Kelby Milgrim Ministries
REBUILDING THE WALLS OF AJO
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| WHERE IS AJO? |
| Races in Ajo: White Non-Hispanic (54.4%) Hispanic (37.6%) American Indian (9.7%) Other race (9.1%) Two or more races (4.6%) (Total can be greater than 100% because Hispanics could be counted in other races) |
Ajo (pronounced ah-ho) is the Spanish word for garlic. The Spanish may have named
the place using the familiar word in place of the similar-sounding O'odham word for
paint (oʼoho). The Tohono O'odham people obtained red paint pigments from the area.
Native Americans, Spaniards and Americans have all extracted mineral wealth from
Ajo's abundant ore deposits. In the early nineteenth century, there was a Spanish mine
nicknamed "Old Bat Hole". It was later abandoned due to Indian raids. The first Anglo
in Ajo, Tom Childs, on the way to the silver mines near Magdalena de Kino, Sonora,
arrived in 1847 and found the deserted mine complete with a 60-foot shaft, mesquite
ladders, and rawhide buckets. High-grade native copper made Ajo the first copper
mine in Arizona. Soon the Arizona Mining & Trading company, formed by Peter M.
Brady, a friend of Childs, worked the rich surface ores, shipping loads around Cape
Horn for smelting in Swansea, Wales, in the mid 1880s. The mine closed when a ship
sank off the coast of Patagonia. Long supply lines and the lack of water discouraged
large mining companies
Until after 1900, with the advent of new recovery methods for low-grade ore, Ajo
boomed. In 1911, Col. John Campbell Greenway, a Rough Rider and star Yale
athlete, bought the New Cornelia Copper from John Boddie. He became general
manager of the Calumet and the Arizona mining company and expanded it on a grand
scale. In 1921, Phelps Dodge, the nation's largest copper company, bought New
Cornelia and the mine became the New Cornelia Branch of Phelps Dodge, managed
by Michael Curley. For several decades more than 1,000 men worked for Phelps
Dodge in the open pit mine. The mine closed in 1985, following a bitter strike and a
depressed copper market. It is now home to many retired people, Border Patrol
agents, and young families.
Plants of the Sonoran Desert thrive at Ajo, including saguaros and ocotillos. The Ajo
lily or Desert lily, an onion-like plant, also grows in the area.
Ajo and the surrounding area is the only place in the United States where the mineral
papagoite can be found.
the place using the familiar word in place of the similar-sounding O'odham word for
paint (oʼoho). The Tohono O'odham people obtained red paint pigments from the area.
Native Americans, Spaniards and Americans have all extracted mineral wealth from
Ajo's abundant ore deposits. In the early nineteenth century, there was a Spanish mine
nicknamed "Old Bat Hole". It was later abandoned due to Indian raids. The first Anglo
in Ajo, Tom Childs, on the way to the silver mines near Magdalena de Kino, Sonora,
arrived in 1847 and found the deserted mine complete with a 60-foot shaft, mesquite
ladders, and rawhide buckets. High-grade native copper made Ajo the first copper
mine in Arizona. Soon the Arizona Mining & Trading company, formed by Peter M.
Brady, a friend of Childs, worked the rich surface ores, shipping loads around Cape
Horn for smelting in Swansea, Wales, in the mid 1880s. The mine closed when a ship
sank off the coast of Patagonia. Long supply lines and the lack of water discouraged
large mining companies
Until after 1900, with the advent of new recovery methods for low-grade ore, Ajo
boomed. In 1911, Col. John Campbell Greenway, a Rough Rider and star Yale
athlete, bought the New Cornelia Copper from John Boddie. He became general
manager of the Calumet and the Arizona mining company and expanded it on a grand
scale. In 1921, Phelps Dodge, the nation's largest copper company, bought New
Cornelia and the mine became the New Cornelia Branch of Phelps Dodge, managed
by Michael Curley. For several decades more than 1,000 men worked for Phelps
Dodge in the open pit mine. The mine closed in 1985, following a bitter strike and a
depressed copper market. It is now home to many retired people, Border Patrol
agents, and young families.
Plants of the Sonoran Desert thrive at Ajo, including saguaros and ocotillos. The Ajo
lily or Desert lily, an onion-like plant, also grows in the area.
Ajo and the surrounding area is the only place in the United States where the mineral
papagoite can be found.
HISTORY OF AJO
WHO LIVES IN AJO?
