Titled “Tubac,” this United States Geological Survey map presents the storied Santa Cruz River corridor of southern Arizona, created from 1996 mapping and published with a 2002 imprint. At the precise 1:24,000 scale, it captures Tubac and its surrounding terrain with the disciplined clarity that made USGS quadrangles indispensable to explorers, planners, historians, and landowners alike. The map’s fine contouring reveals the subtle rise and fall of the Sonoran landscape, where river valley, desert foothills, roadways, and settlement patterns meet. More than a technical document, it is a late twentieth-century portrait of a place with deep colonial, Indigenous, and frontier histories, preserving the geography of Tubac at a moment before later development further reshaped the region.

Tubac occupies a remarkable place in Arizona’s historical imagination. Founded in the eighteenth century as a Spanish presidio, it is often remembered as one of the earliest European settlements in what is now Arizona, a frontier outpost established along routes that connected missions, military stations, ranchlands, and riverine communities. The map situates Tubac within this broader landscape, close to the Santa Cruz River, whose waters helped sustain habitation in an otherwise arid environment. Today the name evokes galleries, heritage tourism, and borderlands history, but on this map it is first and foremost a geographic fact: a settlement set among washes, roads, contours, and open land, inseparable from the natural corridor that shaped its existence.

The Santa Cruz River is one of the map’s defining features, winding through the region as both a physical landmark and a historical artery. In southern Arizona, rivers are never merely blue lines; they are lifelines, travel corridors, ecological refuges, and magnets for settlement. The topography around Tubac, expressed through close and carefully measured contour lines, shows how the valley floor gives way to surrounding elevations, creating the distinctive basin-and-range character of the region. Roads and trails threading through this terrain indicate patterns of movement across a landscape long traversed by Indigenous peoples, missionaries, soldiers, ranchers, miners, artists, and modern travelers. The result is a map that makes geography feel historical.

Just north of Tubac, Tumacácori National Historical Park anchors the map in the mission-era history of the Santa Cruz Valley. The park preserves the remnants of Spanish colonial mission communities, including Mission San José de Tumacácori, whose ruins stand as witnesses to cultural encounter, religious ambition, conflict, adaptation, and survival in the borderlands. Its presence on the map gives the surrounding topography added resonance: hills, river bends, roads, and settlements become part of a landscape shaped by centuries of movement between Mexico and the American Southwest. Nearby Rio Rico and other local features add a more contemporary layer, showing how the region evolved from mission frontier to modern residential and transportation corridor.

As a USGS topographic quadrangle, the map exemplifies a refined cartographic language: systematic lettering, precise elevation contours, clear road classification, hydrographic detail, and a restrained visual hierarchy designed for accuracy and legibility. This style is not ornamental in the antique sense, yet it possesses its own quiet elegance, rooted in measurement, observation, and public science. The United States Geological Survey, founded in 1879, transformed the understanding of American terrain through maps like this, creating a national archive of landforms, settlements, waterways, and human use. “Tubac” records the area as it stood in the late 1990s, offering a valuable geographic snapshot of a historically rich Arizona borderlands community.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Tubac
• Santa Cruz River
• Tumacácori National Historical Park
• Rio Rico
• Roadways surrounding the Tubac area
• Local trails and potential historical landmarks in the vicinity
• Elevation contour features showing changes in terrain

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the United States Geological Survey as a historical 1:24,000 topographical map.
• Created in 1996 and published with a 2002 imprint.
• Shows the populated place of Tubac, Arizona, and its immediate geographical surroundings.
• Tubac is one of the earliest European settlements in Arizona, with origins dating back to the 18th century.
• Uses the clear, systematic design typical of USGS topographic mapping.
• Features elevation contours and shaded relief to show hills, valleys, and terrain variation.
• Reflects the landscape as mapped in 1996, before later changes in development and land use.

Looking for a particular place? Review the detailed images to confirm that the town, landmark or feature you have in mind appears on the map. If you are unsure, ask our workshop to check before you order.

Detailed maps are especially rewarding at larger sizes, where names, boundaries and decorative features have more room to be appreciated. Use the close-up preview and size guide to choose the right scale for your wall.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 50in (125cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 16x20in (40x50cm) version of this map.

Where personalisation is available, you can add a short title or dedication, mark one meaningful place, or request one considered visual detail. See personalised map examples.

Every piece is printed to museum-grade archival standards using fade-resistant pigment inks on acid-free matte paper. Choose an unframed map print, framed map or canvas using the finish options above. Framed maps use crystal-clear optical acrylic and arrive ready to hang.

With its rich detail and strong sense of place, this map makes a considered gift for a new home, anniversary, retirement or anyone with a personal connection to the area shown. Still deciding? Explore our collection of rare old and vintage maps to discover another place, period or style.

This map is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The map is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present a map without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas maps and explore the differences between my different finishes.

For something truly unique, this map is also available in "Unique 3D", our trademarked process that dramatically transforms the map so that it has a wonderful sense of depth. We combine the original map with detailed topography and elevation data, so that mountains and the terrain really "pop". For more info and examples of 3D maps, check my Unique 3D page.