The region now occupied by the municipality was once the land of the
Opata people. The name of Nácori comes from the Opata language and means place of the nopal cactus. It was founded in 1645 by the Spanish missionary
Cristóbal García with the name of
Nuestra Señora de Nácori Chico; it became a municipality in its own right in 1934. In 1886,
Mexican Army militia fought
Americans and
Apaches sixty miles southeast of the town in an incident known as the
Crawford Affair. American
Captain Emmet Crawford was killed in the battle. ==Economic activity==