Jean Baxter, educational director for the Presidio San Agustín del Tucson Museum, will be the featured speaker at the Friends of SaddleBrooke Libraries lecture on Thursday, April 11, at the DesertView Theater.
Nancy McCluskey-Moore
On Thursday, April 11, at 4 p.m. in the DesertView Theater, the Friends of SaddleBrooke Libraries (FSL) lecture will feature Jean Baxter, the educational director of Presidio San Agustín del Tucson. This lecture is free for FSL members and $5 for nonmembers to attend.
On Aug. 20, 1775, Inspector General Hugo O’Conor of the Spanish Army decreed that a new presidio fort, Presidio San Agustín del Tucson, should be built on the banks of the Santa Cruz River. The original fortress was the founding structure of what became the City of Tucson. Tucson flourished under Spanish rule, but the population didn’t exceed 500 until much later when the United States controlled the city. The colony managed to grow, with the help of the fort and its occupants who launched several expeditions into Indian country to fight the Seris, Opatas, Papago, and primarily the Apache. The expeditions helped keep the natives from the area, preventing raids on Spanish property and civilians.
After the American arrival in 1854 with the Gadsden Purchase, the Presidio was abandoned in 1856, with the last section of the fort torn down in 1918. A reconstruction of the northeast corner of the fort was completed in 2007 following an archaeological excavation that located the fort’s northeast tower.
The Presidio San Agustín del Tucson Museum is a recreation of the Tucson Presidio built in 1775. Visitors travel back in time to learn about life as early Tucsonans would have lived it. Walking tours discuss life in the Santa Cruz Valley for early Native Americans, Presidio residents, and Territorial Period settlers. The Museum’s mission is to promote, preserve, and interpret the origins, history, and natural environment of Tucson and celebrate the city’s multicultural community.
Jean Baxter is the Presidio’s storytelling docent, a Tucson Presidio Trust board member, and serves as the museum’s educational director. Her presentations allow audience members to learn about the beginnings of Tucson through researched stories of the city’s founders, of a famous attack, and of the daily lives of the soldiers and their families. During her presentation, Jean wears period-appropriate attire. Baxter is a former educator.