On February 18, a group of folks from the Tucson chapter joined Chuck Graf, our 2018 AHS Lifetime Achievement Award winner, for a tour of Mission Garden and surrounding areas. Mission Garden was originally part of, and served, the village of S-cuk Son (pronounced Chuk Shon, where Tucson derives its name), a place that is sacred to the Tohono O’odham. The Garden was reconstructed about 12 years ago and has become an agricultural museum featuring heritage crops and heirloom trees.
As a current docent and board member of Mission Garden, Chuck is very knowledgeable about the site. He shared a wealth of information about its history. In addition to leading us through a tour of the gardens, Chuck discussed hydrological and water supply issues — both historical and present day — affecting the area. We began the tour on the long-closed A-Mountain Landfill, which flanks the Garden’s eastern and southern sides. This area has been the target of many development proposals that have failed due to the cost of remediation.
Here you can see Chuck telling us a bit about the history of the site. We are standing on the landfill with Sentinel Peak in the background.
Inside the garden, we see an old mill that was used for grinding wheat. A few members of our group (Ann Pattison and Asia Philbin) had to check it out.
This irrigation ditch is a modern reconstruction that brings water to heirloom crops in the gardens.
If you’re in Tucson and you’ve never been to Mission Garden, it’s worth checking out.