Monday, January 9, 2006

C.T. Revere: Rio Nuevo dig opens a window on our history

C.T. REVERE

Tucson Citizen

This historic ground was just another paved lot for parking cars only a month ago.

Today, the dusty parcel southwest of Church Avenue and Washington Street is a window to thousands of years of local human history and a glimpse into downtown Tucson's future.

While state lawmakers wrangle over future funding for Rio Nuevo and city officials tool and retool the notion of what they mean by "downtown redevelopment," Homer Thiel and his team are getting to the point.

"People don't realize that among the buildings and streets in downtown Tucson, there are thousands of years of history," said Thiel, the bearded and bespectacled archaeologist whose job is to protect that history before the city builds a park to honor it.

The lot, nestled in the winter shadow of the Transamerica Building, will eventually house one of the first historical attractions in Rio Nuevo - the Presidio Historical Park.

In concert with the Convento project near "A" Mountain and museums to be operated by the Arizona State Museum and The Arizona Historical Society, this project represents the most vital element of redevelopment - preserving and honoring our past.

Plans for sunken highways, ornate bridges and sports venues are likely to come and go at the whim of a few or of the many.

The one thing we have is our past.

There's enough of it being rekindled already to start breathing new life into the city's core.

"This is a community that really values its heritage," said Marty McCune, the city's historic preservation officer. "There is so much depth of history here, incredible layers of history, even at the middle of downtown, where you'd think it would be gone."

You're all invited to see that history being unearthed during free tours offered at the presidio site between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. tomorrow through Saturday.

The presidio, built by Spanish and Mexican soldiers and their Native American allies between 1775 and 1783, was the northernmost military outpost of New Spain.

A 1954 excavation unearthed what was believed to be an exterior wall of the fort. That same year it was paved over and turned into a parking lot.

During a 2002 dig, archaeologists realized it was an exterior wall of a 20-foot guard tower, which will be rebuilt for the park.

Plans also call for a replica adobe wall along the southern border of the property that will feature a mural of the original presidio.

While digging a trench for that wall, Thiel's crew found a 1,000-year-old Hohokam pit house, with caliche floor plaster and mesquite ceiling beams that burned sometime between the years 750 and 1100.

"There's a small hearth for heating fires and we found two grinding stones. Those were the only artifacts left behind when it burned," he said.

A second pit house, dating back 2,000 years, was found on the site, along with a pit from which the ancient inhabitants mined caliche for making plaster, and a pair of trash dumps from more recent times.

NEXT PAGE» 1, 2