This report describes the different, and sometimes conflicting, conceptions of land use that have been held by residents of southern Arizona during the past 500 years. Briefly outlining major events in the Native American, Hispanic, and Anglo experience, the report provides a chronology of events.

Pima County is blessed with a rich and varying record of human settlement over the 11,000 years representing prehistoric, Spanish Colonial, and Mexican-American influences in our history. The County's archaeological site is the building of structure with traditional cultural values and historic landscapes are all nonrenewable cultural resources.