Revisiting the Boundary Survey, 1894-96
March 1, 2008
Naturally, it was something that happened just south of Arivaca that caused the redrawing of the U.S.-Mexican boundary in the1890s. Last month we talked about how the border was surveyed in 1855 and the markers placed erratically along the diagonal azimuth line between Nogales and Yuma. In the late 1850s, U.S. miners began working the mineralized areas around Arivaca and south into California Gulch and Holden Canyon (not named yet). Also in the area were a large number of Mexican miners. No one really knew where the border was, and there was an 18-mile span between Tres Bellotas Road and a point south of (what is now) Peña Blanca Lake where there were no markers at all. This wasn’t the greatest unmarked span along the whole border—in one case there was over a hundred miles between markers. No wonder there was trouble.This country had been vacant and undeveloped in the 1850s, but by the 1870s, the Apache being on the reservations, U.S. citizens were beginning to move into the area, mostly for mining. In 1873 the Oro Blanco Mine was “discovered” by American citizens. By early 1874 there were reportedly some 400 Mexican miners working the area also. (It is likely that this area had been mined since Spanish times.) The new owners were from Tucson, so they soon had the Sheriff out to run off the Mexicans. The Mexicans begged to clarify, saying they were in Mexico. This incident led to an agreement between the two states to appoint engineers to determine the location of the border in relation to the mine. Carlos Federico Seelé of Sonora and John W. Hopkins of Arizona conducted a survey and found the Oro Blanco Mine to be about 2.5 miles inside the U.S. line. The governor of Sonora, Ignacio Pesqueira, did not question the survey. However, the subsequent governor, Vicente Mariscal, disputed the survey. Hopkins had actually been a stockholder in the company that owned the Oro Blanco and some others in the vicinity, and so his opinion could be called into question. The Mexican governor even had some questions about Seelé.
Drawing the line: the Mexican Boundary Survey, Part 3
February 1, 2008
Return to the boundary between the U.S. and Mexico, 1853. When we last left the boundary story, a stalemate had been created and no acceptable boundary line had been successfully surveyed from 1848, when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, until 5 years later. Political reasons for this abounded.
Trying to Draw the Line: The Mexican Boundary Survey, Part 2
December 1, 2007
John Russell Bartlett: the American representative to the Boundary Commission
The Boundary Surveys
November 1, 2007
So, how did we get the border that we now have with Mexico?
Masons in the Old West
October 10, 2007
In recent years, since the publication of Dan Brown’s book, Da Vinci Code, Masonry, also called Freemasonry or the Masons) is a fraternal organization that has become unduly associated in the minds of some people, with secret or even occult practices.
President Polk’s Little War
September 1, 2007
If you can’t identify this war, it is time to get up to speed because the heritage of this war is ever among us. It has not been that many generations since it brought the West into the United States of America.
Arivaca Small Mine Operators Association
August 1, 2007
If it were not for some recent local political issues, we may have forgotten all about the Arizona Small Mine Operators Association, but of course, supporting the mining industry is the reason it was created in the first place.
Barbara Stockwell’s 50 Years in Arivaca
July 1, 2007
It would be hard to imagine Arivaca without Barbara Stockwell. At least, I can’t. She first came here 50 years ago, on the Fourth of July 1957. Her parents, Bob and Mary Marshall, had come down to Arivaca to open a café. Barbara had just finished her freshman year at ASU in Tempe and came to visit them.
La Gitana
June 1, 2007
A milestone has passed. A Rubicon has been crossed. What could this be? What momentous occasion (besides the erection of the tower) has happened recently?
La Gitana Cantina has been sold! After 20 years in the hands of Jerry and Mary Beckham, there are new owners!