This fall, the Smithsonian is coming to Ajo! From November 9 – December 20, 2025, the Curley School Creative Campus will proudly host Spark! Places of Innovation, a Smithsonian Museum on Main Street traveling exhibition.

Bobby Narcho — a musician, photographer and video editor —is playing an extremely out-of-tune piano in the library of a century-old school building.“It’s got a lot of history here and it’s gorgeous, you know. It’s grand, it’s one of these grand places,” Narcho said. “And it’s very spooky, too.”

“We’re creating something that Ajo needs badly,” said Tracy Taft, former executive director of the International Sonoran Desert Alliance, which is spearheading a multipronged project to bring artists and arts events to Pima County’s far-flung town. “Ajo’s only hope for becoming really a flourishing town again is that kind of niche tourism.”

Don't let the name fool you. While there is space here for conferences and large gatherings on site, this is one of the most romantic destinations for couples. Perched on the edge of the desert less than a twenty minute drive from the amazing scenery, easy hikes, and great sunsets of Organ Pipe National Monument, the center is located in the charming town of Ajo, just six hours from LA. High ceilings, plush bedding, industrial-chic style, and cozy javalina-shaped pillows are just a few of the pluses in their expansive rooms. In addition, a beautiful walk in their courtyard with a fire pit, an easy stroll into the historic town plaza, and stellar star gazing are all part of the picture here. Add in a little art and you'll have plenty to do. Ajo is home to many charming galleries, and artists studios that share the Conference Center property, offering ceramics, sculpture, handmade soaps, and yes, those javalina pillows. There are also over thirty-five murals and sculptures spread out all over town.

Xizhou. Nearly six years ago I wrote an article in the magazine called “Village Dreamers.” It was about an American couple, with two young-teen children, who had spent many years in China and had decided to devote their time, their savings, and much of their future to the long-shot dream of rehabilitating a town in the remote, Himalayan-foothills reaches of China's southwestern Yunnan province.

Built in the early 20th century, the Curley School was once the architectural jewel of Ajo, Arizona, a former copper mining town just 40 miles north of Mexico. But once the area’s main mine closed in 1985, the school---like much of Ajo---was abandoned and left to decay.

Located on the campus of Ajo’s old elementary school, a classic Spanish Revival complex that includes a bell tower, this unique inn offers a classroom vibe with modern comforts and artistic touches. Usually, a hotel with historic architecture, unique art, local cuisine and beautiful landscaping is plenty. But for the Sonoran Desert Inn, these amenities barely scratch the surface of a place that’s become a bucket-list experience as well as a comfortable place to stay.

In an alley in southwestern Arizona, less than 40 miles from the border with Mexico, murals tell stories of community pride, nations divided and the humbling beauty of the Sonoran Desert. Tucked into 12 million acres of wilderness, the tiny town of Ajo is the kind of place that locals affectionately refer to as the somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

The Curley School, which consists of 8 buildings with approximately 134 thousand square feet, were turned into apartments and a conference center.

Having listened to people from around the U.S. talk to us for our American Futures adventure over the last 20 months, I can report that regionalisms of American English are still thriving. Sure, there are some ubiquitous new Americanisms that we have all adopted from listening to the same national media, or moving and traveling around the country talking with each other. For example, the American English patterns like the “uptalk” of ending all sentences as though they’re a question, or the related up-stress on words in a series, like “I’ll have to stop at the store, and then the library, and then the cleaners, and the gas station…”

Driving south through the hot desert from Gila Bend and into the town of Ajo, you pass a series of roadside spots that mark sparsely populated southern Arizona: a motel, a few RV parks, lots of signs for Mexican auto insurance, an IGA grocery store, a car wash, an Elks Lodge. Then you round the bend on AZ-85, pass through a few blocks of modest former mining houses, and suddenly, out of nowhere, you come across the stunning Ajo town plaza. It feels, I imagine, like coming upon an oasis.

When the New Cornelia copper mine shut in 1985, the tiny town of Ajo, Arizona, became even tinier. Located 40 miles north of Mexico in the heart of the Sonoran Desert, Ajo's population registered a scant 2,919 people in the 1990 census, a drop of roughly 40 percent from a decade prior.

Drive south of Gila Bend toward Mexico on Highway 85, and several clues suggest that the approaching town of Ajo is far from typical. At mile marker 29, cell signals begin to fade. By marker 35, wildlife is abundant enough that drivers are cautioned with a WATCH FOR ANIMALS sign. Ajo, surrounded by 12 million acres of federal lands (including the nearby Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument), is no stranger to coyotes, javelinas—and travelers intrigued by its possibilities. As you pull into this Sonoran Desert community, your phone revives, but you’ll be too curious about the town’s revival to pay attention to it.

Ajo’s name is just one interesting story in a town filled with them. Here is what could’ve been an abandoned community, revising, renewing, and revitalizing itself when the copper mine that gave it a reason to exist was closed. In the middle of the raw and beautiful desert the sparkling white Spanish-colonial town square and a series of beautiful murals all around town draw the eye like a very pleasant mirage.

The public school complex in Ajo, Arizona, sits just behind the historic plaza in the center of town. The walk is fewer than five minutes if you take a shortcut through a gap in the chain link fence and then cross over the old, weedy railroad tracks. (Previous accounts of Ajo—the town, the plaza, the overall challenges, and the responses underway—can be read here.)

Ajo, Arizona (pronounced AH-ho) is a tiny town in the Sonoran Desert, far from everywhere. Ajo thrived as a copper mining town for most of the 20th century. This history of copper in the area went as far back as the Native Americans, followed by the Spanish, and a few hard-luck Anglos in the later 19th century.