How It Came To Be Known As Rocky Point

In 1826 the area received the name of Rocky Point from Lieutenant William Hale Hardy, retired officer of the Royal British Navy, while in search of pearls and precious metals during his travels along the coasts of Sonora and Baja California . It was known on navigational charts by this name until 1936. Very near Rocky Point, Mexico a gold mine was discovered, called the Sierra Pinta, which had two different owners between 1850 and 1910. Before ceasing operations, the mine belonged to an English company that had a smelting operation where the gold was converted into bars and sent to San Francisco . This company had constructed a track for carts that went from the mine to the gold processing plant in the estuary of La Pinta.

After being baptized by William Hale Hardy, Rocky Point also called (Puerto Penasco, Mexico)continued to be a bleak desert spot visited only occasionally by nomadic fishermen on their trips through the sea to the Gulf of Santa Clara or to San Felipe, Baja California, or by brave Arizona sport fishermen who dared to cross the Great Desert without road or trail in order to reach the sea.


THE UNSUCCESSFUL ARIZONA-SONORA RAILROAD PROJECT

Historian Charles J. Gaetjens, from Ajo Arizona, mentions that in 1915, John Campbell Greenway, manager of the mine at Ajo, Arizona, sent engineer Don Rait to carry out studies to establish a railroad from Ajo to Rocky Point along the best rout possible. The goal was to be able to transport the mineral to the coast of the Sea of Cortez , and then to California such as the Sierra Pinta mine had done. Similarly, he sent engineers Ira Joralemon and Ed Malean to Mexico to explore the region and search for minerals to exploit, in order to bring them to Ajo, Arizona not empty handed. The work stopped in 1918 due to the high cost of inflation caused by the First World War.

One year later, in May of 1919, and with his own money, Greenway picked up the project again, sending out four engineers from the Ajo mine. The railroad company was established with the initial capital of 100,000 Mexican pesos.

The partners were John C. Greenway and Dr. Louis D. Ricketts, with a concession from the Mexican Government dated in June 1920. In 1921 the railroad project study from Arizona to Mexico was completed. Several wells were drilled in the desert, one of them 21 kilometers from the coast. By 1925 the company abandoned the project for lack of investors.

Author: RealtyExecutives Mexico

By: Steve Schwab

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