Two-mile section of Anza Trail planned in Sahuarita

Posted on by az100

By Philip Franchine – Sahuarita Sun

Posted: Wednesday, December 7, 2011 4:42 pm

A two-mile section of the Anza Trail will be built in Sahuarita starting next year, and officials are hoping to finish it before the end of the 2012 Arizona Centennial.

The project is a collaboration among Pima County, the town of Sahuarita, and Farmers Investment Co.

Pima County plans to build a trailhead near Sahuarita Road that will include a parking area and ramada with interpretive panels detailing a camp nearby that was used by Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza in the 1770s. De Anza was accompanied by more than 300 people on his expedition while traveling from Tubac to San Francisco. His camp in Sahuarita was called “Punta de los Llanos.”

The 2.2 mile stretch of trail to be built next year will generally follow the edge of the FICO pecan groves on the west side of the Santa Cruz River north from Nogales Highway to Sahuarita Road. It will cross land currently used for cattle grazing.

The county began working on the trail in 1990, and has completed sections from Tubac through Green Valley to the Sahuarita southern boundary.

“We hope to have this section of the trail completed for the Arizona Centennial, by the end of 2012,” Linda Mayro of Pima County Cultural Resources and Historic Preservation Office said.

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