Your Dollars At Work

Preservation work takes place inside and outside of the mission church yearround.

NPS Photo

The National Park Service collects Recreation Fees under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA). Recreation Fees provide a vital source of revenue for improving facilities and services for park visitors. Learn more about fee projects in other national parks.

The money you hand to the ranger or volunteer at the visitor center, is being put to use in Tumacácori to make the park—and your visit—better. Some improvements take place behind-the-scenes. Others may be a direct part of your park experience, like an exhibit, an accessible trail, or the tortilla ramada. All of these projects are important to the continued preservation of your national parks. Thanks to all of you that have paid an entrance fee or bought a park pass at Tumacácori.

This is a list of just some of the things your contributions have made possible:

 

Resurface and Expand Main Visitor Trail at Tumacácori

The main visitor trail at the Tumacácori unit of the park is fully accessible per the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) guidelines. The trail guides visitors to all important features of the mission compound, including the mission garden, lime kiln, acequia, and orchard.

 

Replace Outdated Orientation Film for Tumacácori Visitor Center

Coming soon in 2020! This project will produce a 10 to 15 minute film utilizing new research, information, and technology. The video will be produced in Spanish and English and will be fully ADA compliant, with captions, assisted listening, and audio description. Components resulting from the production of the film will be used by the park to create digital applications for personal devices.

Replace failing lime shelter coat on mission church

TUMA preservation staff removed and replaced disintegrating, detaching and cracked lime plaster coats on the Mission Church, Mortuary Chapel, Granary, Convento, and surrounding historic Campo Santo wall. The new plaster is a monolithic protective coat with extended service life. The existing plaster had outlived the original replacement cycle of 5 to 7 years and it has been almost 10 years since the entire protective coat has been replaced.

Improve visitor experience by performing maintenance along riparian trail (Anza Trail)

Annual monsoons take a toll on the trail and cause hazards to the visitors. Improve the condition of existing social trails by clearing hazardous debris so that they can be formalized by the park and integrated into the overall visitor experience of the park. This will provide increased access for recreational activities along the Santa Cruz River. Youth crews will be used to clean trash from the riparian area and maintain/build new recreational trails to increase access and improve visitor experience along the Santa Cruz River.

Improve Visitor experience with integrated resources intern

This project will provide for an intern to help educate the public about these ruins preservation activities. In addition, the intern will interpret natural resources for visitors. The intern will conduct approximately 10 nature walks along the Santa Cruz River with visitors, interpret bats and mist netting during our annual “bat night,” and help with 3 or more river clean up days that aid in habitat restoration along the Santa Cruz River with visitor involvement. The intern will also participate in less formal interpretive events like bird walks and wildflower talks.