Ajo

History

Ajo is the Spanish word for garlic (). The Spanish may have named the place using the familiar word in place of the similar-sounding Oʼodham word for paint (oʼoho). The Tohono Oʼodham 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" that was abandoned due to Indian raids. Tom Childs Sr., found the deserted mine complete with a shaft, mesquite ladders, and rawhide buckets in 1847. He did not stay long at that time because he was on his way to the silver mines near Magdalena de Kino. Thirty-five years later, Childs and his son returned with a friend and started developing the abandoned mine. In the year 1884, the camp at Ajo was practically abandoned. Not a soul was in camp when Tom Childs Sr., and his son arrived. With them was Washington Michael Jacobs of Tucson, Arizona ... Childs and Jacobs located the mining claim which constituted most of the old Ajo group of mines. They made a permanent camp and worked the mines. High-grade native copper made Ajo the first copper mine in Arizona. Soon the Arizona Mining & Trading company, formed by Peter R. 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 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 mine from John Boddie. He became general manager of the Calumet and the Arizona mining…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the census-designated place has a total area of , all land. The census definition of the area was created by the Census Bureau for statistical purposes and may not precisely correspond to local understanding of the area with the same name. Ajo is located in the Little Ajo Mountains. Plants of the Sonoran Desert thrive around Ajo, including saguaros and ocotillos. The Ajo lily or desert lily, an onion-like plant, also grows in the area. The mineral ajoite was first found at the New Cornelia Mine, Ajo. The rare mineral papagoite was also first described in the New Cornelia mine. This area has a large amount of sunshine year-round due to its stable descending air and high pressure. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Ajo has a hot desert climate, abbreviated BWh on climate maps. Rainfall is very low except during occasional monsoonal or frontal incursions, and is especially minimal between April and June. Since 1914 the wettest calendar year has been 1946 with – including a record daily fall of on September 18 – and the driest 1928 with . Temperatures are very hot from April to October and mild to warm from November to March, with extremes ranging from on January 22, 1937, during that month's record Western cold wave, to on July 20, 2023. }}

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Ajo Elementary School
  Elementary · AJO · 268 students · 17.9:1 ratio
• Ajo High School
  High · AJO · 135 students · 45:1 ratio
• PCJTED - Ajo High School
  High · AJO