Visiting San Xavier Mission in Tucson.

It’s easy to see why this mission is known as the “White Dove of the Desert.” A National Historic Landmark, San Xavier Mission was founded as a Catholic mission by Father Kino in 1692. Construction of the current church began in 1783 and was completed in 1797. San Xavier is still actively run by Franciscans and continues to serve the Native community with weekly services.

The painting and artwork in this mission is beyond description, everywhere you look there appears a masterpiece. At one time, the mission was inactive and natives in the area were allowed to live in the mission, fires from cooking and heating covered much of the interior artwork with black soot,  it’s taken years of restoration to bring it back to what we see today. 

Mission interior over the pew area.  

 Pews in the mission.

 Old saguaro ribs make up the ceiling in the mission courtyard. Large doors built in front of the church led to a walled courtyard, the worshippers would put their horses/animals in the courtyard during worship and celebrations to keep them protected from the raiding Apaches. 
A "White Dove of the Desert" indeed.

On another day we visited and toured the Titan II missile site south of Tucson. The launch control room above. I got to be the commander who along with the other crew person (our tour guide) performed a simulated launch. I sat in the chair and turned the key to launch. Fortunately in real life one of these missiles never launched. Their purpose was to serve as a deterrent and the program was a success.

This was the only Titan II used for training and never loaded with a nuclear warhead which is why it remains today. All other Titan II’s were demolished in the early 1980’s due to outdated technology and weapons reduction programs. 

The Titan missile is massive, 103 ft buried in an underground silo (8 stories). Hard to fathom something that huge could be propelled upward and reach a target on another continent.

Our tour took us underground, thru tunnels to where we could view the missle and then thru another tunnel to this launch control center. The complex was built of steel reinforced concrete with walls as much as 8-foot-thick in some areas and 3-ton blast doors that sealed areas from the surface and each other. It was fascinating to see this huge facility and all of it underground and undectablable from the outside.