Agua Prieta

Agua Prieta is a city in the northeastern corner of the Mexican state of Sonora, standing on the border with the United States next to the town of Douglas, Arizona. It is the seat of the municipality of the same name, which covers 3,631.65 square kilometres, and at the 2010 census the city had 79,138 inhabitants, the seventh-largest community in the state. It arose at the end of the nineteenth century as railroads were built between Douglas and Nacozari to carry minerals and goods, and its first settlers worked for the Phelps Dodge Corporation. It can be said to have been founded in 1899, became an independent municipal seat on 28 August 1916 and was officially classed as a city on 6 November 1942. The Douglas port of entry links it to the United States, and Federal Highways 2 and 17 link it to the rest of Mexico. Its name means dark water; in the Opata language it is Bachicuy.