Category:Tucson

History
Jesuit missionary Eusebio Francisco Kino visited the Santa Cruz River valley in 1692, and founded the Mission San Xavier del Bac in 1700. By 1775, Hugo O'Conor authorized the construction of the Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón, taking its name from the O'odham word for the area. Eventually the nearby townsite came to be called "Tucson" and became a part of the state of Sonora after Mexico gained independence from the Kingdom of Spain and its Spanish Empire in 1821.

In 1821 Mexico gained independence from Spain. The Mexican Occidente state borders extended further north to include the town of Tucsón. In 1853 the United States acquired from Mexico, in the Gadsden Purchase, a strip of land that included Tucson that would later be used to construct a transcontinental railroad along a deep southern route by the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Tucson, and all of Arizona, remained part of the New Mexico Territory until February 24, 1863, when the Arizona Organic Act passed the Senate forming the Arizona Territory. In 1867, the territorial capital was moved to Tucson from Prescott, where it remained until 1877.

From 1877 to 1878, the area suffered a rash of stagecoach robberies. Most notable were the two holdups committed by masked road-agent William Whitney Brazelton. Brazelton held up two stages in the summer of 1878 near Point of Mountain Station, approximately 17 mi (27 km) northwest of Tucson. John Clum, of Tombstone, Arizona fame, was one of the passengers. Pima County Sheriff Charles A. Shibell and his citizen posse killed Brazelton on August 19, 1878, in a mesquite bosque along the Santa Cruz River 3 miles (5 km) south of Tucson. Brazelton had been suspected of highway robbery in the Tucson area, the Prescott region, and the Silver City, New Mexico area. Because of the crimes and threats to his business, John J. Valentine, Sr. of Wells, Fargo & Co. had sent Bob Paul, a special agent and a future Pima County sheriff, to investigate. The US Army established Fort Lowell, then east of Tucson, to help protect settlers and travelers from Apache attacks.

In 1882, Morgan Earp was fatally shot, in what was later referred to in the press as "the Earp-Clanton Tragedy". Marietta Spence, wife of Pete Spence, one of the Cochise County Cowboys, testified at the coroner's inquest on Earp's killing and implicated Frank Stilwell in the murder. The coroner's jury concluded Pete Spence, Stilwell, Frederick Bode, and Florentino "Indian Charlie" Cruz were the prime suspects in the assassination of Morgan Earp.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp gathered a few trusted friends and accompanied Virgil Earp and his family as they traveled to Benson to take a train to California. They found Stilwell apparently lying in wait for Virgil Earp at the Tucson station and killed him on the tracks. After killing Stilwell, Wyatt deputized others and conducted a vendetta, killing three more cowboys over the next few days before leaving the Territory.

Only a few short months after the Stilwell shooting, the Tucson depot echoed with the sounds of more gunfire. According to The Witches' Rede, members of Shadow Wolf Pack murdered passengers Colin and Ashling MacKenna as their train pulled into station. Their daughter, Maeve, managed to escape and survive.

Below, find a list of the characters and key locations found in Tucson.