History & Culture

The Pimería Alta covers low and high desert country from the Gulf of California to the Gila River, a Colorado River tributary flowing from New Mexico through Arizona.

NPS Photo

PIMERÍA ALTA
When the Spanish first arrived in this area, they called the O'odham Indians Pimas. This area of present-day southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico, became known by the Jesuit order of Catholic missionaries as the Pimería Alta, and is still known by the same name today. The Spanish words Pima-ería alta mean "place of the upper Pimas" in English.

 

Water, running in what became known as the "Planchas de Plata" canyon southwest of Nogales, flows out of the high country through the area that was called "Arizona" in 1736, past the Arizona Ranch, and joins the Altar River at Saric, Sonora.

Photo by Reba Grandrud

ARIZONA
Starting in the mid-1730's, Spanish and Basque prospectors and ranchers started to move into the high and rugged mountainous area south of Tumacácori. Bernardo de Urrea, a criollo Basque born in Culiacán, Mexico started a cattle and horse ranch at the junction of two canyons that flowed in a generally westward direction, which he named Arizona. When he became a deputy chief justice for that area of Sonora, the political jurisdiction also became known as Arizona. When prospective miners developed a Royal Mining Camp called Agua Caliente near Urrea´s ranch, it was sometimes called Agua Caliente of the Arizona [political jurisdiction].