Mazatán is a municipality and a municipal seat in the center of the Mexican state of Sonora.
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The municipal area is 649.27 km² with a population of 4,187 registered in 2000. [1] The municipal seat had a population of 1,499 in 2000. It is located at an elevation of 450 meters.
Neighboring municipalities are Ures, Villa Pesqueira, La Colorada, and Hermosillo.
The settlement of Mazatán was founded in the seventeenth century by the Jesuit Juan Nentuig. Its name comes from the Opata language and means "place of deer". During the nineteenth century Mazatán belonged to the district of Ures. It became a municipality on 10 December 1907. [2]
The region is part of the valleys of the center of the state. The average annual temperature is 21.7°C and the average annual rainfall is 508.8 mm. [3]
The region is crossed by the Rio Mazatán, which has an extension of 160 kilometers and flows into the Punta de Agua reservoir near Guaymas.
Agriculture and cattle raising are the main economic activities.
Corn and beans are raised for subsistence while grasses (sorghum, alfalfa, rye grass) are grown for cattle fodder.
The cattle herd numbered 17,132 head in 2000 [4] making cattle raising the main economic activity in the municipality. There were 221 producers listed in the last census of 2000. [5]
The town church and the dance of the fans in August.