Over 4,000 years ago, prehistoric Indians located their village between the base of “A” Mountain and the Santa Cruz River.  Today, this provides the setting for a 22 acre city park called, Origins Cultural Heritage Park which will consist of the reconstruction of the 1760’s San Agustin Mission and twelve other support structures that existed during the establishment of Tucson in the Spanish Colonial period.  Along with the mission complex, will be the reconstruction of the 1850 Carrillo House which will represent the Mexican period and house displays dealing with the lessons learned from the degradation of this most historic site through the City’s previous use of this site as a landfill.

The other component of this Master Plan is the Presidio which was a Spanish Colonial fort built in the 1770’s to protect the Spanish Mission located across the Santa Cruz River. The reconstruction will be a bastion or tower with two-feet thick adobe walls 20 feet high, a soldier’s residence and a munitions building. The remainder of the courtyard will include the restoration of three 1850’s adobe structures to be used as residence and interpretive facilities.

This project involved meeting with 70 stakeholder groups, four public presentations and presentations to the City Council and the Rio Nuevo Citizens Board.