SAHUARITA:

History stretches back to Hohokam

300-1400 A.D.  -  Hohokam Indians, Native residents.

1726  -  Spaniards explore area.

1826  -  Mining claims filed, Pima Mining District, Twin Buttes area (little mining going on until 1905).

1879  -  James Kilroy Brown established Sahuarito Ranch; gave railroad right of way; mapped as Saurita; ranch headquarters a stage station between Tucson, Arivaca and Quijotoa.  Community called Sahuarito.

1882  -  Post Office established.

1884  -  Saurita was the name on a railroad map.

1886  -  Post office suspended in June because of Apache Indian activity (Geronimo) in area.  Property turned over to postal official.  Postmaster and family moved to Olive Camp.

1895  -  Saurita Elementary School District No. 29 formed in January.

1900  -  Sahuarita School District changed to Pima County School District No. 12.  Mining, farming and ranching provide economy in the area.  Helvetia School District organized as No. 34, later changed to District 14; Twin Buttes mining & Smelting begins.

1906  -  Twin Buttes Railroad formally opened with excursion train (July 4).  Boasted of having best-equipped mine camp in area, with store and buildings.

1907  -  School District No. 12 discontinued.  Twin Buttes School District No. 21 organized.

1908  -  Railroad making two trips per week.

1910  -   Southern Pacific bought railroad, extended it from Sahuarita to Nogales.

1911  -  Sahuarita Post Office re-established; Sahuarita School District re-established in July as School District No. 30.

1913  -  1,500 tons of copper; silver; lead per month sent to El Paso, Texas from under ground (Twin Buttes, Helmet Peak, Olive Mine Camp.)

1920's-1940's  -  Store, service station, restaurant in operation which later became known as the Sahuarita Bar & Grill along main thorough-fare between Tucson and Nogales.

1925  -  Helvetia Elementary School discontinued.

1929  -  Last Twin Buttes railroad trip.

1935  -  Helvetia becomes a ghost town.

1938  -  Finis Brown Sr. builds two cotton gins in Sahuarita.

1939  -  Two-story railroad station, where an old box car served as an office burns down in Sahuarita.  Sierrita Elementary School District organized as No. 56.

1940  -  7,000 acres, three-fourths in cotton at this time had begun with alfalfa and cattle.

1941  -  U.S. enters WWII

1944  -  One mine active.

1948  -  Keith Walden purchases cotton field for what would become pecan orchards.

1949  -  Sahuarita Bar & Grill established.

1950  -  Helvetia Elementary School annexed as unorganized territory to District No. 30.

1952  -  McGee Ranch gets electricity.

1958  -  New scholl opens west of the Santa Cruz River.

1963  -  Green Valley growth begins.

1965  -  Anaconda Mine starts strip mining; pecan groves are planted.

1968  -  FICO announces construction of $1.25 million pecan processing plant.  Interstate 19 construction underway.  Sahuarita School District plans $1.8 million bond election to construct Sopori Elementary and Sahuarita Middle schools.

1969  -  Sahuarita voters say no to bonds by one vote.  Tornado strikes Santo Tomas area, damaging at least one home.  Sahuarita school board decides to try a second bond election as court battles are waged over the results of the first.

1970  -  Arsenic found to be contaminating Sahuarita area wells.  Sahuarita voters approve $1.22 million in bonds for construction of the new schools. 

1973  -  Tucson Mayor Lewis C. Murphy proposes annexation of most of the Santa Cruz valley as far south as Sahuarita.

1975  -  Anamax Mining Company donates 15 acres to Sahuarita School District on Camino de las Quintas for development as a Pima County park.

1976  -  Kerley Chemical is ordered to stop polluting the air near Santo Tomas subdivision.  Sahuarita School Board embarks on a major building program, estimated to cost $2.2 million.

1977  -  Construction of the new Sahuarita Auditorium is approved at a cost of more than $1 million.  Sahuarita Unified School District Governing Board awards a $1,060,000 contract to build a junior high and to make other improvements.  Petitions requesting the establishment of a fire district in and around Sahuarita filed with Pima County Board of Supervisors.

1978  -  Plans for Sahuarita $2 million auditorium approved. Voters defeated proposal to create a Sahuarita Volunteer Fire District 29-66.

1979  -  Local residents express outrage about burial of tritium-contaminated food stuffs at the Sahuarita landfill.

1980  -  Sahuarita School District voters approve a $389,535 budget override 263-189.

1982  -  Sahuarita Junior High Principal Charles Oldham is named interim superintendent of the school district.

1983  -  Sahuarita Unified School District lays off 22 teachers as a result of state equalization of per pupil spending.  E.C. Garcia and Company buys 2,800 acres of FICO land.

1987  -  Sahuarita School District closes Arivaca kindergarten.

1988  -  Anamax Park doubles its size under planned expansion of county parks.  Sahuarita homeowners form an area council; agreement is reached naming Duval Mine Road as the boundary between Sahuarita and Green Valley.

1989  -  Emerald Homes announces plans for 5,000 homes and two golf courses on 1,700 acres in a development known as Quail Creek in Sahuarita.  Voters in Sahuarita Unified School District approve budget override by a 22-vote margin.  Pima County Planning and Zoning Commission approves specific plan allowing for construction of 5,000 homes at Quail Creek.  Sahuarita High School automotive services instructor Archie Romney is named Automotive Teacher of the Year.

1990  -  Santa Tomas residents Patrick and Paula Walsh win a $7 million jackpot from the Arizona State Lottery.  Quail Creek sold to Phoenix-based Lifeshares Group, Inc.  Construction of Bashas' grocery store begins.

1991  -  Quail Creek country club files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in federal court.  Sahuarita area council contests ADOT study which rejects the need for a traffic signal at U.S. 89 and Sahuarita Road.  Sahuarita Unified School District buys nine acres in Santo Tomas for $135,000 as a future site for an elementary school.  Southwestern Life Insurance Co. aquires Quail Creek Country Club.

1993  -  Very heavy rains over a two-week period unleash the Santa Cruz River, closing five area bridges.  Cyprus Minerals Corporation and AMAX Inc. announce a merger.  Sahuarita area council hears a proposal from Sharpe and Associates for the development of 2,500 acres of desert at Interstate 19 and Helmet Peak Road.  As a part of a bankruptcy settlement, Fairfield sells 93 acres to Sharpe and Associates, near Duval Mine Road and La Canada Drive.  Pima County Planning and Zoning Commission recommends approval of requests by Sharpe and Associates and by Carl Bosse to move their respective properties in Sahuarita and east of the Green Valley out of the "development reserve" category.

1994  -  Pima County Board of Supervisors approves request by Robert Sharpe and Associates to move its Sahuarita property out of development reserve.  The Board of Representitives of the Green Valley Community Coordinating Council approves revised incorporation boundaries which set the northern boundary of Green Valley at Anamax Road in Santo Tomas, considered the core of Sahuarita.  In reaction to this action, the Sahuarita Area Council forms a committee to study incorporation for that community.  In June, Sahuarita incorporation advocates launch a petition drive of their own with a southern boundary at Duval Road, well into what is considered to be Green Valley.  In August, Sahuarita beats Green Valley to the incorporation punch, securing an election date of September 13, when Sahuarita's incorporation is approved at the polls by a 13-vote margin, 271-258.  Ann Matyas becomes the first mayor of the Town of Sahuarita.  Titan Missile Museum in Sahuarita is designated as a national historic landmark.

1995  -  The Sahuarita Town Council asks the Pima County Board of Supervisors to reject the La Joya Verde's development plans.  Robert Sharpe of Sharpe and Associates donates land to SUSD as a site for a new high school campus.

1996  -  The Sahuarita Town Council considers enacting a sales tax.  Sales tax revolt starts in town.  Sahuarita Town COuncil approves specific plan for the Sharpe and Associates development Rancho Sahuarita.  Sahuarita Mayor Ann Matyas resigns from Town Council.  Charles Oldham is elected mayor of Sahuarita by his colleagues on the Town Council.  The Pima County Board of Supervisors fromally ends the effort to reverse the incorporation of Sahuarita.  SUSD receives a 33 acre donation of land for a new high school from Sharpe and Associates.  Town announces its intention to form a Police Department.

1997  -  The Sahuarita Town Council gives tentative approval to hiring Tucson Police Department Sgt. Dave Holaway as town's first police chief.  Vivian Tiermeier is selected as the new mayor of Sahuarita.  Saddle Creek LLC announces plans for a renewed development at Quail Creek Country Club.  Helmet Peak Road becomes Sahuarita Road within the boundaries of the town of Sahuarita.

1998  -  The newly completed Sahuarita High School opens for classes.  Sahuarita Mayor Vivian Tiemeier is ousted and replaced by Gordon Van Camp and resigns her seat o the Town Council.  Quail Creek Country Club opens its second nine holes of golf.