to the hinterlands

On my recent vacation, which started January 14th after I got off of work at 2:30 in the afternoon, I went to Phoenix and spent 2 nights there. The next stop on my itinerary was Ajo. Ajo is Spanish for "garlic" and it is located in western Pima County 40 miles from the border with Mexico. Ajo is a very isolated town that currently has 5,213 people. There is only one highway through town, State Highway 85. There is one other paved road that leads out of town, Ajo Well Road, but it is 5 miles long and meets up with highway 85 on both ends, The only other road out of town, Darby Well Road, is a rough, dirt road that leads to the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and then dead-ends a few miles after it enters the refuge.
Ajo was once a company town. It was owned by Phelps-Dodge until 1988. That is when the huge pit closed and all the mining operations shut down. As a result, the population plummeted from about 8,000 to about 2,500. Since then, the population has rebounded partially to 5,213. The mine has partially reopened, but it is nowhere near the size that it once was. Ajo still shows the scars from its depopulation of the late 80s, The most visible scar is the big, abandoned hospital on top of a hill on the south side of town near the pit. It looks rather haunting. I got some pretty good looks at the hospital, but I wish I could have gotten a closer look. The street that leads up the hill on both sides of the old hospital is closed to traffic. There is a gate across the street and it is posted against trespassing. I did drive up to the gate on both sides and saw a forlorn scene. This old hospital is 2 stories tall and now it looks pretty sad, and it is a nice looking building. What makes look even more forlorn is the shin-high to knee-high grass growing up through the cracks in the pavement in the parking lot. There are some windows broken out, adding to the scene of desolation.
Ajo's downtown plaza is very attractive. It has Spanish colonial architecture with alot of arches. There is a big, grassy park in the center with alot of palm trees. After Ajo's depopulation, most of the businesses on the plaza were abandoned, but the plaza has recovered. The town library occupies what was once 2 separate stores on the south side of the plaza. The wall between the stores has doorways cut into it to connect the 2 sections. The library has an entry door and an exit door. These doors used to provide access to separate stores.
Alot of the streets in Ajo have Spanish names. For example: Cunada Street, Tecolote Street, Taladro Street, Pizal Street, Perro de Nieve Street, Telera Street, Malacate Street, Montecito Street, La Mina Avenue, Rocalla Avenue, Morondo Avenue, Fundicion Street, to name a few. What is strange about the downtown area is its location. It is not in the middle of town. It is in the southeast corner, barely inside the city limits. The town spreads mostly north and west from the plaza. La Mina Avenue (The Mine Avenue), runs diagonally from the south side of the plaza to the the former mine entrance. There are several other streets that converge on the plaza, like the spokes of a wheel, but only from 3 sides. On the east side, beyond the little-used railroad tracks, is the high school/middle school combination. Across Ajo Well Road from the school is a fence paralleling the street and that fenct marks the city limits of Ajo. The city limits is also just south of the school, a short distance south of the intersection of Ajo Well Road and East Elota Street (highway 85).
I spent the night in a charming motel on the north side of town. I will go into details in the next edition of this blog.