RECYCLING -- A TOWN? 

We all know about recycling. But recycling a whole town? Now that's something. It's happening in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico, once one of the richest towns in the Americas. Located in the western foothills of the Sierra Madre the settlement started two years prior to May 12, 1685, when the town's official municipal records began.

A mere two years after a few miners arrived, a town developed. A year later so much was happening in Alamos that the Bishop of Durango made the arduous journey across the mountains to see what was causing all the excitement. He found out: silver. One year later several mines were in operation. The silver of Alamos bankrolled the penetration into what is now the states of Arizona and California and established all those Spanish missions so evocative of centuries past. By 1750, living conditions were so crowded that 6,000 people perished in disease epidemics in one year!

But even this tragedy did not stop the town from expanding. In 1799 Alamos shipped more bars of silver to the Spanish King than all "other mining areas in the kingdom". Quite a feat as Spain was really on "a silver kick" in those days. With such wealth the "Golden (Silver?) Age 1770 to 1830 began. It allowed citizens from Alamos to build the Presidio in San Francisco and later colonize Los Angeles.

Not all the silver wealth went into colonization. Several members of one family reportedly possessed half a million dollars -- each. In those days a real bundle of wealth. They built opulent homes and haciendas, many of which still exist. And that is where modern recycling enters this story.

By the end of the 19th century Alamos was in decline, caused mainly by the many revolutions that racked Mexico during those years but also because most of the silver mines had "run out of ore". Because of its remote location, Alamos escaped most of the damage that destroyed many Mexican towns during the revolutions. Thus, these magnificent well-built homes (far more elaborate and permanent than 99 per cent of North American homes today) although they became part of a "ghost town" for most of the last century, retain their two-foot walls and solid foundations. Although fewer than 1,000 persons resided in the area, by 1930 the government established the town as a Colonial Monument. Today, Alamos is the cleanest town in Mexico.

Slowly during the past two decades, but increasingly rapidly during the last five years, about 200 Canadian and Americans have been literally recycling the town. Under new Mexican laws foreigners were able to purchase the ruins and the land on which they stood, the new owners have, and still are, pouring time, talent, effort, love and money into the enterprise. Today Alamos is a living monument to people who have the will to restore and improve on lost glory. With the awakening of this phoenix of the Sierre Madre, Mexican residents now have numerous higher quality jobs than before the restoration and acquired skills that will provide them with remunerative jobs for years to come. Their elaborate homes are Spanish colonial on the outside (because of Mexican heritage laws) and ultra modern in "hidden" technology on the inside and with garden patios, satellite dishes and solar panels on the roofs ... all fitting in well with the tropical deciduous forest almost climate of the Alamos area.

A paved airstrip, the four-lane highway from Arizona, the clean-air along with the white homes with their Andalusian arches, wrought-iron ornamentation, courtyards filled with lush tropical vegetation, and friendly foreign and Mexican residents make Alamos, one of the best retirement or working climates anywhere.

More information: Frank Bernard, Former Spanish Consul to Vancouver, Bishop's Palace, Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. Phone/Fax: 011/52-642-80143.

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