LEGEND OR LIE: “A” Mountain crater

LEGEND OR LIE: “A” Mountain crater

TUCSON, Ariz. — A well-known Tucson landmark is the source of a legend that’s origins are stated to go back thousands and thousands of many years.

“We reside in an exciting put with countless numbers of a long time of heritage,” reported Homer Thiel.

Tucson Archaeologist Homer Thiel appreciates Southern Arizona’s background really perfectly. But does it involve a meteor hitting the base of “A” Mountain and leaving a crater that even now exists there to this day?

Connected – Absolutely Arizona reveals “A” Mountain record

That is the legend, but prior to we make clear what seriously happened to bring about that crater on “A” mountain, we also have to handle a different legend about how the mountain was at first formed.

"A" Mountain with crater on north side

Pat Parris

Thiel is a project manager with Desert Archaeology and states there was no volcanic explosion that produced Sentinel Peak, what we call “A” Mountain, but he states the mountain was fashioned by volcanic action between 10 and 20 million many years ago.

“It just pushed up from under. Most of the Tucson Mountains are volcanic in origin, as are the mountains up in Flagstaff,” Thiel claimed. “So, hundreds of thousands of many years ago there have been volcanoes that were erupting right here in Tucson.”

And the meteorite that supposedly designed the crater… that is a lie far too.

To fully grasp what truly took place, we require to go back again hundreds of yrs. The Tohono O’odham individuals established a settlement at the base of “A” Mountain called Stjukson or black foundation. The black foundation will come from the volcanic rock. The name Stjukson sooner or later morphed into Tucson.

“In 1879, the Sisters of St. Joseph resolved to develop a clinic. That’s the St. Mary’s Medical center,” Thiel spelled out. “They desired a supply of rock for their foundations. So, they founded this quarry up on the side of Sentinel Peak or “A” Mountain as it is really referred to as currently. The basalt rocks are quite major and extremely dense. They make good basis stones.”

Thiel says rocks taken from this quarry also crafted the foundations of numerous of the houses all-around UArizona as very well as the rock wall bordering pieces of the College campus.

Rock inside the quarry on "A" Mountain

Pat Parris

“Those had been constructed in the 1910s. About the exact same time that the university college students set the large “A” up on the side of “A” Mountain,” Thiel reported.

The quarry virtually led to the demise of “A” Mountain. In the mid-1920s, a few attained the mineral rights to 200 acres of the mountain.

“They prepared on fundamentally having the major of “A” Mountain off,” recalled Thiel. “The city of Tucson decided that was not a superior notion. So they questioned the bureau of the inside to reverse that determination. Which is how we obtained the park up there.”

“A” Mountain was saved and the quarry shut. Above time a legend grew that a meteor established the crater on the side of “A” Mountain. A legend we now know is a lie.

—-

Keep IN Contact WITH US Anytime, Anywhere

Related Post