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Home Arizona Ajo

Town: Ajo

18 posts
Rural Women Everywhere logo
View Post
  • Governance

Ajo, Charleston, and Eastport take to the digital stage to talk rural resilience

  • Ben Speggen
  • November 7, 2021
What do Ajo, Arizona; Charleston, West Virginia; Eastport, Maine have in common? For starters, they were all featured in a recent panel discussion that Our Towns hosted at the Rural…
Downtown Eastport, from above.
View Post
  • Health & Well-Being

A Rural Health Center With a Pandemic Plan

  • Deborah Fallows
  • April 9, 2020
The Rowland B. French Medical Center is the primary health-care facility for the residents of Eastport, Maine, a tiny Down East fishing town, population 1,400. Eastport was one of the…
The village of Ajo near the Organ Pipe cactus national monument.
View Post
  • Civic Life

Ajo, Arizona, is the story of a better America

  • Deborah Fallows
  • December 6, 2019
Take a walk through the oasis of green grass and palm trees in the central plaza of the tiny Sonoran Desert town of Ajo in southwest Arizona. You’re likely to run into…
A collection of Our Towns players from Ajo, Arizona; Erie, Pennsylvania; and Columbus, Mississippi. From left to right: Morgan Adams, Ben Speggen, Erin Williams, Ferki Ferati, Dairian Bowles, Stuart Siegel, Emily Siegel, Deb Fallows, Jim Fallows, and Chuck Yarborough, standing in front of the Chautauqua Institution's Hall of Missions. (Courtesy of Deborah Fallows)
View Post
  • Economic Development

When Small Towns Take the Big Stage

  • Deborah Fallows
  • July 8, 2019
Connecting Ajo, Columbus, and Erie
N435SR parked at its new home at the San Bernardino Airport in California (Deborah Fallows)
View Post
  • Travel

The End of the Journey

  • Deborah Fallows
  • January 18, 2017
Arriving in Tucson, we felt the inklings of coming full circle with our American Futures project. Only one more leg of our journey, about 400 miles, before we reached our destination of…
Man riding bike with his arm in the air.
View Post
  • Health & Well-Being

A Good Start: Bobby’s Story

  • Deborah Fallows
  • June 18, 2016
One of my favorite features of our American Futures project is the occasional serendipity of crossing the path of some surprising, remarkable person. Like Jerrie Mock, the Columbus, Ohio, housewife who was the…
Desert Senita Health Center in Ajo, Arizona.
View Post
  • Health & Well-Being

Finding Health Care in the Desert

  • Deborah Fallows
  • June 13, 2016
With the closest hospital 100 miles away, Ajo, Arizona's Desert Senita Health Center acts as the region's clinic
Ajo, Arizona, CSA garden plots.
View Post
  • Environment & Sustainability

Farming in the Desert

  • Deborah Fallows
  • June 1, 2016
A small town in Arizona grows a thriving food scene.
Illustration by Adam Voorhes and Robin Finlay.
View Post
  • Civic Life

How America Is Putting Itself Back Together

  • James Fallows
  • February 22, 2016
Most people in the U.S. believe their country is going to hell. But they’re wrong. What a three-year journey by single-engine plane reveals about reinvention and renewal.
Students from the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science doing a historical re-enactment in the town cemetery in Columbus, Mississippi, in 2014.
View Post
  • Civic Life

American Futures Updates, from MS to AZ to CA

  • James Fallows
  • May 28, 2015
NPR conveys the sound of an innovative school in Mississippi, plus other news from the road
The house of Isabella and John Greenway still overlooks what is now an abandoned vast, open-pit mine in Ajo, Arizona.
View Post
  • Civic Life

Isabella Greenway, Pioneering American Woman

  • Deborah Fallows
  • May 19, 2015
The first Arizonan congresswoman, a lifelong friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, lived a remarkable life.
Word cloud of Ajo, Arizona.
View Post
  • Language

A Word Cloud of Ajo, Arizona

  • Deborah Fallows
  • April 30, 2015
The words we use about ourselves reveal surprising truths
Ajo High School Mural.
View Post
  • K-12

Growing Up in Ajo

  • Deborah Fallows
  • April 10, 2015
What it takes to get from the desert to college.
Looking toward the former Curley School in Ajo, Arizona, site of the brand-new Sonoran Desert Conference Center.
View Post
  • Economic Development

From Xizhou to Eastport to Ajo: Big Dreams in Small Towns

  • James Fallows
  • April 9, 2015
The same kind of ambition you see in political campaigns, races for sports championships, or attempts to score a big IPO—but toward a different end.
Historic plaza in Ajo, Arizona (Photos James and Deborah Fallows)
View Post
  • Economic Development

Ajo, Arizona: Oasis in the Desert

  • Deborah Fallows
  • April 1, 2015
How a city with century-old "good bones" tries to reinvent itself.
View from a hill outside Ajo: The great white wall in the distance is a man-made mountain of mining waste; the red-tiled roofs on the left are the historic Curley School, center of current redevelopment activities. Saguaro and organ-pipe cacti throughout
View Post
  • Economic Development

Ajo, Arizona: A Small Town Pushed to the Brink, and Coming Back

  • Deborah Fallows
  • March 30, 2015
What does a town do when most of its people lose their jobs nearly overnight? For the people of this small town, the surprising answer places heavy emphasis on the arts.

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