidios. The 18th century Franciscan missions have been preserved, and annual events in Tucson celebrate our Hispanic roots. But the history of Spanish-speaking people in Arizona ends in 1848, when the United States took control of this region. In the written histories of Arizona, there is seldom more than a brief mention of the role that Hispanic pioneers played in the settlement of Arizona during the Territorial Period (1848-1912). Yet, in most of the towns of southern and central Arizona, 50% to 90% of the residents were Hispanic. Most of them were born in this arid wilderness, and it was they who had the skills and knowledge needed to build a prosperous economy using traditional Mexican techniques of irrigation farming, ranching, mining.

As the first Anglo Americans settled in Tucson in the 1850s and 1860s, Hispanic families from Tucson and northern Sonora started moving north into the valleys of central Arizona. Many were driven north by the growing political turmoil in Sonora. They moved into the unsettled interior of the territory because they recognized that this new frontier offered great economic opportunities. They established farms and ranches, opened a trade network, and founded self-sufficient communities that flourished through much of the territorial period.

After the Civil War, Anglos began migrating into the territory in large numbers, and many moved into the existing Hispanic settlements. As these communities grew, their original Spanish names--Pueblo Viejo, Tres Alamos, Rio Salado--were supplanted by new names that were more acceptable to the prominent Anglo "founders" who reshaped them into "American" towns. However, by 1880, the Mexican population still comprised a majority in towns that became known as Redington, Solomonville, Florence, Adamsville, and Tempe.

The contributions of these people have largely been forgotten in the history of Arizona. In early accounts of the territory during this period, the date of a community's founding was generally marked by the entry of a homestead claim or the filing of a townsite plat, rather than the formation of the first settlement by Hispanic pioneers.

Thomas Edwin Farish acknowledged that Mexican farmers first settled the middle Gila valley, but credits Charles S. Adams and Levi Ruggles with being the founders of the towns of Adamsville and Florence. In his survey of Arizona in the 1870s, Richard J. Hinton observed: In the Salt River Valley there was a ranch or two; and elsewhere, except at Tucson and Yuma, there was nothing of life to be found except a few Mexicans, the Pimas and Papagoes, with the hostile Indians at every turn. Clearly, he presumed a settlement of Mexicans to be of no importance. Yet, there are many indications that a sizeable Hispanic population occupied central Arizona when the Anglo pioneers arrived.

The first ventures north were led by Mexican freighters from Tucson and Sonora. For more than two hundred years, Hispanic traders and packers, the arrieros (mule drivers) and the mayordomos (wagon masters) had navigated the ancient roads of the Southwest. In the mid-nineteenth century, independent Mexican freighters and merchants transported most of the goods across Arizona. By the early 1860s, Tucson was an important trade center for the region. Wagon trains regularly ran east to the Rio Grande, west to Yuma, and south to Magdalena, Guaymas, and the mines of Sonora. Hispanic freighters hauled provisions to mining camps and army forts across the territory. They also supplied army posts with locally produced wood, hay, and beef, and brought hides to Yuma for export. The large freighting businesses were often dominated by educated Sonoran immigrants, such as Esteban Ochoa and Antonio Contreras. There were also many small independent teamsters. More about Freighters.

The permanent settlement of the region began with the migration of Mexican farmers in the 1860s. Sonoran families that had been constructing irrigation canals and raising desert crops for generations were the first to produce food and forage for the more transient population of miners and soldiers. This northward migration grew in 1865, when Maximilian's troops landed at the port of Guaymas. The French invasion, and the ensuing political struggle between Manuel Maria Gandara and Ignacio Pesqueria prompted 25,000 refugees to flee north into Arizona and California. Some joined the fledgling communities along the San Pedro, Gila, and Salt rivers. More about the French Intervention.

The role that Sonoran and native Arizonan pioneers have played in the settlement of Arizona can be seen in the histories of individual communities:

• Tucson
• Yuma
• Florence & Adamsville
• Redington/Tres Alamos
• Solomonville/Pueblo Viejo
• McDowell/Cuba
• Phoenix
• Tempe/Rio Salado

In the late 19th century, the population of Arizona was still predominently Hispanic, and nearly all of the (non-Indian) women and children living in the territory were of Mexican ancestry. Many of these Hispanic pioneers owned farms, ranches, and businesses; some were skilled craftsmen, and others made up the bulk of the labor force that cleared the land, built irrigation canals and railroads, and worked the copper mines. The farming communities that they founded in central Arizona were the last settlements of the Sonoran frontier. Decades after the United States had acquired the region, the development of the Salt River and Gila River Valleys was still the realization of a Mexican dream -- one that had been pursued by Sonoran families for more than a hundred years.