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Patagonia Regional Times
The Cemetery Trail Is Back
Volunteers from the Mountain Empire Trail Association and the Nature Conservancy worked together to re-open the Cemetery Trail in December. The Cemetery Trail is a very pleasant, flat walk through a mature mesquite forest. The entrance is located just opposite the ramadas at the Nogales end of Doc Mock Park. The easy access and flat trail make it one of the favorite trails for locals and visitors alike. If you want to continue up to the cemetery you will leave the flat trail behind and head up a steep but beautiful trail that takes you to the cemetery at the top of the hill.
Glimpses Into Our Past: The Donnellites and the Copper Glance Mine
In 1888 a unique mining community was established in Sunnyside Canyon on the western slope of the Huachuca Mountains. Initially known as the Copper Glance mining camp, the community eventually became known as Sunnyside. For 13 years the residents were referred to as Donnellites – followers of a fundamentalist Protestant, Sam Donnelly. This is the first in a series of articles that will trace the history of Sunnyside from its establishment to the 1950s. Two publications were especially helpful in the preparation of this article: “A Place Called Sunnyside” by Roberta Lamma (A&W Limited Editions, 1982) and “Sky Island Righteousness above a Desert of Sin: ‘Donnellite’ Seeds in Sunnyside Canyon” by Bruce A. Peterson, undated.
2022 Christmas Bird Count
For the Patagonia Christmas Bird Count held on December 15, 2022, 42 observers counted a total of 127 species of birds, the most noteworthy of which were: bald eagle, white-tailed kite, numerous gray hawks (normally not here in the winter), ferruginous hawk, Williamson’s sapsucker, Steller’s jay, red-breasted nuthatch, evening grosbeak, Cassin’s finch, mountain bluebird, Townsend’s solitaire, northern parula, and Louisiana waterthrush.
Doing Beauty Better With Holistic Hair Care
Hairstylist Tami Blakely has opened a new salon in Sonoita to serve local customers looking for organic, holistic hair care. Purely Sonoita Organic is the first “clean salon” in the area, said Blakely in a recent interview. With over 33 years’ experience in the salon profession, she has recently taken a new approach to haircare, foregoing plastic containers and using only sustainable, organic products made with natural, healthy ingredients.
Nature Journeys: Always, Yet Rarely, Spotted
I’m not a gambler by nature. You won’t find me in a casino or buying a lottery ticket. When it comes to seeking rarely seen wildlife, however, I’m an eternal optimist, willing to risk my time and effort for the ultimate “prizes” nature has to offer. Glimpses of flashy elegant trogons, rare and diminutive elf butterflies straying here from Mexico, hidden reptiles or nocturnal mammals – all part of my stock and trade as a naturalist. Regardless of whether or not I actually see something rare, consolation prizes in the form of many other species of wildlife, countless native plants, and wild experiences abound.
Starstruck: Interconnections
The reality is that nothing, not here on Earth, or in the vastness of space, is truly independent. If we’ve learned anything in the past three years it is that, despite all desires born from any number of rationales, we continuously impact each other regardless of distance, race, or nationality.
Update on Hermosa Project Water Permits
In December 2022, the Patagonia Area Resource Alliance (PARA) filed legal objections to two permits issued by Arizona state agencies for the Hermosa Project in the Patagonia Mountains: an Aquifer Protection Permit (groundwater impacts) and an Arizona Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit (surface water impacts). Aquifer protection permit. In 2018,...
Let’s Go Get Stones: Past Prospects
Note: An epic 3,800-word version of this column will be available on this website shortly, with additional photos. Stay tuned. What follows is the 750-word version, as available in the PRT’s print edition. I am standing outside in the early afternoon sun of December. I am panning for gold...
Check It Out at the Library
As the year comes to an end and the winter approaches, everyone has just one thing on their mind: good food. No? Just me?. For anyone who shares the same love of food, the Patagonia Library has great book options for you. A warm, rich soup from “Soup for Syria:...
Patagonia Pool Off to a Good Start
This has been a great year for the Patagonia Pool and PRAC (Patagonia Regional Aquatic Center). We have secured 501(C)3 nonprofit status, received five grants, held, or participated in, at least 11 local events which brought in over $12,000, received donations from about 70 donors, purchased a basketball hoop and volleyball net for the pool, and have had many, many hours of time donated. The relationships with Patagonia Schools and the town are strong and we foresee that continuing into the future.
Winners of the PRT’s Good Neighbor Contest
The PRT Good Neighbor Award recognizes people who voluntarily build a better community in Canelo, Elgin, Sonoita and Patagonia. We asked our readers to nominate someone they knew who was a ‘good neighbor.’ Winners in both adult and youth divisions were selected. Gift certificates to local restaurants were awarded to both the winners of the contest and to those who nominated them. Thank you for sending in your nominations for the 2022 Good Neighbor Awards.
Things Left Behind
A pair of white shoes continues to haunt me. When I found them, they lay upright and spare, neatly arranged along the edge of a dirt road, as if their occupant had disappeared somehow with other garments and forgotten them. But the shoes were not forgotten, a fact that I learned gradually and grudgingly during several years of fieldwork in the US–Mexico borderlands of southern Arizona. Those shoes had been placed deliberately and with an intention that I continue to try to comprehend from the field where I found them, among others who continuously engage in attempts at comprehension as part of their daily routines, and who regularly experience the effects of such rupturing events.
SCC Supes Select Anita Moreno as New County Recorder
Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors Selects Ana “Anita” Moreno as the Santa Cruz County Recorder, Effective January 1, 2023. On December 20, 2022, at the regular Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meeting, the board voted to appoint Ana “Anita” Moreno as the new Santa Cruz County Recorder, effective January 1, 2023. Ms. Moreno was appointed to replace Santa Cruz County Suzanne “Suzie” Sainz who is retiring on December 31, 2022.
PUHS Senior Gets Full Ride to Ivy League School
For the second time in three years, a Patagonia Union High School student has been admitted to an Ivy League university with a full scholarship. PUHS senior Nicholas Dekhtyar will enter Columbia University in New York as a freshman in Fall, 2023. “I’ve always dreamed of going to an Ivy...
DOJ Files Suit to Halt Further Building of Container Wall
The Department of Justice filed suit today seeking a court order to immediately halt further construction of Gov. Doug Ducey’s makeshift cargo container wall in Coronado National Forest along the U.S.-Mexico border. The wall there is now almost four miles long. The federal government told U.S. District Court Judge...
Sheriff Hathaway Visits Container Wall Protesters, Offers His Support
On Wednesday afternoon, Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway made an unscheduled visit to the group of protesters who have been working since Nov. 29 to stop construction of the container wall by the state of Arizona in Coronado National Forest, inside the neighboring Cochise County. “He just came riding...
County Recorder Submits Retirement Mid-Term
Santa Cruz County Recorder has notified the Board of Supervisors of her intent to retire December 31, 2022. County Recorder Sainz’s service to the community spans 27 years as Recorder and an additional 14 years at the County Assessor’s Office. The Board of Supervisors accepted the County Recorder’s resignation at their regular meeting on December 6, 2022.
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