Baboquivari is one of the lowest numbered near-Earth asteroids as it was already discovered on 16 October 1963. The discovery observation was made by the Indiana Asteroid Program at Goethe Link Observatory near Brooklyn, Indiana, in the United States. Three months later, it became a lost asteroid until June 1976, when it was recovered by the Steward Observatory's 90-inch Bok Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory located in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona.