For Star subscribers: The U.S. Army established Fort Lowell 150 years ago — but that's only part of the story of one of Tucson's richest historical areas.
One hundred and fifty years ago this month, the soldiers at Camp Lowell packed up their gear in present-day Armory Park and marched to a new post near the Rillito River, about 7 miles outside of town.
People are also reading… So began construction of the 200-acre supply depot that would become Fort Lowell. Pine beams were hauled down from the Catalina Mountains to support roofs made with saguaro ribs covered in packed earth. The buildings would leak and drip mud during monsoon storms, until tin roofs were finally installed starting in late 1879, the same year the former camp was officially designated as a fort.
The cavalry and infantry units stationed there were responsible for escorting wagon trains, protecting nearby settlers, guarding supplies, patrolling the border and conducting offensive operations against the Western and Chiricahua Apache tribes, including the forced relocation of native people to reservations.
The last soldiers left the fort on Feb. 14, 1891. Two months later, the property was transferred to the Department of the Interior to be sold as surplus. The winning bidders stripped the structures of their windows, doors, wood floors, roof beams and tin, with much of that material used to build homes elsewhere in Tucson.“Even by the turn of the century, it was a ruin,” said Elaine Hill, who chairs the city’s Fort Lowell Historic Zone Advisory Board.
After the Army abandoned Lowell, Mexican farmers and ranchers began moving into the area, forming a community known as El Fuerte. The new residents repurposed some of the fort's old buildings or built adobe homes of their own, a few of which still stand today. Thiel said the fort's crumbling adobe walls also attracted several silent movie productions, including 1918’s “Headin’ South,” starring Douglas Fairbanks, and 1919’s “Chasing Rainbows,” about a jilted waitress who moves to the desert and falls in love with her boss.
The first serious efforts to save what was left of Fort Lowell took place in the late 1920s, when history buffs and tourism boosters with the Tucson Chamber of Commerce requested that the site be protected as a State Historic Monument. “There’s a long history of attempted preservation,” said Hill, who has lived in the Old Fort Lowell Neighborhood for 30 years. “It speaks to past generations’ efforts to preserve this place.”
Tucson City Councilman Paul Cunningham, whose Ward 2 includes Fort Lowell Park, called the new agreement “a great opportunity for the city,” which acquired the museum and the park surrounding it in 1984. The historical society has removed all the artifacts from the building and placed them into storage for safekeeping, but Hartmann-Gordon isn’t worried about that. She said the Presidio Museum has a great relationship with the historical society, and she is confident they can work out an agreement to bring the artifacts back, possibly on permanent loan, once the building is ready to house them again.
Visitors should not expect “a brand new set of exhibits” right away, Hartmann-Gordon said. The changes will be gradual, an ongoing evolution much like the one underway at the Presidio Museum.Eventually, the city hopes to expand the historical offerings beyond the current boundaries of the park, with help from the Presidio Trust, the Old Fort Lowell Neighborhood Association and other partners.
Clark hopes the area’s rich past — before, during and after its days as a fort — will play a central role in whatever gets developed there in the future.Photos: Historic Fort Lowell and Fort Lowell Park in Tucson Contact reporter Henry Brean at [email protected] or 573-4283. On Twitter: @RefriedBrean
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Photos: Historic Fort Lowell and Fort Lowell Park in TucsonFort Lowell was a U.S. Army post established in 1873 near what is now Craycroft Road and Glenn Street, after moving from its original location in downtown Tucson. The fort was named for General Charles Russell Lowell, who died from…
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