Early Custodians of Tumacácori

The ruin of the San José de Tumacácori mission church was first established as a National Monument on September 15, 1908 by executive order of President Theodore Roosevelt. On August 6, 1990 the monument was re-designated Tumacácori National Historical Park by an act of Congress which also added the ruins of missions Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi and San Cayetano de Calabazas to the park.

During its early years, the monument was nominally taken care of by the nearest federal agency, the Department of Agriculture’s United States Forest Service, since the Department of Interior’s National Park Service (NPS) didn’t exist until 1916. Two years after the establishment of the NPS, Frank Pinkley was named the first custodian for Tumacácori, in addition to his duties as custodian of Casa Grande National Monument in Coolidge, Arizona. Pinkley immediately began cleanup and stabilization work, soliciting enough funds from local organizations to about double the amount allocated by the government. Major work was done in 1920-1921 but it was not until the 1930s that the park began to take on its present appearance.

Until the mid-1940s the person in charge of a park service area had the title of “custodian,” now it’s “superintendent.” During the New Deal period of Tumacácori National Monument’s history, four custodians were involved.

Frank "Boss" Pinkley (1881-1940)

Frank was a farm boy from Missouri whose doctor ordered him to go to Arizona for six months in 1900 to recuperate from a mild case of tuberculosis. If he had a round-trip ticket he never used it and a year later he accepted a government job as caretaker of Casa Grande ruin, where he lived in a tent and dug his own well. At the time of his death in 1940 he was the general manager of twenty-seven national monuments in four states, and was affectionately known as “The Boss.” Each custodian of the areas he administered submitted a monthly report and it is from these reports that the sequence of programs of the New Deal at Tumacácori is drawn.

Johnwill Faris (1903-1993)

Faris served briefly as custodian from April 1 to September 30, 1929, before any of the New Deal projects were born. He transferred to Aztec Ruins National Monument in New Mexico where he was the custodian until December 1, 1936.

George L. Boundey (1882-1969)

Boundey arrived the next day, October 1, 1929, and served as custodian until April 30, 1936. He and Johnwill Faris traded places; Boundey had been at Aztec Ruins since April 1, 1927. While at Tumacácori he supervised the construction of pre-New Deal support facilities such as the public restrooms, two employee residences, and a building for park maintenance. These buildings are still in use.

Louis R. Caywood (1906-1997)

Caywood was in charge of Tumacácori from May 1, 1936 until June 27, 1944. An archaeologist with a master’s degree from the University of Arizona, during his lifetime Caywood worked on projects ranging from Arizona, Washington and Virginia to Alaska, Hawaii and Canada. He began in 1933 at Tuzigoot (which became a National Monument in 1940) using FERA and CWA funds and laborers for stabilization of the 13th century ruin. In 1934, he began his thirty-five year career with the National Park Service.