Steam Pump Ranch
Steam Pump Ranch
3.5
About
The historic preservation of Steam Pump Ranch in Oro Valley, Arizona is an opportunity for visitors to experience an exciting window into the past. Every second Saturday of the month, Steam Pump Ranch hosts special tours, historic and cultural presentations, concert series and activities for children. All activities are free.
Duration: 1-2 hours
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Cliff K
Des Moines, IA777 contributions
Feb 2023 • Friends
Steam pump ranch
While attending a farmer's market I took advantage of the opportunity to see a really wonderful piece of Old Tucson that actually had family members from the early settlers of the ranch present to give information about the area. (We are lucky enough to have Barbara McIntyre a descendant of the early l settlers George and Mathilda Pusch. Her grandmother was one of their children. It was just very interesting to have that living history part of the museum by having the actual descendants share their perspective of early Tucson. George Pusch built the pump house in about 1875, he was very much in astute businessman and he took advantage of the local surface water to put in a steam pump and a Holding area for watering livestock. During the time cattle drives would be coming down from Tucson to the desert to get in the rail lines and of course the cattle would be very lean because they've been in the desert for a long time. He charged about 15 cents ahead for cattle to be watered which would increase their weight before they got shipped and would increase the amount of money that the cattle drovers would get for their cattle at market. Eventually they bought more land surrounding this area and at one time actually had over 15,000 cattle in the range that they were working with. They're also encounters with indigenous Apaches and the area also was famous all the way back from when Spanish settled the area for the lure of gold and there is of course a legend of a secret gold mine. He had several other business ventures including a butcher shop of course which connected into the cattle in a ice storage facility in Tucson. Mr Pusch was also a member of the Arizona territorial legislature.
When he died much of the cattle operations were shutting down.
In 1933 a new era in the ranch was brought on by the second significant historical family that the steam pump ranch. The Proctor family. During the prohibition area the ranch hosted several copper Homebrew mescal and sold it to locals. When Mr Jack Proctor took over the ranch many things were abandoned. At the same time he was the manager owner operator of the luxury Pioneer hotel and the owner director of Valley national bank. His hobbies were raising prize bowls and at the ranch he created a bunch of chicken farms to provide chicken and eggs to the guests of the pioneer hotel. His family also supported the original Tucson rodeo or the festival de vaqueros This area also hosted the first guest ranch in Arizona. We're also lucky to have the granddaughter of one of the proctors who lived on the ranch and was a barrel racer being one of the docents at the museum. It's her saddle that's displayed at the museum. I hope that people are motivated to learn more and go out and listen to people especially since you have the Arizona statehood celebration coming up.
While attending a farmer's market I took advantage of the opportunity to see a really wonderful piece of Old Tucson that actually had family members from the early settlers of the ranch present to give information about the area. (We are lucky enough to have Barbara McIntyre a descendant of the early l settlers George and Mathilda Pusch. Her grandmother was one of their children. It was just very interesting to have that living history part of the museum by having the actual descendants share their perspective of early Tucson. George Pusch built the pump house in about 1875, he was very much in astute businessman and he took advantage of the local surface water to put in a steam pump and a Holding area for watering livestock. During the time cattle drives would be coming down from Tucson to the desert to get in the rail lines and of course the cattle would be very lean because they've been in the desert for a long time. He charged about 15 cents ahead for cattle to be watered which would increase their weight before they got shipped and would increase the amount of money that the cattle drovers would get for their cattle at market. Eventually they bought more land surrounding this area and at one time actually had over 15,000 cattle in the range that they were working with. They're also encounters with indigenous Apaches and the area also was famous all the way back from when Spanish settled the area for the lure of gold and there is of course a legend of a secret gold mine. He had several other business ventures including a butcher shop of course which connected into the cattle in a ice storage facility in Tucson. Mr Pusch was also a member of the Arizona territorial legislature.
When he died much of the cattle operations were shutting down.
In 1933 a new era in the ranch was brought on by the second significant historical family that the steam pump ranch. The Proctor family. During the prohibition area the ranch hosted several copper Homebrew mescal and sold it to locals. When Mr Jack Proctor took over the ranch many things were abandoned. At the same time he was the manager owner operator of the luxury Pioneer hotel and the owner director of Valley national bank. His hobbies were raising prize bowls and at the ranch he created a bunch of chicken farms to provide chicken and eggs to the guests of the pioneer hotel. His family also supported the original Tucson rodeo or the festival de vaqueros This area also hosted the first guest ranch in Arizona. We're also lucky to have the granddaughter of one of the proctors who lived on the ranch and was a barrel racer being one of the docents at the museum. It's her saddle that's displayed at the museum. I hope that people are motivated to learn more and go out and listen to people especially since you have the Arizona statehood celebration coming up.
Written 12 February 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
openroad10
anon14 contributions
Apr 2019 • Couples
We visited Steam Pump Ranch on a Saturday. The farmer's market was small but had a nice variety of friendly vendors. We picked up several great local products at good prices! We also took a docent led tour of the Pusch house, and found out some very interesting details about the area and its history. The docent told us about the Pusch family, their water pump, and also details about the original buildings. It was a relaxing way to spend a Saturday morning - not too crowded and with a very local flair.
Written 28 June 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Victor B
Tucson, AZ4,334 contributions
Oct 2022 • Couples
It’s a good, albeit small, Saturday “farmer’s market”. Some nice vendors and nice people but not a lot of options to buy a proper lunch (eg no food trucks that I could see). They did have a great “human trafficking awareness” area, which was great to see more attention given to this important huge issue. They also had a historic “Pusch House” exhibit from the 1880’s on site…which was pretty cool!
VictorB
VictorB
Written 3 October 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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