The Heritage of a Desert Frontier
The long and complex cultural past of Arizona’s Santa Cruz Valley is blessed with a rich historic legacy in a unique natural environment—important historic and cultural places located along a desert river that flows through a culturally and environmentally diverse region.
Our focus includes three primary themes with topics, or storylines, that highlight significant aspects within our natural and cultural history. These storylines contain the stories that flow from here, and they are unique among National Heritage Areas.
1. Desert Abundance:
A unique natural environment with mountain ranges scattered throughout desert grasslands, a desert river and its streams serving as ribbons of life with rich biological diversity that provides a critical route for migrating birds.
- The Sonoran Desert
- Sky Islands & Desert Seas
- Streams in the Desert
- Bird Habitats & Migration Routes
2. Cultural Encounters
This natural heritage shaped human settlement where Native American, Spanish Colonial, Mexican, and American Territorial heritages and traditions intersect and remain a source of the identity and vitality of the region.
- Native American Lifeways
- Spanish & Mexican Frontier
- Desert Farming
- Ranching Traditions
- Mining Booms & Ghost Towns
- U.S. Military Posts on the Mexico Border
- U.S.-Mexico Border Culture
3. A Community of Conservation and Creativity
Santa Cruz River in the San Rafael Valley. Photo courtesy Bob Sharp.
