Six flags have flown over Tubac. Spain, Mexico, New Mexico Territory of Arizona under the Confederacy, Territory of Arizona under the United States, Arizona and the United States of America.

Jesuit missionary, Father Francisco Eusebio Kino entered the Santa Cruz Valley in 1691, converting the natives (Pima Indians), building missions and establishing ranches and farms. History first mentions Tubac in 1726, when Father Agustin de Campos baptized children here. Tubac is a Pima Papago name and has been in use for over 280 years.

In 1751, after 50 years of forced labor in mines and on ranches, the Pima Indians rebelled. Luis Oacpicagigua, a Pima Leader, promised his followers wealth and possessions belonging to the Europeans. Spanish settlements were reduced to ashes; miners, priests and farmers were killed. It took four months to quash the rebellion. Finally, Pima warriors were cornered in the Santa Catalina Mountains, just north of Tucson and were defeated.

In 1752, due to these repeated Indian uprisings, Tubac became a Presidio, or Fort, to protect the northern frontier of Spain’s New World colonies. A 50-man garrison was established. Soon women and children arrived in Tubac, becoming the first European Settlement in Arizona.

For the next 24 years, the soldiers at the Presidio would fight another fierce tribe, the Apaches. In 1760, Captain Juan Bautista de Anza arrived to command the Presidio de San Ignacio de Tubac. During his tenure in Tubac (1760-1776), Anza built the chapel of Santa Gertrudis, the foundations of which lie beneath St. Ann’s church. On October 23, 1775, he and priest explorer, Fray Francisco Garces, along with approximately 300 colonists, left from Tubac and traveled the Gila Trail to Yuma. From there they set out to the Pacific Coast and traveled north where they founded the colony of San Francisco.

The very next year, in 1776, the Presidio was moved to Tucson. Tubac was left defenseless against the Apache attacks until another garrison of soldiers arrived in 1787. This brought relative peace to the area, but not for long.

Independence from Spain in 1821 brought Tubac under Mexican rule. The United States- Mexico War (1846-1848) had little effect on Tubac until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Land north of the Gila River was ceded to the United States forming the New Mexico Territory. This did not include Tubac. Forty-niners passing Tubac enroute to California enticed away residents.

A ghost town when the United States took possession after the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, Tubac returned to life in 1856. Charles Poston and others established the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company in the old presidio ruins. Soon the population topped 1000 with new businesses, the Butterfield Overland Express and The Weekly Arizonian newspaper, which attracted the elite to Tubac.

By 1860, the mining boom had faded, the Civil War recalled federal troops and Apache raiding intensified. On August 1, 1861, Confederate troops seized Arizona, only to lose it to the Union a few months later. President Lincoln declared Arizona a Territory on February 20, 1863.

T. Lillie Mercer, Sabino Otero and others established the Tubac town site in 1882, built the Tubac School in 1885 and organized the Tubac Scouts in 1886 to fight the Apaches. Geronimo’s surrender in September of 1886 brought peace to Tubac at long last.