Open Range and Hidden Silver: Arizona's Santa Cruz County

Previous Owner Name. OPEN RANGE and HIDDEN SILVER were the magnets which drew the first settlers to what is now Arizona's Santa Cruz County, whose story begins in Mexico three centuries ago when it was known as New Spain. It involves the Conquistadores and black-robed padres, an untold number of assorted Indian tribes, several American pioneers who were exceptionally rugged individualists, and various military detachments including the famous 10th U.S. Cavalry (The Buffalo Soldiers).It also concerns cattle barons, squatters, lone prospectors and mining engineers, and the whirlwind of change which followed construction of the first railroad to connect the United States with the west coast of Mexico.It includes the tale of Nogales, the town that began with a peddler's shack on the railroad right-of-way in the wilderness and in a few short years became the county seat. It reveals the unbreakable ties between the city of Nogales, Arizona and its twin in Mexico just across the street, and partly explains why the community remains in many respects almost as Mexican as Mexico itself.It portrays the area's involvement with ? and detachment from ? the revolution in Mexico at the beginning of the 20th century and the excitement generated by the establishment of a military post in Nogales, Arizona.It tells how the county survived a series of setbacks that would have destroyed a less resilient people, only to reach new peaks of economic achievement after each depression.…