The Imagination of Place in The Ajo, Arizona Company Townsite
Abstract:
<p>The whitewashed churches and central plaza of the Ajo townsite presents Southwest and Mission Revival styles. Initially built in the 1910s by the region’s dominant copper mining company, today much of this townscape has been preserved and serves as an important driver of a nascent cultural and amenity economy.</p><p>This preserved townscape evokes serenity for some, but the Ajo company town was built in an era of turmoil. Situated in the borderlands between the labor-management wars of the American West and the Revolution in Mexico, the townsite emerged in a time of struggle over fundamental questions about the structure of the region’s political and economic systems. In this context, the Ajo townsite served as management’s bid to prevail in this struggle, and it served to reinforce the company’s vision of how local landscapes and borderland society ought to be ordered for harmonious economic production.</p><p>In preserving the landscape of the company town today do we simply celebrate and reinforce the company’s vision of a harmonious social order? In this presentation I consider this broad question and invite comments, feedback, and critique from geographers exploring similar issues elsewhere.</p>
Keywords: U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, American West, Historical Preservation, Landscape
Authors:
scott warren, Independent; Submitting Author / Primary Presenter