The area known as
Cocoraque... was homesteaded in the 1890s by Oscar Robles, Sr.’s grandfather. Cocoraque is one of the oldest working cattle ranches in Southern Arizona and is located approximately 7 miles west of the Sonoran Desert Museum.

Cocoraque has had continuous human habitation for over 2000 years.

Around 300 B.C., a culture of people, thought to be ancestors of the Pima and Papago tribes, known to us as the Hohokam, migrated from the south to this area and began farming and living in semi-permanent dwellings. The evidence of their presence still lingers today in the sands of the desert and the rock outcrops that dot this area in art forms of petroglyphs that are chipped into the granite boulders.

The ranch, now located in the Avra Valley is the last remnants of a huge Mexican grant that extended from below the present Mexican border to a line somewhere north of the present ranch border.

The original owner, Sr. Benito Robles, consolidated the holdings by mutual agreement with other Spanish (Mexican) landowners in the region when the territory was still part of Mexico. Sr. Robles was one of the principal governing authorities in the region. After the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo between the USA and Mexico in 1848, the Arizona Territory was created. This caused difficulties in title and ownership of land, so for a period of 4 years, the ranch was the site of an Apache encampment until the U.S. Cavalry arrived.

Jesus Arvizu, a Tucson native and third generation cattle rancher whose ancestry line originates from Nacosari and San Pedro de la Quierva, Sonora, Mexico, is owner and operates the ranch.