Historic Canoa Ranch is the ranch headquarters at the heart of the 4,800 acre Raul M. Grijalva Canoa Ranch Conservation Park, which Pima County purchased in 2001 using voter-approved bond funds. The facility preserves a rich record of the prehistoric people, Native Americans, Spaniards, Mexicans and Anglos who were drawn to the area by natural springs.

There is evidence of pre-historic human habitation dating back to 2500 B.C. The Hohokam lived in the area from 600 to 1450 A. D. and the Tohono O’odham called it home starting in the 1600s. Father Eusebio Francisco Kino passed by the Canoa Site in the 1690s on the way to what would become Mission San Xavier del Bac and the City of Tucson. In 1775, Juan Bautista de Anza led a 240 person expedition to northern California. The group spent its first night at La Canoa, which is Spanish for canoe.

Mexican and Anglo settlers came to the area in the mid-to late 1800s, but it was during the Manning era (1912-1970s) when the full potential of the ranch was realized. The Manning family turned Hacienda de la Canoa into a showcase ranch and community worked by both Anglo and Mexican families.

Pima County’s recently completed construction at Historic Canoa Ranch has rehabilitated the once-crumbling adobe buildings and re-established historic landscapes such as Canoa Lake. The site is now open to the public for guided tours, special events, bird walks and workshops.

​Open spaces and our historic past both help define us as a community. Visitors to Historic Canoa Ranch are able to step back in time and catch a glimpse of what life was like on a traditional cattle ranch, a lifestyle that has evolved yet continues to define the independent, diverse and distinctive culture of communities in the southwest.