by Puerto Pe�asco. The town began to grow again, adding a police delegation in 1932, as a dependency of the nearby municipality of Sonoyta, even though the town was part of the municipality of Caborca. The railroad line created new population centers and the initial layout of the city and port of Puerto Pe�asco was begun in the 1940s. During this same time shrimp fishing was having an impact on the local economy. In 1941, the village had 187 inhabitants who made a living by fishing or working for the Sonora-Baja California railway.
In 1952, Puerto Pe�asco separated from the municipality of Caborca and comprised the localities of Sonoyta, Bah�a La Choya, 21 de Marzo and Cuaht�moc. Sonoyta was the second largest population center at the time, but it had been a settlement since 1694 when Jesuit missionaries established a mission with the name of San Marcelo de Conoitac. In 1989, the municipality of Plutarco El�as Calles was split from Puerto Pe�asco.
Until the 1990s, there had been little tourism here except for campers, fishermen and those (including college students from the University of Arizona) looking to take advantage of Mexico�s legal drinking age of 18. The municipality�s pristine beaches with clear waters stretched for a hundred miles north or south with almost no development. The push to make Puerto Pe�asco or Rocky Point a major tourism center was initiated in 1993, with the government joining with private investors to build condominiums and other facilities. The goal has been to take advantage of the area�s proximity to the United States and the preference of Arizona residents to spend beach weekends here. Much of the inspiration for the effort came from the success of Canc�n, which nearly virgin beach before a government/private venture developed it. Another reason to look to tourism was the declining catches of fishermen here, due to overfishing and pollution. The federal government contributed two billion pesos in infrastructure,
