Editing Santa Cruz County, Arizona (section)

==History==
[[File:Santa Cruz River - Kino Springs AZ.jpg|thumb|left|The Santa Cruz River flowing northwards near Kino Springs shortly after re-entering the U.S. from Mexico.]]
Santa Cruz County, formed on March 15, 1899, out of what was then [[Pima County, Arizona|Pima County]], is named after the [[Santa Cruz River (Arizona)|Santa Cruz River]]. The river originates in the [[Canelo Hills]] in the eastern portion of the county, crosses south into Mexico near the community of [[Santa Cruz, Sonora]], and then bends northwards returning into the United States (and Santa Cruz County) east of Nogales.

[[Eusebio Kino|Father Eusebio Kino]], an Italian explorer and [[Jesuit missionaries|missionary]] in the service of the [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish Empire]], named the Santa Cruz River–"[[Christian cross|holy cross]]" in Spanish–in the 1690s. In addition, Kino founded several missions to evangelize the different [[O'odham|O'odham peoples]] living along the banks of the Santa Cruz River, including Missions [[San Cayetano del Tumacácori]] (1691) and [[San Gabriel de Guevavi]] (1691), as well as [[Mission San Ignacio de Sonoitac|Los Reyes de Sonoita]] (1692) near [[Sonoita Creek]]. Along the river, but outside the boundaries of Santa Cruz County, Kino also founded [[Mission San Xavier del Bac]] (1692) near Tucson, Arizona, and [[Spanish missions in the Sonoran Desert|Mission Santa Maria del Pilar]] (1693) in what is now Santa Cruz, Mexico. Kino's San Cayetano and San Gabriel missions were destroyed in the O'odham peoples' [[Pima Revolt|1751 Pima Revolt]] and rebuilt as Missions [[Mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi|Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi]] (1751),  [[Mission San José de Tumacácori|San José de Tumacácori]] (1753), and [[Mission San Cayetano de Calabazas|San Cayetano de Calabazas]] (1756). The ruins of all three of these later missions are now protected by [[Tumacácori National Historical Park]]. Disease, warfare, overwork, and changes in land ownership during Spanish colonization led to the demographic decline of the O'odham peoples of Santa Cruz County.<ref name="pimajp">{{cite web|url=http://jp.pima.gov/Pages/history/county.htm|title=History: Pima County|publisher=Pima County Justice Court|date=September 27, 2000|access-date=September 30, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527140505/http://jp.pima.gov/Pages/history/county.htm|archive-date=May 27, 2010}}</ref><ref name="libaz">{{cite web|url=http://www.lib.az.us/archives/county_santa_cruz.cfm|title=Santa Cruz County|publisher=Arizona State Library Archives and Public Records: Arizona History and Archives Division|date=August 4, 2009|access-date=September 30, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090915204127/http://www.lib.az.us/archives/county_santa_cruz.cfm|archive-date=September 15, 2009}}</ref>