SAN XAVIER DEL BAC

Now called the "White Dove of the Desert", is located off I-19 along the Santa Cruz River and part of the O'odham reservation. Mission San Xavier del Bac is an active parish administered be the Franciscans. Established by Kino in 1692 at the site of an existing Piman village,by 1732 the mission community had grown to require a full-time resident missionary to attend to it and its visita, Tucson. San Xavier del Bac was under Franciscan administration when the Anza expedition stopped on October 25, 1775 to mourn the only death on the expedition and to celebrate three marriages. Construction of the present mission church was started in 1783. The mission has a museum.