The limits of the Municipality of Nogales

 

The Municipality of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, is located in the Northern extreme of the Mexican State of Sonora, occupying the middle of the border of Sonora with the neighboring State of Arizona, United States.

It has a tutal surface of 646.51 square miles, corresponding to 0.9% of the area of the State.

We can see the limits of the Municipality under two different criteria: according to the political, or the geoestadistical divisions.

Following the political division (red line in the map), the limits are: North, the United States and the Municipality of Saric; South, the Municipalities of Imuris, Magdalena, and Santa Cruz: East, the Municipality of Santa Cruz, and the United States; and West, those of Saric and Magdalena.

Now, geoestadistically (for Census purposes, that is the broken line in the map), starting with the Conteo General de Poblacion y Vivienda of 1995, INEGI has established municipality limits that don't coincide with the political limits. These limits follow those of some ranches located in the periphery of the political limits, and who would be divided between two different Municipalities if the political limits were followed.

The geoestadistical limits give the Municipality of Nogales a greater surface (0.99% of the total State area), and a little more population than those defined by the political limits. Besides this, and following the Geoestadistical limits, the Municipality of Nogales borders as follows: North, the United States and the Municipality of Saric; South, those of Imuris, Magdalena, Santa Cruz, Saric, and Tubutama; East, those of Santa Cruz and the United States; while West those of Saric, Magdalena, and Tubutama.

Within the Municipality, we have the following population centers: the Heroic City of Nogales, which is the Municipality headquarters, who currently is limited by the following geographic coordinates: North, 31° 20’ in the border with United States; South, 31° 15’ in the Encinas Pass; East at 110° 54’ in the watershed limit along the road to Cananea; and West, at 110° 58.5’ in the Colonia Las Torres. It's height varies between 1,177 MASL (MASL: meters above sea level) at the border, and 1,350 MASL at the Encinas Pass.

We also have the following population centers: Cibuta (in 31° 04’ and 110° 54’ at 1080 MASL) ; El Centauro del Norte (31° 17’ and 110° 49’, 1160 MASL.) Bellota (31° 03¨ y 110° 54¨, 1060 msnm), La Arizona (111° 11.5´ y 31° 10´, 970 msnm), López Mateos (31° 15´and 110° 47¨, 1200 MASL.) and Cárdenas Valdés (31° 12¨ and 110° 45¨, 1220 MASL), as well as other smaller population centers.

The Municipality of Nogales is transversed by Highway No 15, who links it to the rest of the State and Mexico, as well as the United States. The railroad parallelling the highway, as well as several unpaved roads that communicate the city of Nogales to several locations. East, to the Ejidos located along the Santa Cruz River, as well as to the Municipality of the same name; West, to several ranches (La Destiladera, El Tascale, El Ruido, La Bellotosa, Los Adobes, etc), as well as to Sasabe; Southwest, and paved in part, communicating to the Ejido La Arizona as well as Saric.

On December 31, 2005, there were a total of 56 kilometers of paved highways, and 130 of unpaved roads in the Municipality.