Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino

The plaque lists him as founder, explorer, astronomer, rancher, teacher, and cartographer, and it undersells him. Eusebio Francisco Kino reached the Pimería Alta in 1687 and spent twenty-four years crossing it on horseback, founding more than twenty missions among the O'odham and mapping country no European had drawn. His surveys proved Baja California a peninsula, not an island, correcting the atlases of his age. He brought the cattle and wheat that remade the local diet. He died in 1711 at Magdalena, in Sonora, and is honored on both sides of the line.

What the plaque says

SJ. . Founder of Missions Man of God Pioneer Explorer Astronomer Rancher Teacher Cartographer 1645-1711.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tumacácori National Historical Park — 17 mi
  Arizona's first mission, on O'odham ground along the Santa Cruz River.

More markers nearby

• Camp Stephen D. Little — 0.3 mi
• Jacob Isaacson — 1.3 mi
• Mission Guevavi — 4.4 mi
• John Ward's Ranch — 13 mi