Ajo wakes early and cool, the white arcades around the plaza still in shadow while the light comes up over Childs Mountain. Ajo Improvement Co works the yards of this old townsite, mowing what is planted in grass, trimming the edges, and clearing the drift of debris the Sonoran wind leaves behind. Water is precious out here and a yard is usually part turf and part gravel and desert plantings, so the work is as much tidying as cutting. Blowing the walks and the carport clean is half of what makes a place look kept. By the time the day's heat arrives, the block reads crisp against all that ocotillo and saguaro.