Commemorating the Raising of the First American Flag within the Walled City of Tucson

On December 16, 1846, in the middle of the war with Mexico, the Mormon Battalion marched into Tucson and raised the first American flag over the old walled presidio. There was no fight: the small Mexican garrison had withdrawn to San Xavier del Bac rather than face the column, and the footsore soldiers traded buttons and cloth for wheat and beans before moving on toward California. The flag came down when they left. Tucson would not actually become American soil until the Gadsden Purchase, eight years later.

What the plaque says

Commemorating the raising of the first American flag within the Walled City of Tucson, December 16, 1846.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tucson — steps away
  The Old Pueblo — four thousand years of farming under the sky islands
• Mission San Xavier del Bac — 8.2 mi
  The White Dove of the Desert — the finest Spanish Baroque church in the country
• Saguaro National Park — 21 mi
  The giant cactus, and the O'odham who count it as kin

More markers nearby

• The First Presbyterian Church in Tucson — steps away
• Edward Nye Fish House — steps away
• Arizona's First Public School — steps away
• Court Street — steps away