AZ-Tohono+Chul+Park


 * =Birding in Arizona=

Pima County
=Tohono Chul Park= 7366 North Paseo del Norte Tucson, Arizona 85704 Tohono Chul Park webpage Birding Tours at Tohono Chul

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Tohono Chul Park
Coordinates: 32.3382984, -110.9804286 eBird links: Hotspot map View details Recent visits My eBird links: Location life list Submit data

About Tohono Chul Park
Tohono Chul grounds and Tohono Chul Garden Bistro: 8am-5pm, daily. Tohono Chul closed: New Year’s Day, 4th of July, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day. The cost of admission varies by season.

Tohono Chul, a desert oasis in the heart of Tucson offers guided bird tours year-round on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday at 8:30 AM. Beginners will feel comfortably at ease with our small groups that afford the personal attention often lacking on larger organized birding tours. More experienced birders will find the compact Park, with its varied mini-ecosystems, an ideal introduction to the bird life of the Arizona desert. Bird lovers of all levels of experience will love our beautiful surroundings and enjoy watching the “regulars” as well as seasonal migrants.

The story of Tohono Chul begins in 1966 when its benefactors, Richard and Jean Wilson, started piecing together patches of the desert that would form its core – ultimately owning 37 acres. In 1968 they purchased the section containing the hacienda-style “West House” known today as the Tohono Chul Garden Bistro (formerly the Tea Room). The Wilsons lived in this house for eight years.

It was during the 1970s that the couple was approached several times by developers seeking to purchase the land for commercial development. They always refused. Jean Wilson told them, “I don’t want to sell the land. I don’t want it cemented over. I want to preserve it.” In fact, when Pima County condemned a strip along the southern boundary of the property in order to widen Ina Road, Dick Wilson demanded that they move every saguaro and replant it on their adjacent property.

After opening the Haunted Bookshop in 1979 on Northern Avenue, the eastern boundary of the site, the Wilsons began planning their next project – a park. “At first, we just went out and put down some lime to make a path and marked the names of some of the plants and bushes, but then it started to snowball.” The path gradually grew into a loop trail meandering a half-mile into the surrounding desert. In 1980, they received a citation from the Tucson Audubon Society for saving the desert green space and opening it to the public.

Tohono Chul Park was formally dedicated on April 19, 1985. “We wanted to keep something natural in the middle of all the (surrounding) development so that people could come easily for a few hours and get out of the traffic and learn something at the same time. It’s probably contrary to what most people would do, but we feel it’s really important for people to have something like this.” An additional 11-acre parcel abutting the property on the north was added in 1995 and the closing of the Haunted Bookshop in 1997 added the final acre, making a total of 49.

At the Park’s dedication ceremony, Richard and Jean Wilson expressed their vision for Tohono Chul: We dedicate this park to those who come here, who, we hope, will not only admire and find comfort in the natural beauty of the area but will achieve a greater appreciation of the ways of conserving all our precious desert region and obtain a greater understanding of the people native to these areas. From Tohono Chul Park webpage



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