Concho

History

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Concho area was home to Indigenous Ancestral Puebloan peoples; the ruins of their pueblos can still be seen all over the area to this day. Indigenous Athabaskan speakers – the ancestors of today's Apache and Navajo peoples, the largest Indigenous groups in northeastern Arizona – arrived in the region somewhere between the 1100s and 1400s CE, the earliest confirmed physical evidence of their presence being a Diné-style three-fork dwelling dated to about 1389 CE. The Concho area remained firmly in Apache control until the end of the Apache Wars in the late 19th century, following the surrender of Lozen and Goyaałé. The first permanent, non-Indigenous settlers of Concho were several Hispanic New Mexican families in the late 1800s. The exact date of Concho's founding is unknown, but likely occurred in the late 1850s or early 1860s. Don Manuel Antonio Candelaria, originally of Cubero, NM, is generally credited with being the first known settler of Concho: he first entered the area in the 1840s, when he was a child and an Apache captive. He was adopted by the tribe and lived among them as a full Apache tribal member for many years, until deciding to return to Cubero as a young man to reconnect with his birth family. After re-learning Spanish and eventually marrying Regina Baca, Candelaria returned to Concho with his family and 700 head of sheep and goats to permanently settle the area in 1861 (though he indicated that a scant handful of other Hispanic New Mexicans had also come to settle the area a few years prior). "The town was once the major population and financial center of the northeast quarter of what is now Arizona. It continued as a thriving small town for many years." Nevertheless, circumstances such as World War II caused…

Most-observed species

• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  178
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  129
• Killdeer

  Charadrius vociferus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  128
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  123
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  121
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  117
• Say's Phoebe

  Sayornis saya (Bonaparte, 1825) · Aves
  96
• Great Blue/Cocoi Heron

  Ardea herodias Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  96

Largest nearby schools

• Concho Elementary School
  Elementary · Concho · 183 students · 13.1:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 3.2 — 2025-03-18
  13 km NNE of Clay Springs, Arizona
• M 3.1 — 2023-10-04
  15 km SSE of Escudilla Bonita, New Mexico
• M 3 — 2022-06-18
  4 km SW of Clay Springs, Arizona
• M 3.1 — 2019-09-23
  22 km NNW of Saint Johns, Arizona
• M 2.6 — 2014-09-07
  4 km WSW of Sun Valley, Arizona
• M 2.8 — 2013-09-23
  7 km WSW of Pinedale, Arizona