Land Use History of the Rincon Creek
This section describes some of the major land use activities that have occurred in the Rincon Valley, and how some of these activities may have affected the natural resources of the Rincon Creek watershed. Although the focus is on land use activities that occurred during post-development times (since the 1880s), the valley's prehistoric setting (pre-200 B.C. - A.D. 1500) and events during the 17th and 18th centuries are also briefly described.

a. Prehistory
Numerous prehistoric habitation sites ranging from large villages to farmsteads, as well as rock shelters, rock quarries, petroglyph sites, and clusters of agricultural features including check dams and irrigation canals, indicate that the Rincon Valley experienced fairly extensive human activity during prehistoric times. In fact, prehistoric sites are more common than sites dating to historic times (McGovern, MacVittie, Lodge & Dean, Inc., et al., 1991).

Most prehistoric sites are located north of Rincon Creek, with the majority of habitation sites occurring adjacent to the creek's confluences with major tributaries. Sites from the Tanque Verde phase of the Hohokam Classic period (A.D. 1200-1350) predominate, although Rincon phase (A.D. 900-1500 ) materials and some earlier Ceramic period sites are also present. In addition, several Archaic period (pre-200 B.C.) sites have been recorded (McGovern, MacVittie, Lodge & Dean, Inc., et al., 1991).

b. 1600 to 1850
No historical data specific to the Rincon Valley are available for this time period; as stated above, only prehistoric sites (from the 1500s and earlier) and sites from the late 1800s and early 1900s have been discovered. This is most likely due to the valley's isolated location as well as raiding by the Apaches, who migrated into the region in the late 16th century, about the same time as the first Spanish expeditions reached Arizona and New Mexico from the south (Baldwin 1965).

Although there are no archaeological or historical records of human activities in the Rincon Valley until after 1850, impacts on the environment and native people of the larger Tucson-Santa Cruz Basin within which the valley lies can be attributed to the arrival of Spanish settlers in the 1600s. The following events can reasonably be assumed to have had some impact on the resources of the Rincon Valley.

After Franciscan Father Eusebio Kino established San Xavier mission near the Santa Cruz River on the other (west) side of the Tucson Basin in the 1690s, the patterns and kinds of land uses in the area changed. Following their conversion to Christianity, the native people resettled near the mission and began to cultivate a variety of European crops, relying less on native foods and agricultural practices. Mining by European settlers had some local impacts as well, primarily from harvesting of wood for timber and fuel (Arizona Daily Star, Nov. 26, 1933; Hastings and Turner 1965).

The Rincon Valley lies along a natural pass between the Rincon Mountains to the north and the Empire, Whetstone and Santa Rita Mountains to the south. It was therefore at the very least passed through by travelers going to and from the Tucson-Santa Cruz Basin and the San Pedro River or points further east.

The Spaniards also brought cattle with them, commencing the history of cattle grazing in the southwest (Hastings and Turner 1965). By the early 1800s, Mexican cattle ranchers had developed large ranches throughout southern Arizona (Arizona Daily Star, Nov. 26, 1933). Increased Apache raiding drove some of these ranchers from the area, resulting in many wild herds of livestock roaming the region in the mid 1800s (Hastings and Turner 1965).

c. 1850 to 1900
The Rincon Valley became part of the United States in 1853, with the signing of the Gadsden Purchase. In 1857, an Overland Mail Stage route was established that ran west from the San Pedro River at Benson, south of the Rincon Mountains to Tucson, and on to Yuma and California (Conkling and Conkling 1947). This route crossed the south and west sides of the Rincon Valley. The Southern Pacific Railroad, completed in 1880, followed essentially the same route as the stageline. This link to other settlements provided expanded economic opportunities and influenced the cultures in the area. For example, the railroad station at Vail supplied small-scale mining operations in the Whetstone, Empire and Santa Rita Mountains to the south, and became an important shipping point for the valley's settlers (Myrick 1975).

Although there is some evidence that La Cienega Ranch (near what is now the town of Vail) existed in the 1860s, most settlement in the Rincon Valley probably occurred following establishment of Fort Lowell on the Rillito River east of Tucson in 1873 (SWCA 1989). Accounts from the 1870s tell of ranchers in the valley periodically retreating from Apache raids to the safety of Tucson (Cosulich 1932). There are also reports of prehistoric irrigation canals being utilized by Mormon settlers in the latter half of the 19th century (Arizona Daily Star, Nov. 26, 1933). By the late 1800s, a number of families had settled along Rincon Creek, growing crops and raising beef and dairy cattle (Miller n.d.; SWCA 1989; Rasmussen 1995). Some settlers also made a living by cutting wood and producing quicklime, made by burning limestone in kilns (Simpson and Wells 1984).

Easy access to expanding beef markets in the eastern U.S. provided by the railroad system and subjugation of the Apaches in the 1880s fostered a thriving livestock industry in the area. Some cattle ranges were already reaching their grazing limit by the late 1880s. At this time, southeastern Arizona experienced several years of major floods, which dramatically altered the region's stream systems. Flooding peaked in 1890, when both the Rillito and Santa Cruz Rivers were denuded of vegetation and carved into deep channels. In conjunction with unusually high precipitation, overgrazing and the clearing of riparian vegetation for fuel and building materials contributed to these drastic landscape changes by increasing runoff and destabilizing river banks (Hastings and Turner 1965). These events were certainly felt upstream from Tucson along Pantano Wash and Rincon Creek.

The floods of the late 1880s were followed by several dry years, which brought about severe loss of livestock and a landscape that had been grazed down to bare earth. As this denuded landscape recovered, the original grassland was invaded by tree and shrub species predominated by mesquite (Prosopis spp.) and prickly pear (Opuntia phaecantha) (Hastings and Turner 1965).

d. 1900 - 1960
Cattle ranching and farming were the predominant land uses in the Rincon Valley during the early 1900s. Some small-scale mining, probably for low-grade copper deposits, also took place. Quicklime production continued until approximately 1920, when neighboring ranchers objected to the depletion of palo verde (Cercidium floridum and C. microphyllum) and mesquite (Prosopis spp.) trees, which were being cut down to fuel the kilns (Simpson and Wells 1984; Rasmussen 1995).

When the Rincon Mountains became part of a National Forest Reserve (now Coronado National Forest) in 1902, at least one homestead at the east end of the valley was relinquished to the Forest Service. Some of the federal land was eventually returned to the State of Arizona, and subsequently leased and homesteaded (Miller n.d.). In 1933, the portion of the National Forest to the north of the valley was designated as Saguaro National Monument; this area became a National Park on October 14, 1994. Although these lands have been "protected" by these designations, grazing was permitted on the Monument until 1958 (Turner 1992) and currently continues on Forest Service land (Quinn, pers. comm., 1996).

Long-time Rincon Valley resident Ted Knipe recounts that when his family moved to the valley in 1911, they and their mostly Mexican-American neighbors typically owned 40-acre ranches on which they cultivated a few acres of crops (such as barley, corn, beans, squash, apricots and peaches) and raised chickens and dairy cows (Henry 1991). Knipe and Ray Geer, who grew up on the Loma Alta Ranch on Rincon Creek, describe how all the ranchers in the valley ran their beef cattle herds together on the open range, which included the unfenced Saguaro National Monument (Henry 1991; Geer, pers. comm., 1996).

e. The 1960s to the Present
During the second half of the century, land use in the Rincon Valley has shifted from ranching to private residential development. Beginning in the 1960s, some of the traditional 40-acre-plus ranches were subdivided into 10 to 20-acre "ranchettes." By the 1980s, several ranches in the valley had been transformed into 1-acre private residential neighborhoods (Rasmussen 1995; Gibson, pers. comm., 1996). Development of an extensive mixed-use, resort-oriented planned community on the Rocking K Ranch will begin in the 1990s.

The legacy of cattle ranching can still be seen in the Rincon Valley, even in areas that are no longer grazed. In desertscrub areas, the grasses and wildflowers preferred by cattle are now dominated by unpalatable weedy shrubs such as burro weed (Isocoma tenuisecta) (Bowers 1991, personal observation). In combination with a warmer and drier trend in the regional climate, grazing has contributed to widescale conversion of grasslands to desertscrub (Hastings and Turner 1965). Where grazing still occurs along the more natural upper Rincon Creek, understory species are nearly absent and cattle trails across the creek have caused some bank erosion and undermining of the trees that line the channel (Rasmussen 1995; personal observation).