Qualla: Alamos https://qualla.com/alamos en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/s/f/9/alamos-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Alamos https://qualla.com/alamos Alamos: Introduction https://qualla.com/alamos/ Photo credit Martha.kawanom, CC BY-SA 3.0. Two tall white rock formations on Mount Alamos look, if you squint the right way, like hooded monks. The conquistador Francisco Vasquez de Coronado camped below them in 1540 and called the place Real de los Frailes, the Mining Camp of the Friars. By the 1680s, silver was pouring out of the surrounding hills, and the settlement that grew up around those monk-shaped rocks would become the northernmost silver city in Mexico, the financial engine behind expeditions that reached San Francisco Bay, and eventually one of the most beautiful ghost towns in the Americas.

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Image: Martha.kawanom | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/s/f/9/alamos-wp/9sf9-alamos-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Alamos: Silver and the Navarrese Network https://qualla.com/alamos/ Photo credit Francisco Javier Espinoza Pérez from Obregon, Mexico, CC BY 2.0. The silver mines at Los Frailes were officially founded in 1683, at a moment when ambitious Spaniards from Navarre were building networks of power across northwestern New Spain. Isidro Atondo de Antillon, who had won the politically contested position of Alcalde Mayor of Sinaloa ...

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Image: Francisco Javier Espinoza Pérez from Obregon, Mexico | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/s/f/9/alamos-wp/9sf9-alamos-silver-and-the-navarrese-network.mp3 0:06 2 full Alamos: From Los Frailes to San Francisco https://qualla.com/alamos/ Photo credit WendyAvilesR, CC BY-SA 4.0. Alamos's most consequential contribution to history may be the settlers it supplied. In 1775, Captain Juan Bautista de Anza II recruited settlers across Sonora and Sinaloa, drawing more colonizers from Alamos than from any other single town -- some 30 citizens joined what became ...

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Image: WendyAvilesR | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/s/f/9/alamos-wp/9sf9-alamos-from-los-frailes-to-san-francisco.mp3 0:06 3 full Alamos: Capital, Then Ghost Town https://qualla.com/alamos/ Photo credit Microstar, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the early 1800s, Alamos became the capital of the state of Occidental, a territory encompassing modern Sonora, northern Sinaloa, parts of Baja California, and southern Arizona. But when silver prices collapsed in the early 20th century, the wealth evaporated and the people fol...

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Image: Microstar | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/s/f/9/alamos-wp/9sf9-alamos-capital-then-ghost-town.mp3 0:06 4 full Alamos: The Americans Who Moved In https://qualla.com/alamos/ Photo credit Iloveyangie, CC BY-SA 3.0. In the late 1940s, an American farmer named William Levant Alcorn bought one of the decaying mansions, restored it, and opened a hotel. The publicity attracted other foreigners, and a slow restoration movement began. By 1955, the town had electricity from dusk to midnight. By 196...

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Image: Iloveyangie | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/s/f/9/alamos-wp/9sf9-alamos-the-americans-who-moved-in.mp3 0:06 5 full Alamos: Birds, Canyons, and a Jet-Rated Runway https://qualla.com/alamos/ Photo credit EmperorJM, CC BY 3.0. The Sierra de Alamos-Rio Cuchujaqui Biosphere Reserve, just outside town, holds what researchers consider the most species-rich subtropical habitat in the Northern Hemisphere. Hundreds of bird species make their southern migration terminus here, drawing serious birders from aroun...

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Image: EmperorJM | CC BY 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/s/f/9/alamos-wp/9sf9-alamos-birds-canyons-and-a-jet-rated-runway.mp3 0:06 6 full