The city honours its past, so when we spent a month there last winter, we dropped in at a gathering celebrating one of the most notable periods of its past; the coming of a remarkable man, a Jesuit, Italian Eusebio Francisco Kino.

He rode horseback through tens of thousands of miles of unexplored land, drawing maps, teaching natives how to plant grain and raise cattle and started more than 20 missions, including the beautiful Mission San Xavier about ten miles from downtown Tucson. Almost 200,000 visitors come yearly. Some call Kino Arizona’s first rancher; others work to have him beatified.

We went to a gathering commemorating his life attended by many of the Kino family descendants, almost 30, most from Italy’s beautiful north region, Trento. Tucson’s affable mayor, Robert Walkup spoke. “We’ve become a great city,” he said, “because of what Father Kino did hundreds of years ago.” He declared that day in March 2011, Father Kino Day.

It was a window on Tucson, which makes time to acknowledge history. Much of that has to do with the lands around it: the Sonoran desert, rich with flora and fauna and its proximity to the legendary Wild West that’s recalled in the town of Tombstone where local players stage an enactment of the legendary gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

We chose Tucson, in part, because we like returning to places we’ve visited before. In 1994, we stayed first in a Bed & Breakfast Inn, set in the historic centre, El Presidio, then a few days later drove into the desert for three days in an adobe B&B, Casa Tierr, then owned by two academics. But this time we were to stay a month, so my wife, Barbara, went on vrbo.com (vacation rentals by owner) and found an apartment on the edge of downtown.

For the most part we ate in, thus making our location, from a practical point of view, ideal: ten minutes on foot to a large store with the widest aisles I’ve ever seen. To get around, we used public transit. Tucson had another advantage for me: I’m a walker and library user. Tucson’s library system had a well-stocked branch less than an hour away on foot. On good sidewalks. I got my books and at the same time my daily exercise.

Tucson has many choices. One of the most memorable is the Sonoran Desert Museum, about 12 miles west of the city. We waited before visiting it for the annual arrival of our son Paul, his wife Diana and young son Mark. They came and settled in a spread out and shaded hotel, Westin La Paloma, in the soft rolling hills of the Santa Catalina Mountains over the city.

Before long we were all going places, including the Sonoran Museum. It’s remarkable, with well over a thousand distinct plants and 3,000 species of animal life from bobcats to scorpions to cougars and tarantulas. There, a docent, Russ Solsky — whose interest in snakes eventually brought him to the desert museum — spent an hour taking us room to room where exotic snakes reclined in protected security.

It’s about two hours drive to Tombstone, population 2,000 and a legend of the rough and ready Old West. In Tombstone, violence was virtually woven into life; a man could be shot dead for a glancing the wrong way at another. The town’s newspaper, whose office is a now a historic site, is called The Tombstone Epitaph; in the past it had a daily column bearing a mournful standing title: Death’s Doings.

Tombstone isn’t shamed by this; if anything it draws on its infamy. We stood on the sidewalk at 2 p.m. one day as local men re-enacted its most notorious event, an Oct. 26, 1881, gunfight, when in under a minute, guns blazed and three men fell dead. (It’s known to history as The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.) A visit to grim Boot Hill Graveyard reflects the temper of the times printed on plain wood crosses, the epitaphs revealing casual indifference to death: “Geo. Johnson, hanged by mistake.” “Wm. Grounds, shot in the face.” “Lester Moore, Four slugs from a 44.” One sentence sums it up: “Death never took a holiday in Tombstone.”

A few days near the end of our month stay, we walked along paths of the campus of Tucson’s University of Arizona, helped by a university guidebook, Walking Through Time.

The university is well located. It’s a nicely designed and well maintained campus with enrolment about 40,000. We noticed an announcement of an art exhibit, one that interested us so we came back later. It showed the work of many photographers, including 40 pieces by renowned Ansel Adams. “He used the camera,” a display line noted beside his work “not just to capture how the landscape looked, but how he felt about it.” In a way it also applies to travel, including our visits to Tucson.

Special to the Hamilton Spectator

Getting there

We flew from Toronto to Tucson on Air Canada via Chicago. For further information on long-term rental stays in Tucson visit: vrbo.com. To check out Sonora Desert Museum: desertmuseum.org. For information on Tombstone: tombstoneaz.com