San Cayetano de Tumacácori Mission was built in 1732, but construction stopped in 1822 due to lack of funds.
The mission was built by a Jesuit missionary named Father Eusebio Francisco Kino lived and worked with the native Americans in the area called the "Pimería Alta," or "Upper Pima Country," which presently is located in the areas between the Mexican state of Sonora and the the state of Arizona in the United States. During Father Eusebio Kino's stay in the Pimeria Alta he founded over twenty missions in eight mission districts.
It was rumored that the Jesuit priests had amassed a fortune on the peninsula and were becoming very powerful. On February 3, 1768 King Carlos III ordered the Jesuits forcibly expelled from "New Spain" and returned to the home country.
The farming land around the mission was sold at auction in 1834 and the mission was abandoned by 1840. It is now a National Monument in Tumacácori National Historical Park in Southern Arizona.
See also
External links
- National Park Service
- Tumacácori National Historical Park - National Parks Gallery
- Mission Churches of the Sonoran Desert