As we continued our quest to explore more of what the area had to offer we discovered Tohono Chul Park Tucson AZ.
Exotic Succulents tempted us at one of Tohono Chul’s Shops
Tohono Chul Park Tucson AZ
Tohono Chul means desert corner. The name comes from the language of the Tohono O’odham, a desert dwelling people known for their many uses of Sonoran plants and their ability to live in the harsh Arizona climate.
Today Tohono Chul is a part of Oro Valley and includes a total of 49 acres and retains most of its hacienda-style charm in the spite of burgeoning urban sprawl surrounding it. Sensitive planning and development have allowed for enhancements while preserving its spectacular natural setting and feeling of intimacy.
The original three homes on the Tohono Chul property have different Southwestern regional styles and promote a distinct sense of place. Each of these homes has been refurbished and renovated for Park use but the regional character was preserved. The Wack’s 1937 home has become the Exhibit House, the Sullivan’s 1963 home is now Tohono Chul Garden Bistro and the Wilson’s Lomaki guest house is now used for classes, meetings and rentals.
History of Tohono Chul
Desert plants for sale at Tohono Chul Park Tucson AZ
The future site of Tohono Chul was sold to John T. deBlois Wack in 1937. Mr. Wack was an avid polo player from Santa Barbara. Later that year, Paul Holton built the Wacks a Santa Fe style house at a cost of $60,000 based on the plans of Santa Barbara architect Chester L. Carjola. During construction, the adobe bricks for the 18” thick outer walls were made on the premises and Ponderosa pine logs were brought down the winding back road from Mt. Lemmon to be used for the living room beams. Adobe was used not just for its aesthetic appeal. In the days before central air conditioning wise desert dwellers knew that adobe walls would keep interiors cool during the heat of the summer, while maintaining warmth during the chilly winter months. The house was also designed to take advantage of cooling breezes with French doors installed throughout. Finally, a large concrete swimming pool, which was one of the first private pools in Tucson, was built with an unobstructed view of Pusch Ridge. This area is now the Garden for Children.
The Wacks actually spent little time in Tucson. So Gene Reid and Mr. Wack’s father, Henry Wellington Wack, founder and first editor of Field and Stream, acted as house-sitters. By the end of World War II the home had changed ownership several times.
In 1948, Colonel Robert Bagnell and his wife Eugenia Sullivan Bagnell, both of St. Louis, bought the Wack’s 80-acre parcel. Affectionately called “Las Palmas” during their tenure, the house was graced with a rose garden, a grass lawn and elegant visitors dining by candlelight.
The Bagnells found other uses for the property too. Mrs. Bagnell donated a portion to the Catholic Diocese of Tucson to serve as the site for St. Odilia’s Catholic Church, visible today to the north of the Park. In 1963 Mrs. Bagnell’s son, John Sullivan, built a home on ten acres on the western edge of the property. Designed by Lewis Hall, the charming hacienda-style home featured a courtyard with a fountain. John Sullivan’s home is now known as the “West House” and is the site of the Tohono Chul Garden Bistro.
Colonel Bagnell passed away in 1965, two years after his wife. He left the remainder of the property to the Sullivan family who then moved into the empty main house (today’s Exhibit House).
Foundations of Tohono Chul Park
Loved this beautiful Agave for sale at Tohono Chul
The idea of preservation and exhibition actually dates back to Richard Wilson’s great, great, great-grandfather Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Saddler, watchmaker, silversmith and inventor, Peale was the most prominent portraitist of the Federal period and is credited with the earliest known portrait of George Washington (1772).
In 1786 he founded the Peale Museum, an institution housed in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, intended for the study of natural law and the display of natural history and technological objects. Considered to be the first major museum in the United States, its varied collections included Peale’s paintings, Native American artifacts and mounted specimens such as the first complete skeleton of an American mastodon. So it was appropriate for Richard and Jean Wilson to perpetuate this heritage through Tohono Chul.
Wilson, started piecing together patches of the desert that would form its core, ultimately owning 37 of the Wack’s original 80 acres.
Richard Wilson
This is one Crazy Saguaro!
The son of a Texas oilman, Richard Wilson was a geologist who trained at Yale and Stanford. With his wife Jean, he came to Tucson in 1962 to teach at the University of Arizona. His roots in the Southwest go much deeper. Mr. Wilson’s uncle, Dr. Harold Colton, founded the Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, in 1926, as a means of displaying, documenting and preserving the Native American crafts of the region.
The Museum’s first curator, Dr. Colton’s wife and noted painter Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton, encouraged the Hopi and Navajo tribes to continue their traditional arts and to develop new styles through the offer of exhibitions and cash prizes. Mr. Wilson’s mother, Suzanne Colton Wilson, was a collector of contemporary Southwest Native American arts. Today, 65 pieces from her collection are part of our permanent cultural collection.
In 1968 the Wilsons purchased the section containing the hacienda style “West House” and lived there for the next eight years.
Haunted Bookshop
In 1979 Jean Wilson opened the Haunted Bookshop on Northern Avenue along the eastern edge of the site. Once it was up and running, the Wilsons began planning their next project, a park. “At first we just went out and put down some lime to make a path and marked the names of some of the plants and bushes, but then it started to snowball.” The path gradually grew into a loop trail, meandering 1⁄2 mile into the surrounding desert. In 1980 they received a citation from the Tucson Audubon Society for saving the desert green space and opening it to the public.
Preservation of Natural Areas Foundation Established
Motivated by a desire to preserve the Sonoran Desert they loved, they established the non-profit Foundation for the Preservation of Natural Areas in the early 1980s. “We wanted to keep something natural in the middle of all the surrounding development so that people could come easily for a few hours and get out of the traffic and learn something at the same time. It’s probably contrary to what most people would do, but we feel it’s real important for people to have something like this.”
The driving focus of the organization was to promote the conservation of desert regions and to educate the public about arid lands and responsible water use. Over time, demonstration gardens, a re-circulating stream, a geological re-creation of the Santa Catalina Mountains, arbors and areas with special plantings of arid adapted vegetation were developed.
The Wacks’ original 1937 stuccoed adobe house was carefully renovated in 1984 to provide space for changing art exhibits, a museum shop and administrative offices. Tohono Chul Park was formally dedicated as a 37-acre desert preserve on April 19, 1985. The Wilsons deeded the property to the non-profit foundation, Tohono Chul Park, Inc., in 1988.
Final land parcel acquired
In the spring of 1995 development again threatened Tohono Chul. An 11-acre parcel abutting the property was slated for higher density rezoning and offered for sale. With the help of longtime member John Maher, the Park was able to acquire the property, establishing a memorial to John’s late wife, Mary.
The most recent addition came when the beloved Haunted Bookshop closed in 1997. The Wilsons donated the land and building to Tohono Chul, adding the final acre, now totaling 49!
At the dedication ceremony in 1985, Richard and Jean Wilson expressed their vision for Tohono Chul:
“We dedicate this park to those who come here, who, we hope, will not only admire and find comfort in the natu- ral beauty of the area, but will achieve greater apprecia- tion of the ways of conserving all our precious desert region and obtain a greater understanding of the people native to these areas.”
Tohono Chul Today
Tohono Chul has evolved into a unique urban desert island dedicated to fostering an appreciation for the distinctive character of this region. The Sonoran Desert is the most diverse desert of North America, with thousands of native plants and hundreds of species of animals making their home in this rugged, yet fragile, environment. Seventeen indigineous cultures live in the region, while a confluence of others, including Anglos, Latinos, Chinese and Africans, have adopted this region as their own.
With an emphasis on the natural and cultural aspects of the Southwestern desert, the site now includes an extensive botanical collection with nature trails and exhibits including wildlife migration trails and the Desert Living Courtyard
Tohono Chul’s extensive educational programs underscore and complement the gardens and exhibits, while expanding upon them by relating them to the natural history, culture and botany of the region.
Back at our RV Park
Stately Saguaro at our RV Park in Tucson AZ
After our wonderful day visiting Tohono Chul Park Tucson AZ, we came back to our RV Park. As we drove to our site we noticed all sorts of fun things. But what we noticed most was that there were very dark clouds rolling in. A storm was brewing. Luckily we made it back to Ladybug just as the first raindrops began to fall!
Don’t you just love being serenaded?
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