Santa Cruz River

The Santa Cruz River runs from south to north through Tumacácori National Historical Park.

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Location:

east of Tumacácori mission grounds

Amenities

1 listed

Scenic View/Photo Spot

The Santa Cruz River is an international waterway. It begins in the San Rafael Valley, flows southward into Mexico, then makes a U-turn back into the United States. Here, it flows from south to north, eventually joining the Gila River. The river creates essential habitat and a wildlife corridor for threatened and endangered species. 

Where underlying bedrock slopes up, the water is forced to the surface. The O’odham situated their villages in these locations, known as “gaining reaches,” to take advantage of the reliable water source. Later settlers followed suit. 

The river provided not only water for drinking and irrigation, but habitat for the complex web of life that supported human settlement. It contributed to every basket, meal, article of clothing, medicine, and cultural practice. Literally every item a person touched over the course of a lifetime connected back to the Santa Cruz River corridor. 

Today, the cottonwood-willow environment along the Santa Cruz is one of the most rare and endangered habitats in the United States. The river‘s plant and animal communities and water quality are threatened by climate change and modern land use. The stretch of river that flows through Tumacácori is now composed almost entirely of treated effluent, released from the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Facility in Rio Rico, Arizona. Although this supplemental water source has supported the return of the endangered Gila topminnow (Poeciliopsis occidentalis), it is not safe for human consumption. Avoid contact.  

Duration:

1 minute, 13 seconds

Captured from wildlife cameras along the Santa Cruz River, this sequence of footage illustrates the rich diversity of life that Tumacácori's habitat provides.