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Copper Canyon or Barranca del Cobre is located in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Now designated as a national park, the canyon is actually a confluence of 4-6 separate canyons, some deeper and/or wider than the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
The Tarahumara Indians have made this area their home for hundreds of years, having been dislocated from lower terrain by the Spanish, among others. Here in the Sierra Madre Mountains, the difficult terrain helped protect their indigenous culture and language.
Until 1961 when the railroad was completed, the only way to access the interior was on foot or on horseback. Recently a paved road was put through to the town of Creel, but Batopilas, Urique and other old communities at the bottom of the canyons remain accessible only via narrow dirt roads with tight switch backs, often damaged by rain or landslides.
For further information on this area see Copper Canyon 2001, by Richard Fisher, et al; and History of the Tarahumara Indians and Copper Canyon, an anthology edited by Richard Fisher.
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