Rio Rico is Spanish for “rich river,” and the Santa Cruz River runs right through this map. It prints the Rio Rico History Museum, the Gabilondo-Zehentner Centennial County Service Center, Calabasas School, Mountain View Elementary, San Cayetano Elementary and the Rio Rico Golf Club, from Otero out to Calabasas, with Cuates Butte, Potrero Creek and the Santa Cruz River giving shape to the valley.
Rio Rico is an unincorporated community in Santa Cruz County, just north of Nogales.
KNOWOL made this map in 2026 and gave modern data the look of a vintage atlas. The shaded relief of Cuates Butte comes from United States Geological Survey elevation data, and the streets were drawn from Census Bureau files. Rio Rico lies where Sonoita Creek meets the Santa Cruz River, with Mount San Cayetano rising above the valley, and in 2010 it was the second-largest community in Santa Cruz County after Nogales.
San Cayetano de Calabazas
The Calabasas printed on this map is the old ghost town. It began as a mission, and its name first appears in a baptismal record of June 2, 1756. Earlier that year, Father Francisco Xavier Pauer had moved at least 78 Pimas, O’odham people, from their village of Toacuquita, a Spanish rendering of the O’odham words for “peaked mountain,” up from the river to a new mission on the bluffs, San Cayetano de Calabazas. Calabazas means “squash” or “gourds” in Spanish, and the National Park Service says the name may point to the wild coyote gourds that grow here or to the squash the O’odham grew. The church was half built in 1761 and in use by 1773, and in 1775 Father Pedro Font said Mass there with Juan Bautista de Anza’s expedition to California. After raids in 1777 and the years that followed, the last O’odham left in 1786.
The old church went on to serve as a farm for the Tumacácori mission, and then, according to the National Park Service, as the ranch house of Manuel Gándara, governor of Sonora, who bought Calabazas in 1844. After the Gadsden Purchase the building was a customs house, a post office and a home, and in 1856 the U.S. Dragoons set up Camp Moore here, the first military post in the Gadsden Purchase lands. By 1878 the church was a roofless shell. In 1960 Father Norman Whalen of Tombstone gathered volunteers who capped its walls, and in 1990 the ruins became part of Tumacácori National Historical Park, where they can be visited on reserved tours led by park staff.
Click to explore a larger preview. The digital watermark does not appear on printed maps.
Names on this map
These names are printed on this map.
Streets and roads: Clark Crossing Rd, Cam Murphy, Ave de Las Naciones, Cam China, Santa Gertrudis Ln, Gravel Pit, Agua Sarca, Ver Neblina, Ver Patria, Circle Girasol, Cll Alarcon, San Cayetano.
More street names, A to Z
Ann Rd, Arnoldo Ct, Brinca Ct, Cam Agosto, Cam Agua Fria, Cam Arenosa, Cam Arruza, Cam Arviso, Cam Carina, Cam Cumbre, Cam Embarcadero, Cam Estrella, Cam Esturion, Cam Galapago, Cam India, Cam Kansas, Cam la Pasida, Cam Mar, Cam Maricopa, Cam Real, Celeya Ct, Charro Corte, Circula Huracan, Cll Buzo, Cll Caracol, Cll Carmona, Cll Coyote, Cll Muelle, Cll Remedios, Conasta Ct, Corinto Ct, Corte Arboles, Cír Columbia, Cír Corona, Cír Montana, Cír Puerto, Cír Sopori, Gavilan Ct, Grosvenor Rd, Grow Ln, Kents Ave, Managua Ct, Manolete Ct, Monsoon Ct, Morning Star Dr, Nopal Ct, Old Ruby Rd, Olmo Ct, Pachuca Ct, Pavo Ct, Peck Canyon Dr, Pso Queretaro, Pso Reforma, Pso Venado, Ranch Rd, Rio Rico, Rizo Ct, Roma Ct, Ruby Rd, Ruta Camaron, Sauzal Ct, Solar Ln, Sonita Creek Ranch Rd, Stable Ln, Tequila Ct, Tonina Ct, Trinity Ct, Ute Ct, Ver Moctezuma, Via Artico, Via San Fransico, Via Visalia.
Ranches, rails and a museum
Upstream on Potrero Creek, near Nogales, Pete Kitchen started a ranch about 1862, reputedly the first permanent American ranch in Arizona; Anza had visited the spot in 1774 and called it Las Lagunas. The New Mexico and Arizona Railroad was built through the valley in the early 1880s, running from Benson by way of Sonoita and Patagonia to Rio Rico and then south to Nogales. Only 9.78 miles of its track remain, from Rio Rico to Nogales. Calabasas had a village, a store and the Santa Rita Hotel, once a fine hotel along the railroad. Modern Rio Rico has since been built over the village and store sites, and the hotel site is vacant land. Soldiers of Fort Mason started the Calabasas Cemetery during the Civil War, and local people used it afterward. The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail follows much of the Santa Cruz.
The Rio Rico Historical Society keeps the community’s story at the Rio Rico History Museum, at Plaza de Anza on West Frontage Road, with free admission. The Gabilondo-Zehentner Centennial County Service Center, Calabasas School, Mountain View Elementary, San Cayetano Elementary and the Rio Rico Golf Club all appear on the sheet, and so does Otero.
This Rio Rico map makes a good addition to an office, library or den, and it can help teach children the geography and history of the area. It’s made for anyone who calls Rio Rico home, along the Santa Cruz, and KNOWOL created it in 2026 to show the community as it looks today. Zoom in on the preview above to explore the details, then click here to get your copy of the Rio Rico map.
Sources
- Rio Rico, Arizona, Wikipedia
- Rio Rico Historical Society
- Rio Rico History Museum, Rio Rico Historical Society
- San Cayetano de Calabazas, National Park Service
- Calabasas, Arizona, Wikipedia
- Tumacácori National Historical Park, Wikipedia
- Pete Kitchen Ranch, Wikipedia
- Sonoita Creek, Wikipedia
- Santa Cruz River (Arizona), Wikipedia
