Ajo

.  Ajo is a small town.  One grocery store, 5 restaurants, two dollar stores, three gas stations, one barbershop ( a good one though).  Actually, the town isn't that bad.  In our trips to and from Oregon, we have passed through many towns that have a lot less to offer than Ajo.
 
   During it heyday, 1940s-50s when the mine was in full production, he population of Ajo was about 15000 .  It would have been funn to see it then.  Many of the early areas of the city are gone, because the mine actually took the land.  Where the huge open pit is today was once a residential area.  The mine is not shut down, but no mining happens there.  A few employees remain because if it were closed, the area would have to be made environmentally clean again and that would be tremendously expensive.  Actually, a bi-product of the slag called "Black Beauty" ,a black rock product used for sand blasting is packaged and shipped out of the facility so there is some activity there.  The pit can be viewed from a look-out spot along the rim and visiting the small information building nearby.