A TUCSON TREASURE BY BOB ALLEN

Catalina State Park:  A Tucson Treasure

Jonathan “Jack” Mc Cabe told the Saddlebrooke Rotary Club at its August 29th meeting that he has been Assistant Director of Catalina State Park since 1991 and he plans to stay there “forever.”  He says Catalina is one of his top 5 favorite parks, and it’s the largest open state park in Arizona.  It occupies about 5,000 acres and includes equestrian facilities, hiking trails, thousands of acres of open space, 150 camp sites and ancient Indian ruins. 

Catalina State Park was once a cattle ranch which was sold to the Del Webb Corporation in the late 70’s.  Webb planned to turn the land into a Sun City retirement community.  Locals who used the ranch for recreation for decades fought to turn it into a park.  Eventually, Del Webb agreed to swap the Catalina site for state trust land on the other side of Oracle Road.  Since then it has become enormously popular, filling every winter with thousands of campers, bird watchers, hikers, wildlife lovers, and families all enjoying the park.  It never had more than five full time employees, and in the depths of the recession cut its staff to three.  Now there are four, backed up by at least 75 volunteers, many of them from Sun City and Saddlebrooke.  “We couldn’t operate the park without them,” said Mc Cabe. 

Catalina State Park wildlife includes hundreds of bird species, mountain lions, javelinas, white-tail and mule deer, coyotes, and reptiles.  Catalina’s most common wildlife resident is the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.  The park receives no tax dollars.  It depends entirely on entrance fees and donations to keep open.  Recently the “Friends of Catalina State Park” formed to raise money and serve as an advocate for this treasure so close to our beloved Saddlebrooke.