On Aug. 20, 1775, while at his headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., commanding the Continental forces surrounding British-occupied Boston, George Washington penned a letter to his cousin expressing concern about the safety of his letters and personal records at Mount Vernon, his home in Virginia.

He worried that the British might invade Virginia and burn his home in retribution for his leading the American rebellion.

Meanwhile, on the same day 2,000 miles to the southwest, Hugo O’Conor, a red-headed Spanish Army captain of Irish descent, on a low-slung hill above an ephemeral stream in the Spanish colonial region of Sonora, penned a document establishing a Spanish fort that would eventually be called Presidio San Agustin de Tucson.

O’Conor was the Spanish Army’s inspector general for Sonora and had been tasked with improving the string of forts in Northern Sonora providing protection to Spanish ranchers and miners from attacks by Native Americans. He didn’t like the location of the Spanish fort at Tubac about 30 miles to the south and wanted it moved to a more defensible location with better water, farm and pasture land.

Spanish control of the hilltop settlement would be short-lived. Mexico erupted in rebellion in 1810 and an 11-year revolutionary war left Northern Sonora in chaos. The new Mexican government finally re-established control over Tucson and northern Sonora in the 1820s, but that too, would be short-lived.

The Texas rebellion 14 years later and the U.S. invasion of Mexico 10 years after that transferred most of northern Mexico to the United States. Tucson was appended to the conquered lands through purchase in 1853.

Tucson was home to the Tohono O’odham and earlier, older Native American tribes for several thousand years. It was ostensibly part of the Spanish empire for 300 years though it only exercised control over the area for about 200 years. It was part of Mexico for either 43 years or 33 years depending on which year you use for Mexican independence, and, so far, it has been part of the United States for 158 years.

Saturday is the 236th anniversary of the founding of the Tucson presidio. Our city predates the United States by one year.

Our past matters. Why we’re here and how we’ve managed to stay here and prosper informs who we are now and how we can overcome our current troubles.

Tucson’s fortunes have risen and fallen over the centuries. Our current fortune seems on the ebb and we’re divided about the best way to keep that little fort on the hill growing and prosperous.

But rather than be alarmed, history teaches us that we need only look back to see that adversity almost always causes division yet out of that division eventually comes consensus and prosperity.

Perhaps Saturday will be that day?

On Aug. 20, let us all be Tucsonans and put aside our differences and petty disputes and see what that red-headed, Irish Spaniard saw 236 years ago – a great place to build a city.

Happy Birthday, Tucson.

Just did a bit on the John C. Scott show and spent a good part of the time talking about my column from this week (which John overly gushed about, much to my embarrassment).

The point I was trying to make was that candidates for office consume themselves with pointing out the bad. Incumbents want to accentuate the good. But what is good about Tucson? Ask yourself that question and tie it specifically to Tucson, not the county or the region.

It’s a harder question to answer than you think.

For example, we all love Sabino Canyon (or we all should, anyway). But that’s not in Tucson. Neither is the Desert Museum, or Tucson Mountain Park, or many of the other things we all list when people ask us what we like or love about Tucson. But when it comes to the city, what’s good about it?

My answer was pretty weak. I think the parks are good. Reid Park is one of the better municipal parks I’ve seen, especially in Arizona. The bike lanes are good, though I don’t ride a bike. But I think it’s good that we’re one of the most bike-friendly cities in the country. The gem show is awesome, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with the city council but the council could kill it if it wanted to or perhaps through sheer negligence, neglect or nincompoopery. It should get credit for not screwing it up, at least. The Mariachi festival is cool, but needs some help from the city to prosper, and Tucson Meet Yourself is nice but could be an even bigger and better cultural and food festival with a little more city support (See “Taste of Chicago” to get a sense of what I mean). There are a few other smaller things that are good about Tucson, but this is a pretty meager list.

I think how the candidates answer it would be informative.

As the discussion with John wandered around several points, he brought up a related one that I think also is important for this coming council election.

What is Tucson?

Tucson used to be a Western town, tied to its Western heritage through the rodeo and rodeo parade and all the dude ranches. In the 1930s and 1940s, there were more than two dozen dude ranches around town. Old Tucson and Hollywood’s constant use of the area as a backdrop for its horse operas only helped to solidify the city’s Western identity.

After the war we became the Hughes Missile town that was also part UA college town. Then in the 60s, 70s and 80s we became the golfing retirement town that was still part college town and part Hughes Missile (soon to be Raytheon) town.

But the huge growth explosion to the suburbs in the late 80s and 90s changed all that. Tucson was no longer Tucson. It was metropolitan Tucson with the suburbs developing their own distinct identities and cultures and politics.

Then we had the lost decade of the 2000s, in which Rio Nuevo and the Great Recession dominated our attention, killed our growth and obscured our vision.

Tucson also used to be very closely tied to Mexico. Mexico was our friend and our connection to it was part of our heritage, our founding. It was part of our culture. Is it still? Or is the Sonoran hot dog our last connection to our Mexican heritage.

So now, what is Tucson? What should it be? What do the council candidates think it should be and what is their plan for getting us there?

I’m curious what y’all think Tucson is (though I fear what the trolls will say).

So, if you can, complete this sentence in the comments section: Tucson is . . .

I got this press release last night and I’m not sure what to make of it. Part of me thinks it’s kitschy cool, and part of me thinks it’s ridiculous.

What do you think?

Grand Canyon Caverns Cavern Suite 220 feet below ground ­ Opens June 1

220 feet below the surface lays the newly built Grand Canyon Cavern motel room. A single room, in the largest dry cavern in the country, located off route 66 in northern AZ. The Caverns suite opens June 1st and is the largest, deepest, darkest, oldest, quietest motel room in the world, and just in case, it also doubles as a bomb shelter for 2000 people.

Just completed, the room is 125 feet wide by 300 feet long with a 70-foot ceiling. The walls are over 65 million years old, its 220 feet below the surface, absent of any light, and the only sound is your heart beating and your breath. You are the only living thing in the caverns. The only living thing. No insects, bats, animals, bugs, fungus, nothing to bug you! This is because the air comes in from the Grand Canyon through 65 miles of limestone caves, which take out 94 percent of the moisture in the air, hence, no water, no life. The temperature in the room feels like it’s in the mid 60′s, very comfortable with a t-shirt on. You access the caverns via a 22-story elevator.

In the middle of this huge dry cavern a 16 X 28 foot platform was constructed with a 30-inch high sidewall. Within the platform is a complete motel room with beds, sofa’s, dining area, mini kitchen, library, bathroom with shower (ceiling 50 feet above it) TV, phone and entertain center.

Read the full story at: http://grandcanyoncaverns.com/press-release