Some towns have existed for millennia, populated from early human migration to eventually become desirable destinations. Others are born out of necessity. That seems to be the case for Patagonia.

Not only a large region in southern South America, or a popular clothing company, Patagonia is a picturesque town in the southern part of our state with a story similar to many others in Arizona.

Patagonia lies toward the western end of State Route 82. The road was one of the first 11 highways designated by the Arizona Highway Department in 1927. It was all dirt until 1940 when it was paved from Nogales to our town of topic. The entire route would be paved by 1946, thanks in large part to funding from the Works Progress Administration.

Through most of its western portion, State Route 82 is also known as Patagonia Highway. Although, through the town proper, it’s known as Naugle Avenue. As you travel further east, State Route 82 passes through the towns of Sonoita, Whetstone and Fairbank before meeting State Route 80 near the world-famous Tombstone.

As we talk about quite frequently, mining was and remains a core industry of Arizona’s economy (Heck, copper is one of our Five C’s!), so it should come as no surprise that Patagonia was founded as a trading center for three nearby mining camps: Harshaw, Duquesne and Lochiel.

Before the mining boom, the area was home for centuries to the Sobaipuri and Apache tribes. After the 1853 Gadsden Purchase, American settlers began to establish ranches, military camps and the aforementioned mines.

The railroad came through in the mid-1880s, followed in the early 1890s by oil tycoon Rollin Rice Richardson. Rollin Rice was responsible for the swath of commercial development in what we now call Patagonia. At the time he fittingly called his little town “Rollin,” and would basically be its mayor, town manager and city council until his death in 1923.

The townspeople liked Rollin Rice well enough, but when it came time for a post office, it was overwhelmingly decided that the town be named after the nearby Patagonia Mountains.

At the onset of World War I, Patagonia was thriving. There was a school, an opera house, running water, plus shops and saloons a plenty. There was also an impressive two-story railroad depot, which served arriving trains three times a day.

The year 1929 brought a halt to this boom. The stock market crashed, the railroad threated to abandon the town and Sonoita Creek flooded, destroying the bridges east of Patagonia.

The last mine closed in 1957 and the railroad pulled up its tracks by 1962. Patagonia saw its population decline and seemed destined to join the ranks of famous Arizona ghost towns.

Between 1970 and 1980, however, things turned around. Patagonia saw its population increase by more than 55% as it became known as a popular retirement spot.

Today, you can visit the old historic railroad depot, celebrating its 120th anniversary this year. That's actually it in the photo to the right. It now serves as the Patagonia Town Hall. If the great outdoors are more your speed, nearby Patagonia Lake offers a plethora of activities.

State Route 82 offers 65 miles of beautiful southern Arizona scenery, but as you are cruising along consider making a stop in the distinct destination of Patagonia.

When talking about historic Arizona towns, our minds suddenly leap to more popular haunts like Jerome, a must-stop along the curvaceous State Route 89A, or Tombstone, the Old West archetype on State Route 80.

But the fact is our state is chock full of municipalities that, for one reason or another, were simply deserted along the way. Today, we’ll scratch the surface on a town called Fairbank.

You’ll find this once-bustling 'burg on State Route 82, just about 10 miles west of the aforementioned Tombstone. That’s significant because at the time it was settled Fairbank stood as the nearest railroad stop serving Tombstone. The railroad was so crucial to the town that it was named after Nathaniel Kellog Fairbank, a Chicago investor who partially funded the track.

Fun fact: Fairbank, Arizona, was dedicated the same day its post office opened – May 16, 1883. That’s a good 18 years before the founding of the arguably better-known Fairbanks, Alaska (named after Indiana Sen. Charles W. Fairbanks, who later served as vice president under Theodore Roosevelt).

About 100 people lived in Fairbank at its height, along with all the thriving businesses you’d expect in an Old West town: saloon, general store, butcher shop and the odd steam quartz mill.

A series of unfortunate events led to Fairbank’s decline. Tombstone’s mines flooded into extinction in 1886, and as the years went on several bouts of drought forced many farmers to pack up and find fertile land elsewhere. Fairbank’s population dwindled.

But when the railroad linked Fairbanks to the thriving Bisbee area in 1889, momentum seemed to be back on its side.

That all came to a screeching-steam-train-sized halt in 1901 when the Boquillas Land and Cattle Co. purchased the land the town was built on and exiled most of the residents, keeping just a few business going until the early 1970s.

The Bureau of Land Management purchased the land in 1986 and incorporated it into the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. What’s more, living up to its name, the bureau conserved and restored many of the historic buildings in the former town that's open to the public for self-guided tours.

So take a drive down State Route 82 and immerse yourself in a little piece of Arizona history.

We've said it before, but Arizona highways are lined with monuments, historical markers and curiosities.

There are so many to see covering a range of topics, including a Syrian/Greek camel driver and a silver screen cowboy legend, that it could take a lifetime to finally make it to all of them. So today we are bringing you one place where you can check off two.

If you head east on State Route 82 from Nogales, you'll eventually find yourself driving along Sonoita Creek through a pleasant, tree-lined break in the rugged topography. About 2.5 miles before you reach Patagonia, there's a small pullout on the right-hand side. 

The first thing that will catch your eye is a blue marker, contrasted with the reddish-brown boulder it's affixed to. Let's turn our attention to that first. 

Erected by the Arizona Historical Society in 1991, this marks the spot where a man named Johnny Ward started a ranching operation in 1858. That may not excite your historical curiosity, but it goes on to explain that his son, Felix Ward, was kidnapped by the Pinal band of Westeran Apaches from the ranch in 1861. 

The kidnapping was blamed on the local Chiricahua Apache band, rather then the Pinals. In response, Lt. George Nicolas Bascom rode to Apache Pass to accuse the Chiricahuas and demand the return of the boy. The leader of the Chiricahuas, Cochise, declared their innocence. Bascom didn't believe him, and things quickly spiraled out of control into violence. This is now called the Bascom Affair and was the kickoff of a 25-year conflict between the U.S. Army and the Apaches, who would be led by the likes of Cochise and Geronimo. 

But, as promised, the plaque commemorating the ignominous beginning of that conflict isn't the only thing at this stop. If you look just beyond the plaque, you'll find a concrete staircase leading upward to a small cavity in the rock wall. Inside is a small shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe. Another helpful plaque tells us this display of piety was erected in 1941 by locals Juanita and Juan Telles to plead for the safety of their son who was off fighitng in World War II.

We think you'll agree that having so much history packed into one spot makes this well worth a stop.