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Archiver > LOPEZ > 2000-10 > 0972495407


From: "RICHARD ORTIZ" <>
Subject: Fw: PML Search Result matching LOPEZ AND Mex*
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 12:36:47 -0500


> Source: GC-Arizona Query Forum
> URL: http://genconnect.rootsweb.com/gc/USA/Az/Unknown/192
> Subject: Re: Ajo
>
> From: Historical Names of Places in Arizona by Byrd Howell Granger.
>
> Papago: au'auho = "paint"
> Pima Co., AZ T12S R6W Elev. 1751'
>
> Some believed the name Ajo derived from wild onions here, but it comes
> from a Papago word au'auho("paint"), the red ore Indians used to decorate
> their bodies. Mexican miners contracted it to sound of Spanish ajo. Copper
> ore was first noticed here in 1853 by Capt. Peter R. Brady, with the
surveying
> party for the 32 degree parrallel railroad route. Later he organized a
> group to explore mining possibilities. Easily smelted ores were sparse.
> The rich but unworkable ores remained for more efficient technology to
> reduce. By the early 1900s, ore reduction was feasible and the New
Cornelia
> Copper Company was formed. In 1911 only about fifty people lived in Old
> Ajo, but by 1916 the population in the new town of Cornelia, a mile north,
> increased to over five thousand. Too close to rich deposits, Old Ajo was
> doomed. In fact, it burned to extinction(See also Clarkstown, Pima) - The
> Papago name for Ajo is (Muy Vavi = "many wells" or "warm water"). P.O.
> est. Aug 29, 1900, John Henry Hovey, p.m.
>
> Tess - Tucson
>

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