Cucurpe is the municipal seat of Cucurpe Municipality in the

Mexican state The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which is officially named United Mexican States. There are 32 federal entities in Mexico (31 states and the capital, Mexico City, as a separate ent ...

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into 72 municipalities; the ...

History

Originally the territory was occupied by the

Opatas The Opata (written Ópata in Spanish, pronounced with stress on the first syllable: /ˈopata/) are three indigenous peoples of Mexico. Opata territory, the “Opatería” in Spanish, encompasses the mountainous northeast and central part of the ...

and the Pimas Altas. In 1647 the Jesuit

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

Marcos del Río founded the first Spanish settlement with the category of mission and gave it the name of "Los Santos Reyes de Cucurpe." In 1859 it was given the title of "Villa" and in 1932 it became a municipality. This town was once the considered the "Rim of Christendom" and it was from here that Father

Eusebio Kino Eusebio Francisco Kino ( it, Eusebio Francesco Chini, es, Eusebio Francisco Kino; 10 August 1645 – 15 March 1711), often referred to as Father Kino, was a Tyrolean Jesuit, missionary, geographer, explorer, cartographer and astronomer born i ...

rode out to do his now historic work in the area then known as the Pimería Alta. He rode out on 14 March 1687, 24 years and one day before his death on 15 March 1711.Polzer, Charles. 1968. ''A Kino Guide: His Missions - His Monuments''. Southwestern Mission Research Center, Tucson AZ.

Rivers

There are two rivers that have clear waters for most of the year and turbulent currents in the rainy season that lasts from June through August. The Dolores River and the Saracachi come together to form the Sonora River, which flows into the Abelardo L. Rodríguez Reservoir near

Hermosillo Hermosillo (), formerly called Pitic (as in ''Santísima Trinidad del Pitic'' and ''Presidio del Pitic''), is a city located in the center of the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. It is the municipal seat of the Hermosillo municipality, the ...

Climate

Due to the higher elevation the climate is cooler than in the desert to the west. The annual average temperature is 16.5 °C, with summer temperatures rarely reaching 40° and winter days bringing frost and some snow in the higher elevations. The average annual rainfall is 466.8 millimeters.Cucurpe
@ Enciclopedia de los Municipios de Mexico (Spanish)

Economic activity

Most of the work force is employed in agriculture, which concentrates on growing grasses for cattle fodder. The cattle industry is modest and suffers from lack of infrastructure. There is one mine, Santa Gertrudis, which has offered a new source of employment.

San Francisco mine

This former gold-silver-molybdenum mine, located about 3 km SE of Cucurpe, is famous among mineral collectors for producing exceptionally fine specimens of wulfenite.

References

External links

Cucurpe
— ''@ Sonora Turismo (Spanish)''
Santa Gertrudis mine website
{{Authority control Populated places in Sonora Populated places established in 1647