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La Expedición de Anza 1775 is the result of a collaborative community project that aims to create an inclusive cultural history park with engaging opportunities for Tucson.
Running parallel to the Santa Cruz River, the 1,200-mile Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail connects history, culture, and outdoor recreation from Nogales, Arizona, to the San Francisco Bay Area.
This park will provide a space for nearby students from the Arizona School for the Deaf and the Blind & the greater Tucson community to connect and learn from the diverse cultural perspectives that represent this region.
In the coming months, artists will be creating interactive sculptures to be installed at this site in order to help us learn from and experience the historic trail in modern times.
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Over a 3-year design process we developed and installed the following new features on this site:
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A new smooth path with a guide cable facilitates navigation of the park for individuals who are blind or visually impaired.
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Tactile surface indicators on the ground indicate a change in the path for blind travelers in search of an interactive sculpture or picnic area.
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North of the entrance plaza we built a cloverleaf-shaped raised garden with new seat walls for relaxing, touching plants, and enjoying the fresh air. The trees planted here will in time provide 70% shade cover and produce edible fruit.
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In the whole park we planted over 350 new plants including more than 50 native trees. (See if you can count them all- they were planted quite small in the spring of 2020.)
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Our new concrete path from the Speedway entrance safely diverts cyclists away from the walking area along the guide cable route over to The Loop path.
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New audio story boxes provide a solar-powered post that talks about the project, and a hand-crank powered audio box on the north end provides stories and sounds of the historic Anza Exhibition.
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Additionally, benches, tables, and an outdoor ramada are planned for the future, along with a series of storytelling sculptures, an entrance arch, and other artistic elements.
