Lukeville

  There is a small town within the boundaries of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument called Lukeville, but the property within Lukeville is not National Park Service land. Lukeville, population 35, is basically a small commercial and service area that is located on the border with Mexico. It is mainly known as the place where people cross the border to go to
"Rocky Point." The town is officially called Puerto Penasco in Spanish and that name actually means "Rocky Port," but that doesn't change the fact that everyone calls it Rocky Point.
Puerto Penasco is a popular beach resort at the head of the Sea of Cortes and is only 62 miles south of the United States border. It is a very popular Spring Break destination.
  Anyway, Lukeville is the place where people who visit Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument load up on supplies if they are staying for an extended period of time.
  Lukeville is commonly called Gringo Pass and that is even the name that appears on the post office, but no one likes that name except for the one person who owns most of the property in town.
  "Downtown" Lukeville is a shopping center next to the border wall that contains a restaurant, the post office, laundromat, Mexican car insurance, duty free shop and a supermarket, but that supermarket closed about 3 years ago. I noticed that the last time I was in Lukeville in March of 2013. I was stunned to learn that the store had gone out of business. Since the store closed, that means the local gas station/convenience store has filled in the void and is now the busiest place in Lukeville.
  The aforementioned shopping center is directly across State Highway 85 from the Customs Station at the border. Across the highway and slightly to the north is the abandoned motel, the Gringo Pass Motel. I believe it closed around 2005 or 2006. I stayed there once, in the 1990s, and I remember the TV reception being terrible.
  With the store and motel both closing, it may sound like Lukeville is dying off, but it really isn't. The population remains the same, but the businesses are closing mostly due to an absentee landlord who lives in Florida and is difficult to deal with. 
 Until a few days ago, I could not figure out why there are approximately 1,200 mail boxes in the Lukeville post office. The population is only 35 and there are some national park employees that live in a residential compound five miles north, but there aren't that many rangers in the park. No one else lives in the area. As it turns out, many business owners in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, 62 miles south, have post office boxes in Lukeville. I am not sure why, though.  However, there are rumors that the post office will closed and be replaced with a FedEx or UPS delivery store. Again, due to renting from the landlord.
  Lukeville is a tiny town of 35 people that is surrounded on three sides by a national park and on the other side by Mexico. It predates the establishment of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The park was established in 1937 in a very remote part of the Sonoran Desert.
  Directly across the border from Lukeville is Sonoyta, Mexico, in the state of Sonora.