List of historic properties in Patagonia, Arizona | |
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This is a list which includes a photographic gallery, of some of the structures of historic significance in Patagonia, Arizona. Patagonia is a town in Santa Cruz County, Arizona which lies in a narrow valley between the Santa Rita Mountains to the north and the Patagonia Mountains to the south. Patagonia was a mining town and an important supply center for nearby mines and ranches.
The area where Patagonia is located provided the Anasazi, an early Native-American tribe, with plentiful hunting and fishing opportunities. Ruins of the ancient settlements and petroglyphs of the Anasazi have been found by archaeologists. The area was known as a Tohono O'odham ranchería , or seasonal village, called Sonoitac. [1] [2] [3] [4]
In 1539, Spanish explorer Fray Marcos de Niza entered the area near Lochiel on the Mexican border. [5] He continued on his journey to Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico also known as the Seven Cities of Cibola. Marcos de Niza is credited with being the first European in what is now the State of Arizona. [6] The main Native American tribes in the area at that time were the Sobaipuri and Papago (Tohono O'odham). [1] [2] [3] [4]
In 1692, Father Eusebio Francisco Kino came to the area as a missionary. His main objective was to convert the natives to Catholicism. The area became part of his Mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi. By 1698, Father Kino encouraged his group to make their way up to Sonoita Creek. When they arrived in Sonoita Creek they encountered groups of indigenous people living along the area in which the creek was located. In the future that area would become known as Patagonia. [1] [2] [3] [4]
According to Gilbert Quiroga, president of the Patagonia Museum, Welsh miners that had come from Patagonia in South America came to this region. Patagonia in South America is a region encompassing the vast southernmost tip of South America, shared by Argentina and Chile, with the Andes Mountains as its dividing line. The mountains in the area of Arizona, which the Native Americans called Chihuahuillas, reminded them of those mountains in Patagonia, South America and as such they began calling them the Patagonia Mountains. [7] [1] [2] [3] [4]
The mission period was ended in 1768 by a decree of Charles III of Spain. [8] In 1821, the Mexican War of Independence between Mexico and Spain came to an end and the territory of New Spain, which included Arizona, was ceded to Mexico. [9] [10] [11] [1] [2] [3] [4]
By the mid-1850s prospectors were mining the silver-rich mountains east of Sonoita. By the 1860s vast amounts of silver and lead were retrieved from the Patagonia Mountains each year. In 1854, the United States purchased the region from Mexico in what is known as the Gadsden Purchase. Americans of European descent from the East Coast of the United States began to arrive in the area. They were protected from the constant attacks of the Apaches by the United States Military. However, The majority of the troops were withdrawn from the area upon the outbreak of the American Civil War. Fort Buchanan, a small garrison established in 1856 near Sonoita, was overrun by the Apaches. [12] Thus, the miners, ranchers and farmers in the region were without protection from the Apaches and many of them moved to other areas. [1] [2] [3] [4]
The Civil War between the North (the Union) and the South (the Confederacy) ended in 1865. In 1867, the United States Army established a military post called Camp Crittenden close to Sonoita. The camp, which later was renamed Fort Crittenden, was involved in a campaign against the Apache with the intention of protecting the American pioneers in the area. [13] The miners, ranchers and farmers returned to the area once more. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Rollin Rice Richardson, a veteran of the Civil War, made a fortune in mining. In 1896, Rollin hired J.C. Green, a surveyor from Tucson, to plot the settlement. As a result, he founded the town that same year and in 1899, he applied to open a post office. Richardson wanted the town to be named "Rollin" in his honor, however the residents of the area opposed. They petitioned the United States Post Master General to name the town Patagonia after the nearby mountain. Patagonia was recognized as the official name of the town in 1900 by the United States Postal Office Department in Washington, D.C. [1] [2] [3] [4]
That same year, a two-story railroad depot was built and Patagonia became the commercial center of the mining district in the Santa Cruz County. The ranching and cattle industry also played an important role in the economy of Patagonia. The arrival of the New Mexico and Arizona Railroad to Patagonia gave the ranchers and miners a new outlet for their products and access to manufactured goods. [14] [1] [2] [3] [4]
By 1917, Patagonia had running water, an Opera House, three hotels, a schoolhouse, two parks and several stores and saloons. Richardson practically ruled the town until his death in 1923. Patagonia was formally incorporated in 1948. [1] [2] [3] [4]
The Patagonia Museum, located in the 1914 Patagonia Grammar School on 100 School Street, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to collecting and preserving the culture and history of eastern Santa Cruz County. [15]
There are two properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places, they are: Cady Hall and The Little Outfit Schoolhouse.
The Little Outfit Schoolhouse is a ranch school that was built in 1940 on the Little Outfit Ranch in the San Rafael Valley. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on January 8, 2009, reference: #08001275. [16]
The following is a list of the structures which are pictured. [17]
The Patagonia Elementary School was built in 1914 and is located at 100 School Street. It now houses the Patagonia Museum. There are various exhibits in the museum. Among the exhibits is a tree stump which once belonged to the town's jail tree. Prisoners were chained to the tree whenever the town's jail cell was overcrowded. [19]
Patagonia is a town in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 913. It developed in the mid-19th century as a trading and supply center for nearby mines and ranches. In the 21st century, it is a tourist destination, retirement community, and arts and crafts center.
Kentucky Camp is a ghost town and former mining camp along the Arizona Trail in Pima County, Arizona, United States, near the community of Sonoita. The Kentucky Camp Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been since 1995. As it is located within Coronado National Forest, the United States Forest Service is responsible for the upkeep of the remaining buildings within the Kentucky Camp Historic District.
Mission San Cayetano de Calabazas, also known as Calabasas, is a Spanish Mission in the Sonoran Desert, located near present-day Tumacacori, Arizona, United States. The Mission was named for the Italian Saint Cajetan.
Harshaw is a ghost town in Santa Cruz County in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. The town was settled in the 1870s, in what was then Arizona Territory. Founded as a mining community, Harshaw is named after the cattleman-turned-prospector David Tecumseh Harshaw, who first successfully located silver in the area. At the town's peak near the end of the 19th century, Harshaw's mines were among Arizona's highest producers of ore, with the largest mine, the Hermosa, yielding approximately $365,455 in bullion over a four-month period in 1880.
The Patagonia Mountains are a 15-mile-long (24 km) mountain range within the Coronado National Forest, and in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States.
The Canelo Hills are a range of low mountains or hills in eastern Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The range consists of a series of northwest–southeast trending ridges extending from the Sonoita Creek valley southwest of Sonoita to the Parker Canyon Lake area in southwest Cochise County, Arizona. The Canelo Hills merge with the Huachuca Mountains to the southeast. The San Rafael Valley lies to the southwest of the range and the Patagonia Mountains lie to the west across the Harshaw Creek valley. The Canelo Hills Cienega Reserve and the ghost town of Canelo, Arizona, are located on the eastern side of the hills.
Lochiel is a populated place and former border crossing in southern Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States, approximately 25 miles east of Nogales. Basically a ghost town, the townsite is located in the southwestern part of the San Rafael Valley on Washington Gulch, about 1.5 miles west of the Santa Cruz River. It was first settled in the late-1870s and mostly abandoned by 1986. The town served the ranches of the San Rafael Valley and the Washington Camp and Duquesne mining towns of the Patagonia Mountains, approximately five miles to the northwest up Washington Gulch.
Duquesne is a ghost town in the Patagonia Mountains in eastern Santa Cruz County, Arizona, near the international border with Sonora, Mexico. The town, which is currently under private ownership and closed to the public although the roads are almost all public, was once the headquarters of the Duquesne Mining and Reduction Company and is the site of the Bonanza Mine. Washington Camp is approximately one mile northwest of Duquesne and was where the mine's reduction plant was located.
Salero is a ghost town in the Santa Rita Mountains of Santa Cruz County, Arizona. As one of the best preserved ghost towns remaining in Arizona, Salero is located on private property of the Salero Ranch and is not open to visitors.