In 1904, the local Forest Ranger, Robert A. Rodgers, asked the county to establish a post office in town named "Canille", which was later changed to "Canela" and finally to "Canelo" over the following years.

The deed was recorded in 1942 at the request of Cora Everhart, a Santa Cruz County superintendent who taught in many of the one-room schoolhouses in southern Arizona.

[3] Since its closing, the schoolhouse has served the people in the Canelo area as a community center, country store, church, and funeral home.

In 1917, the trustees of the Canelo School District became the legal agents responsible for the Black Oak Cemetery, a free-use graveyard a few miles northwest of the townsite.

[1][4] The Canelo School has a stone and concrete foundation, adobe walls, a cedar roof and wooden floors made of pine and oak.