Year 1877 - The Shepherd of my Land

Monumento al El Ojevero en Avenida Bulnes

In the early days of the Magellan colony, there was no livestock, except for a few cows, oxen and horses. The English, who had been in the Falkland Islands since 1833, successfully exploited sheep in that area, similar to the southern Chilean area.

At the end of 1876, Governor Diego Dublé decided to travel to the Malvinas, with the aim of interesting some settlers to go and populate Magallanes. He made the trip on the corvette "Chacabuco", in the company of Mr. Enrique L. Reynard.

The Falkland Islanders were not interested in settling in this area and instead sold them a batch of 300 sheep, which Mr. Reynard bought and placed on Isabel Island. Once these animals were reproduced, they served as a base for the formation of several estancias. The following year, the schooner "San Pedro" transported a new batch of sheep for Mr. Daniel Cruz Ramírez, who placed them on Marta Island, but they died due to lack of water.

Don Mario Marius, a Swiss, imported another batch of sheep the same year on the steamer "Toro" and placed them in San Gregorio, where he formed a ranch in partnership with a Frenchman, who later sold it to the Spaniard José Menéndez. In 1882 more imports were made from the Malvinas Islands, most of them on the schooner "Ripling Wave": José Nogueira for Pecket Harbour and José Menéndez for San Gregorio. Many died on the voyage and others were killed by Indians and foxes. They were of undefined breed and there were only a few Romney Marsh sheep.

In 1885, the livestock in the area reached 40,000 heads. The first ranchers obtained land by simple occupation permit. That year, the Government decided to lease land through public bidding and on November 10, the first auction of 90 lots, of 529,450 hectares in total, for twenty years, was held.

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Colonization extended to Tierra del Fuego and Ultima Esperanza. In 1890, José Nogueira obtained a concession of one million hectares on the large island, giving rise to the Sociedad Explotadora de Tierra del Fuego. In 1890, the Salesians obtained a 20-year concession on Dawson Island to support the Indians they were civilizing.