1866 to 1880
Economic Awakening
And so, calm returns to Sonora and the recovery period begins. By 1869, Miguel Pompa has a stagecoach line between Altar and Tucson. The rates are 8 cts per pound for freight, and $20 each passenger. Two years later, Alfonso Coindreau inaugurates the first stagecoach line, of three carriages, between Hermosillo and Tucson.

Also in the 1860´s, and englishman who had arrived to Sonora during the 50's and opened a store in Villa de Seris, Guillermo Barnett, acquires and moves to the old Real de la Arizona, and establishes there a ranch with the same name.

That same decade the Robinson businesses in Guaymas are declared bankrupt, and his part of Los Nogales is transfered, on October 23, 1871, to Camou Brothers, in account of a debt he has with them for $5,922.77.

By 1872, another bonanza in Planchas de Plata begins, and Remigio Rivera, Luis McKay and Francisco Gastelum denounce there several mines, although by May, due to the lack of resources, the bonanza has ended.

That same year, the Mexican Consulate in Tucson is established, due to the enormous growth of trade between Sonora and Arizona. It is estimated that between a half and three quarts of a million dollars a year enter then to Arizona, coming from Sonora, although by the end of that decade the trade towards Sonora from Arizona is even greater, and accompanying all of this, contraband into Sonora also grows.

By 1877 there is a proliferation of stagecoach lines in the border: Antonio Varela has one between Hermosillo and Tucson, although ending that year he announces that he will suspend it, because the Sonora Congress didn´t approve a law gaving him a subsidy. When he does it, immediately other lines come to replace his: Jose Pierson´s, covering Magdalena to Tucson, and Juan Moreno´s betwen Hermosillo and Magdalena. At the same time, another one is established between Hermosillo and Altar, while the Congress approves in November, 1879, a Law of stagecoaches subvention between Hermosillo and Magdalena.

By 1879, four of every ten clothing pieces used in Sonora, made of cotton, have been introduced through contraband to Sonora. This will force the State government to issue a law, that same 1879, giving long jail periods to contrabandists, and the federal government establishes, in 1880, customs houses in Quitovaquita, Sasabe, Palominas and Nogales.