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NACO, Ariz. — This tiny border community is full of possibilities when it comes to tourism and other recreational attractions.
Mexican Revolution. Buffalo Soldiers. Civilian Conservation Corps. Mammoth kill site. Port of entry. RVs. Golf.
“It’s got it all,” said Rebecca Orozco, the director of Cochise College’s Center for Lifelong Learning.
Orozco is one of the organizers of this coming Saturday’s planning charrette for the Naco community. “Anyone interested in Naco’s future” is invited to attend.
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Billed as a “ ‘roll-up-the-sleeves’ participatory design process,” the charrette will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Naco Elementary School, 1911 W. Valenzuela St.
“Charrette,” a French word for “cart” or “chariot,” is a term that was used by architecture students in Paris in the 19th century who worked intensely, up to the last minute, even as they rode in carts to their design presentations. In the summer of 2006, Bisbee underwent a charrette that was considered by many to be successful in providing a sailing chart for that city.
The Naco Planning Charrette will coincide with the second day of another historic occasion for the community — the Turquoise Valley Golf Course’s celebration of its century of existence.
Several things are happening lately with Naco, and the charrette will be an opportunity to discuss these developments.
One of the discussion items will be an update on the Naco Brownfields project. This is a U.S. EPA grant, out of the old Superfund that was used to clean up toxic wastes in communities.
In the past several years, the Naco community has successfully applied for three assessment grants totalling about $650,000, Orozco said.
The first two of those grants, totaling $500,000, helped the community to deal with sewage that formerly flowed downstream from Naco, Sonora, and also to assess land that was being considered for a new junior high school.
The third grant is designed for green space and will help the community to develop a park just to the east of Naco Elementary School.
Ultimately, this green space could connect with the historic Camp Naco on West Newell Street and a site near Turquoise Valley Golf Course where ancient people killed and butchered a mammoth.
The Liekim Mammoth Kill Site, named for a family that lived in Naco, was excavated in 1974 by the University of Arizona.
“It would be a perfect spot for an educational display,” Orozco said, noting that it is far more accessible than the popular Murray Springs Mammoth Kill Site in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.
“This is right by the road,” Orozco said. “I think we could make an incredible attraction from that.”
The Naco kill site is on property that currently belongs to Arizona Water Co. Officials with that company were not immediately available to comment on the ideas discussed by Orozco.
Meanwhile, according to Orozco, the Naco School District has been informed that about four acres of right-of-way known as Green Street, just to the east of the school, has completed EPA chemical testing, “and it’s clean.”
Orozco said the school’s governing board has indicated that it is willing to accept the property if the Cochise County Board of Supervisors will deed it over.
Playground equipment is not in the plan because of liability, Orozco said, but there are a number of things that are envisioned for the green space.
They include desert landscaping, ramadas for picnics, an amphitheater for outdoor classrooms and a hummingbird garden that incorporates native plant species.
The linear park would continue north to Turquoise Valley Golf Course and west to Camp Naco, which contains some reasonably intact wood-frame-and-stucco barracks from the 1920s.
“I have been working on Camp Naco for so many years, I’m a de facto member of the community,” said Orozco, who resides in Bisbee.
Naco “ ... could be an incredible community,” Orozco said.
She noted that 60,000 people walk into Camp Bowie in a very rural location on the northern end of the Chiricahua Mountains every year, and it is not nearly as well-preserved as Camp Naco.
Camp Bowie was the hub of a system of U.S. Army forts in the late 1800s during the war with the Apaches.
Camp Naco, also known as Camp Newell or the Newell Cantonment, is believed by some local historians to be the last standing Buffalo Soldier stronghold on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Camp Naco was established around the time of the Mexican Revolution and became a permanent fixture on the border some years after Pancho Villa’s deadly attack against an American garrison in Columbus, N.M., in 1916. In those days, President Wilson ordered thousands of troops to the border in response, and he sent the Punitive Expedition into Mexico in reprisal.
The town of Huachuca City accepted the 17-acre camp as a donation from VisionQuest of Tucson in 2006.
Since then, the town has secured a number of grants that will enable the preservation of Camp Naco. A fence is being constructed that will help secure the old buildings.
In a Jan. 12, 2006, study titled “Potential Economic Impact of Preserving and Rehabilitating Camp Naco,” Robert Carreira, the director for Cochise College’s Center for Economic Research, stated, “A rehabilitated and preserved Camp Naco would expand the economic benefits of tourism to the Naco area.”
Carreira noted that according to Census 2000, Naco’s population was 833 and was “impoverished compared to nearby areas.”
Carreira noted a 2001 study conducted for the Cochise County Tourism Council by the Arizona Research and Resource Center at Northern Arizona.
At that time, an estimate was calculated that $930,000 in direct expenditures per year in the Naco area could be generated, based on an assumption that visitors would spend a half-day at the rehabilitated and preserved Camp Naco.
This could provide a number of jobs for local residents.
“In summary,” Carreria noted, “a rehabilitated and preserved Camp Naco has the potential to help revitalize one of the most economically depressed areas of Cochise County, generating a significantly positive socioeconomic impact.”
Herald/Review City Editor Ted Morris can be reached at 515-4614 or by e-mail at cityeditor@svherald.com.
JEANIE ZALMANEK wrote on Mar 26, 2008 12:23 PM: