Courtesy of Henry Sipf

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Oro Valley residents can voice their own opinions beginning next week on how the town should preserve the historic Steam Pump Ranch.

Steam Pump Ranch encompasses 15 acres on North Oracle Road between First Avenue and Tangerine Road. It was established by George Pusch and John Zellweger when they settled there in the 1870s in what would become Oro Valley.

The property contains roughly 11 structures, including the original 1870s ranch house and smaller adobe houses built in the mid-1930s, said Pamela Pelletier, town planner and project manager.

Oro Valley plans to preserve Steam Pump Ranch and make it accessible to the public for its historical and educational value.

"It's got to be something to attract people and make people want to come back," said Jim Kriegh, town historian and president of the Oro Valley Historical Society.

The Town Council-approved Steam Pump Ranch Master Plan Task Force is working with consulting firm Poster Frost Associates to evaluate studies and residents' input from public meetings and develop options for using and designing the site, Pelletier said.

Part of that process includes holding open house meetings that solicit residents' feedback.

The first open house will be 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 6 in the council chambers at Oro Valley Town Hall, 11000 N. La Cañada Drive.

"We strongly desire people to come and give their input," Pelletier said. Participants can submit their suggestions and comments on Steam Pump either at the open house or via the town's Web site, www.townoforovalley.com.

Next April, the Task Force and consultant Corky Poster will recommend to the Town Council and Historic Preservation Committee what the town should do with the site, Pelletier said.

The Oro Valley Historical Society would like the property to be a place where students and people interested in history can learn about the the area, Kriegh said.

Many consider the ranch to be historically significant because of its role in the European immigrant settlement of Oro Valley centuries ago. In the 1870s, immigrants Pusch and Zellweger settled in the area and established a cattle ranch, according to the historical society. In 1880, the men purchased the steam-powered water pump that gave the ranch its name.

"The Oro Valley Historical Society society has a lot of documents belonging to George Pusch . . . these documents need to be made available to people who are interested in history," Kriegh said.

The ranch changed hands in 1933, when Pioneer Hotel owner Jack Proctor purchased it from Pusch's son. When Proctor died, he left the property to his grandsons Henry and John Leiber.

The town of Oro Valley acquired the property through eminent domain earlier this year, but not after a long struggle that began when the developer that Henry Leiber sold his 6-acre share to asked for a rezoning to allow commercial development. The property cost the town $4.5 million.

Oro Valley on Aug. 15 held an invitation-only celebration of its acquisition of the property. At it, Mayor Paul Loomis called Steam Pump Ranch one of the "most significant cornerstones of Oro Valley history."