Naco, AZ

Naco is a Cochise County CDP directly across the United States–Mexico border from Naco, Sonora. The 2020 Census counted 824 residents, and Arizona’s port of entry sits on South Towner Avenue, putting international crossing operations at the heart of the local map. Congress established Naco as a port of entry in 1902; early cross-border traffic included copper ore from Cananea, Sonora, moving north toward Bisbee. The state still lists the Naco crossing as an active port.

ATTREFF / CC BY 3.0

One of Naco’s strangest chapters came in 1929, when bombs from the Mexican rebellion accidentally landed on the Arizona side. The U.S. State Department reported the attack at the time, and later histories identify it as the first and only aerial bombing of a town in the contiguous United States by a foreign power. The Naco Land Port of Entry built in 1936 still stands out for its Pueblo Revival design, with adobe-like walls, a flat roof, rounded edges, and projecting beams. Naco’s daily setting is a working border crossing with a very unusual piece of aviation history attached to it.