Show -- 3s- earliest colonists into Sonora with only the approval of the state government and it was deemed best to have the authority of the federal government to supplement that of the local state In preparation for a general movement into Mexico Apostle Erastus Snow and Hoses Thatcher led a commission to Mexico City where in ISSh arrangements agreeable to both sides were transacted The Mormons were welcomed to the barren waste lands of northern Mexico The Diaz government in fact took great Interest in the projected movement hoping that the Mormons would cause these lands to blossom as had had moved The President of other properties taken over by them Mexico Porfiro Diaz even suggested the name Oaxaca for the 15 new colony as he was born In the state of Sonora It was sometime later that the townsite for Oaxaca was surveyed 16 and dedicated to be exact on Christmas Day of 1S93 town was located in the widest part of a valley known as "Pulpit Wash8 which is a tributary of the Bnvlspe river The distance from Blsbeo Arizona is approximately one hundred miles to the southwest Pulpit Wash is a small : 111110 July 1 Letters from 1936 5 16 J F Moffett to Encyclopedic Ghuroh History Ibid II M Foster Transcripts |