Tubac Presidio

Back to school!  We toured the Presidio Ruins and Museum at historical Tubac.  The Presidio is a fort which was established by the Spanish in 1752.  Currently most of it is in ruins but the site has been excavated and you can see foundations below ground.  It also contains the school house which was built there in the 1800's and a museum which has an extensive history of the area and it's diverse people.

 John helped this tall teacher to try to drill something into my head.  This one room school house was pretty much the same as the ones we attended in Ontario except for the outside which was covered in stucco instead of wood or bricks.

These lovely ladies had an amazing array of old and new world foods used in this area historically.  The smaller lady was incredibly knowledgeable about the plants, crops, history and food preparation techniques of the natives and then the Spanish as they came together in the New World.  She's from Kentucky originally but her Spanish was excellent and she had obviously lived here for years and studied the history.  We even got to taste some of the food and they had made delicious baked tortillas with cinnamon and sugar on them using an old recipe.  We asked if we could take their picture and the one who had done most of the talking said; "let me take my glasses off, I want to look sexy!"

 The Tubac Presidio was in danger of being shut down when huge cuts were made to State Parks in the last few years.  It is now run by volunteers as are many of the threatened State Parks.  A State Park does not necessarily mean a place to camp.  It is often a monument or museum with historical significance so thank goodness for the volunteers.