  The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory is a large field of
view, continuously operated, TeV gamma-ray experiment under construction at
4,100 m a.s.l. in Mexico. The HAWC observatory will have an order of magnitude
better sensitivity, angular resolution, and background rejection than its
predecessor, the Milagro experiment. The improved performance will allow us to
detect both transient and steady emissions, to study the Galactic diffuse
emission at TeV energies, and to measure or constrain the TeV spectra of GeV
gamma-ray sources. In addition, HAWC will be the only ground-based instrument
capable of detecting prompt emission from gamma-ray bursts above 50 GeV. The
HAWC observatory will consist of an array of 300 water Cherenkov detectors
(WCDs), each with four photomultiplier tubes. This array is currently under
construction on the flanks of the Sierra Negra volcano near the city of Puebla,
Mexico. The first thirty WCDs (forming an array approximately the size of
Milagro) were deployed in Summer 2012, and 100 WCDs will be taking data by May,
2013. We present in this paper the motivation for constructing the HAWC
observatory, the status of the deployment, and the first results from the
constantly growing array.
