Year 1878 - The Gold Rush

At the end of 1878, Lieutenant Ramón Serrano Montaner, an officer of the corvette "Magallanes", carried out an expedition through the interior of the island of Tierra del Fuego, finding gold in the sands of a river. It was near present-day Porvenir, and was called Río del Oro.

When the news spread, many people moved to the main island to work in gold mining. This led to the colonization of the area and the founding of the city of Porvenir.

The first gold seekers were Chilotes and foreigners, who built their houses, cultivated the land and raised animals.

Later, in 1884, on the shores of the Strait of Magellan, near Cape Vírgenes, the French ship "Artique" ran aground.

The rescue group that came from Punta Arenas was there for a few days and, to their great surprise, found a large quantity of gold nuggets on the sandy beach, washed by the waves.

It was soon known that it was abundant throughout the region. Word spread through the colony like wildfire and people left in caravans for the eastern coast of the Strait.

Gold was abundant. It was brought in large quantities and gave rise to several fortunes. Many squandered it, because they had obtained it easily. Prospectors began to arrive from all over the world, settling in Punta Arenas. Some found large nuggets in the Minas River, in the part that runs through the city.

Among the immigrants who arrived in search of gold was Julio Popper, a Romanian engineer who settled in Tierra del Fuego, where he had troops, minted coins and printed stamps.

Magellan became a kind of legendary land, similar to the Yukon or the North American Klondike. But the gold rush lasted only a few years, because the abundance soon ended and today it is found in very little quantities only in some corners of Tierra del Fuego and in the Rio de las Minas.