Year 1890 - Livestock farming in Ultima Esperanza

At the end of the last century, large areas of Magellan's territory were populated by sheep.

Livestock farming was already the main productive activity in the region. A captain of the German Merchant Navy, Don Hermann Eberhard, who had seen the estancias of the Malvinas Islands, decided to retire from nautical activities to try his luck in sheep farming in Magallanes.

Eberhard observed that the best Magellanic lands already had concessionaires and decided to look for new fields in other places. The Chilean Navy officers Salustio Valdés and Baldomero Pacheco informed him that in the Ultima Esperanza Sound, discovered by Ladrillero in 1557 and explored by Fitz Roy in 1830, there were pastures that were suitable for cattle raising. They had seen them on Navy voyages to that region.

*** INFORMATION: Bricklayers' Journey 1558 and other Explorers Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4A8Yi9_Ft8&t=3s

Captain Eberhard organized an expedition to Ultima Esperanza with German settlers and two English midshipmen. He obtained a lifeboat from a shipwrecked ship and rigged it properly, having himself transported by a German ship to Isthmus Bay. From there they began the journey by row to Ultima Esperanza. They sailed through the Kirke Pass, entered the Almirante Montt Gulf, continued along the Señoret Channel and arrived at a place they called Puerto Consuelo. The settlers settled there and founded a ranch. Later they brought sheep from Argentina.

The German colonists had only recently settled in Puerto Consuelo when an Argentine cutter, the "Azopardo", arrived there under the command of Lieutenant José M. Mascarello. The German colonist Ricardo Kruger Leí, who was an honorary commissioner, saluted the landing of the Argentines, raising the Chilean flag. Commander Mascarello recognised Chilean sovereignty in the area and informed his country's government of this. Kruger is remembered with a monument in Puerto Natales.

Very close to the place, on the banks of the Natales River, a city called Puerto Natales was later founded, whose official existence dates back to May 1911.

*** INFORMATION Natales 100 Years. Check the link here: Puerto Natales Seven Identities for 100 Years https://youtu.be/qg45DGZxYZM