Historic Empire Ranch

About this campground

The historic Empire Ranch has been a working cattle ranch for nearly 150 years. Its rich history includes successive ownership by two prominent ranching families, two corporations, and finally by the federal government on behalf of the general public.  The Empire Ranch Headquarters is magnificently situated in the high Sonoran Desert and rolling grasslands of the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area (LCNCA), located just 50 miles southeast of Tucson, and 10 miles north of Sonoita. The Ranch Headquarters and the LCNCA are open daily to visitors from sunrise to sunset. The Empire Ranch House is a 22-room adobe and wood frame building, which dates to 1870 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The ranch sits at the heart of the 42,000-acre Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, on public lands acquired and administered since 1988. The half-mile interpretive Heritage Discovery Trail is at the north end of the Empire Ranch Headquarters. Along this packed gravel trail, visitors learn the history behind the area, including the Hired Man’s House and the New Ranch House.