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Freeman Homestead

Homestead on Freeman Homestead Interpretive Trail in Saguaro NP, Chihuahuan Desert near Tanque Verde, AZ

The Freeman Homestead was the final of many in the region applied for in 1929, the end of an era in Arizona. Today, all that remains is a small concrete foundation.

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History of the Freeman Homestead

Homesteading played a major role in shaping the area around the Rincon Mountains of southeast Arizona. The earliest homestead applications were made in the 1890’s after the township subdivision lines had been surveyed. These early homesteads were located along Tanque Verde Creek and Rincon Wash. By 1910, however, entries began to be made on homesteads within the area that would eventually become Saguaro National Monument in 1933. Fermin Cruz was the first to receive such a homestead patent on October 18, 1916 for a portion of section 10, T14S R16E. At least nine others followed in making their homestead claims beginning in the early 1920’s, with the last to be made in October 1930. These individuals included Rafael Carrillo, Ray Harris, Manuel Benites, Harry Riley, Christobel Valenzuela, Henry Grabenheimer, Gilmor Failor, Safford Freeman, and Jane Wentworth. The claims of Valenzuela and Grabenheimer were canceled by the late 1920’s because they had not maintained residency.

The Freeman family claimed that their homestead entry in section 5, T15S R16E, for which they applied in the summer of 1929, was the last entry in the area. On that basis and because a mound of melted adobe remained from a living room wall, the homestead was nominated to the National Register in 1972, but disallowed. In fact, it was determined that their homestead entry was not the last one to have been made. Jane Wentworth applied for a livestock raising homestead on October 17, 1930 for all of section 8, T14S R16E. She received a patent in 1938. While the National Register reviewers were correct to disallow the nomination of the Freeman Homestead on the National Register of Historic Places, the Freeman Homestead has been placed on the Arizona State Register of Historic Places. – NPS "Freeman Homestead Map"

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Homestead