Santa Rosalia

On our journey today we stopped off at Santa Rosalia, about 40 miles north of Mulege where we spent last night. Santa Rosalia is an old copper mining town, and while there were gringos visiting the town, they haven’t had as much impact there as in many other towns we’ve visited. Santa Rosalia’s mines were most active in the 1890s when the French had a concession there, although the mines have operated sporadically since then, most recently in the 1960s. Santa Rosalia has a couple of interesting historical twists. The first is that its’ church was designed by the French engineer Eiffel, of Eiffel tower fame. The church is made of steel, was first erected during the Paris Exhibition of 1890 with the intent of being a prototype for French colonies in Africa – however, it didn’t sell. So the French mining company bought it cheap and sent it to Baja California to be re-assembled in Santa Rosalia. The second twist is particularly interesting to those of us from Washington. The French sent the copper mined here to a smelter in Ruston (Tacoma), and the ships that delivered it carried northwest timber back to Santa Rosalia as ballast. So most of the structures in town were built with northwest lumber and with French architectural features, unlike any other town in Mexico.