Tucson history mural from 14,000 years ago until now

On the walls of a Tucson Electrical Power station is a four panel mural depicting the history of Tucson area going back to before humans arrived in the Americas. I’d driven by it often but didn’t recognize that it was by Joe Pagac, the flying whales muralist, but I should have recognized the Gila Monster from the Pagac mural on Euclid.

This mural is located on Mountain Ave. just before Prince and if you want to stop and see it close up you might try parking at the Habitat for Humanity lot next to the power station.

This panel represents contemporary Tucson with tall buildings at and around U. of Arizona and the big “A” hill to the west of downtown. The cow skull is a bit of a puzzle, however. Unlike the other versions of flowing water in these murals, the river looks very narrow and the land appears barren. Climate change? Perhaps that would explain the skull, too?

Going back a century or so: the Old Pueblo with a river–not sure which one–in full flood. The clothing appears to be from the late 1800s and the view is looking north from the city toward the Santa Catalina Mountains.

Up close one can see Pagac’s signature as well as stones with Native American rock paintings. I like the details of the horse and wagon as well as two windows being open in the house.

In another detail while European and American settlers begin to build their homes in the Santa Cruz valley where Tucson is located, a Cactus Wren, the official state bird of Arizona, makes its home in the saguaro.

Stepping back further in time the next panel in the mural depicts the native people who lived alongside the Rillito River and grew corn and squash in irrigated fields. Curiously, there are two small Spanish style buildings in the background along with several native homes.

I’m not at all sure who the native woman in purple is, but what I noticed was that taggers had written on the mural. Shame.

The three previous panels face onto Mountain Drive near Prince. This last panel reflects pre-human-history in the Santa Cruz Valley. A giant beaver and two elk at a stream wraps around the wall enclosing the power station and faces a parking lot. Sorry about the angle but there is a large heavy dumpster in front of this section of the mural.

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Tucson News: The votes from the November 3rd election are almost all counted. Congratulations to astronaut Mark Kelly, the new U.S. Senator for Arizona! Also, the marijuana initiative passed.