Romero Ruins

A trail in Catalina State Park leads across two major drainages, Sutherland Wash and Canada Del Oro,

before climbing a short steep trail to the Romero Ruins on the ridge above.

The ruins are the remains of a partially excavated Hohokam village and are named after Francisco Romero a rancher who built a ranch on top of the ancient village. At the time the ranch was a lonely 12 miles from Tucson and endured lots of Apache raids, now it’s in the middle of the busy Oro valley.

The ancient Hohokam village has a perimeter wall,

which may have been for defence or privacy, pit houses and the remains of two ball courtsRomero ruins also has a legend, in the early 20th century rumours associated the Hohokam walls with an old Spanish mission and buried treasure and so was born ‘The Legend of the Lost Mission of Cirú.’ Treasure seekers dug large holes on the site in the hopes of finding the non-existent treasure.

Have fun, we are!