Tumacácori National Historical Park - Tumacácori Preservation (U.S. National Park Service)

Photo by David Yubeta

“Tumacacori’s preservation will always depend more on a respect and knowledge of the building’s materials and for the place itself, than on a new technological breakthrough. This is the nature of the place and that is the nature of adobe.” Anonymous

Historic Preservation at Tumacácori National Historical Park

1. 1000 person hours are spent annually on maintaining the structures at all three sites.

2. Materials used for preservation are the traditional materials used in building the missions.

3. Most typical size of adobe at Tumacácori’s Franciscan church are 12x3x24 inches.

4. More than 90,000 adobes were used in the building of the present church.

5. Fired or cooked adobe bricks were used where strength was needed for support.

6. Lime plaster was the traditional covering for adobe structures consisting only of lime and sand.

7. Cactus mucilage (baba de nopal) is added as a binder to plaster finishes.

8. It is estimated that over 20 million dollars have been spent on the mission’s preservation and upkeep since 1917.

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