Canelo is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

in eastern

Santa Cruz County, Arizona Santa Cruz is a County (United States), county in southern Arizona, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population is 47,669. The county seat is Nogales, Arizona, Nogales. The county was established in 1899. It ...

, between the

Canelo Hills The Canelo Hills are a range of low mountains or hills in eastern Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The range consists of a series of northwest–southeast trending ridges extending from the Sonoita Creek valley southwest of Sonoita to the Parker Ca ...

and the northern end of the

Huachuca Mountains The Huachuca Mountains are part of the Sierra Vista Ranger District of the Coronado National Forest in Cochise County in southeastern Arizona, approximately south-southeast of Tucson and southwest of the city of Sierra Vista. Included in this ...

. The site lies along Turkey Creek on

Arizona State Route 83 State Route 83 (SR 83) is a scenic state highway in southern Arizona, stretching from its junction with Interstate 10 near Vail south to Parker Canyon Lake. It passes through sparsely populated areas of Pima, Cochise and Santa Cruz Counties ...

, between Sonoita and

Parker Canyon Lake Parker Canyon Lake is located in southeastern Arizona, southwest of Sierra Vista around the Huachuca Mountains and about north of the border with Mexico. The lake is a reservoir formed by a dam in Parker Canyon in the south end of the Canelo ...

, which is about to the south-southeast in

Cochise County Cochise County ( ) is a county in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is named after Cochise, a Chiricahua Apache who was a key war leader during the Apache Wars. The population was 125,447 at the 2020 census. The county ...

. Today, several historic buildings listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

remain standing in Canelo, including a one-room schoolhouse and a

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 United States National Forest, national forests and 20 United States Natio ...

ranger station.

Name

"Canelo" is an alternative spelling of the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

word "canela", which means "cinnamon" in English. The town of Canelo gets its name from the Canelo Hills, which have a light brownish or cinnamon colored appearance when viewed from the south. It was originally spelled "Canille", but was later changed to "Canela" and finally to "Canelo" over the following years.

History

The Canelo area was first settled in the late 19th century by Captain Joe Parks, who arrived in 1882 to homestead along Turkey Creek. A post office wasn't opened until after the turn of the century in 1904. The local Forest Ranger and area resident, Robert A. Rodgers, was the first postmaster and the man responsible for naming the little town, which boasted a general store, a post office, a schoolhouse and a few homes in its heyday in the 1920s and 1930s. Robert's wife Annie took over the post office in 1906 and was in turn succeeded by another pioneer named Addie Parker in 1910. All three are buried in Black Oak Cemetery, northwest of the townsite. The

Canelo School The Canelo School is a historic one-room schoolhouse in eastern Santa Cruz County, Arizona, in the ghost town of Canelo, Arizona, Canelo. Opened in 1912, the Canelo School is one of the few one-room adobe schoolhouses remaining in the state. As a ...

was built in 1912 and remained open until 1948. Today the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was the home to Canelo Cowboy Church from April 16, 2006, until May 16, 2016. The building has also been used as a community center, country store and funeral home for burials in Black Oak Cemetery, which opened in 1917 on land allotted by the Forest Service. The cemetery is open to burial free-of-charge to all local pioneers, which is anyone who lived in the Canelo area before December 1952. It is also free for those who already have family buried in the cemetery.

Canelo Ranger Station Canelo Ranger Station, also known as Canelo Work Station, is a historic ranger station in the Coronado National Forest, within Santa Cruz County of southern Arizona. It is located in the ghost town of Canelo, within a small valley between the ...

was established in 1932 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. Five historic buildings are located on the site, including the ranger station office, residence, garage, pumphouse and barn, all of which were built of adobe brick by members of the Forest Service and the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...

in the early 1930s. The ranger station, northwest of the schoolhouse on Membrillo Lane, is still in use by the Forest Service and is no longer open to visitors.

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References

External links

Canelo
at Ghosttowns.com {{Santa Cruz County, Arizona Ghost towns in Arizona Former populated places in Santa Cruz County, Arizona 1904 establishments in Arizona Territory History of Santa Cruz County, Arizona Populated places established in 1904

Name

History

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External links