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Coyhaique, something about its story.

The region of Aysen is quite new in terms of citizenship. It was not part of the Spaniard Colonization, keeping its channels and in the Andes some pre-Spaniards settles, nomads and semi nomads until a recent time.

By the end of the XIX century the occupation of the region started, in the valley of the rivers Aysen, Simpson, Cisne and General Carrera Lake. The colonists who established in these areas were Chileans who got into the area by the Argentinean pampa. At the beginning of the XX century, biggest economical activities started which were leaded by cattle companies. All these allowed the region to be definitely colonized.

Between they years 1903 and 1906 the most important company got installed, “The Factory Society of Aysén, in the valley of Coyhaique river, which dedicated to the cattle rising. In this place known as “Pampa del Corral”, on October 12th 1929, Baquedano was founded, which lately would be changed by the name of Coyhaique.

In 1930, the cattle companies began to move to other places which means the end of the individual and spontaneous colonization.

Since that time, the role of the government in order to establish new neighbors and to invest in public work would be very important, even nowadays.

In the 40’s the State has been very important in the development and evolution of the region. It was worked very hard in the giving of titles and in the building of a road from Puerto Aysen, allowing to connect both cities Coyhaique and Aysen, and also increasing the citizenship.

In the 70’s, along with the cattle crisis, the economical activity started to depend from the public investment, becoming the urban areas the head and engine of the regional activity. In the 80’s the built of the North part of the Carretera Austral was over, which brought many changes to the area and also a big interest over activities related to tourism, a big concern over the environment.

What is the story about the Square in Coyhaique as a civic center ?

By the year 1925, the Factory Society of Aysen (FSY), gave the land that nowadays forms the square, to big store rooms where people and animals could rest from long trips. This place was called Pampa del Corral. The area was cleaned so that people could have fun with the different activities offered for people on Sundays.

In the years 1928 and 1929 the Ministry of Lands and Colonization designed a commission of planning to give a better design to the town of Baquedano. In this way, the commissions gave the lands to the colonists, being this the origin of the square. The design of the square was in charge of Mr. Héctor Monreal, who brought the idea of a pentagonal square from one of his trips to Europe.

Since then, the square was built by a Committee who got together every Saturday and Sunday to work. Among the people who were part of the committee were Eliseo Castro, Francisco Colones, Guillermo Mac-Dowell, Tomás Arévalo, Salvador Hernáez, Nicolás Urcelay, José Vidal, Williams Saunders, Juan Oyarzún, Doctor Alejandro Gutiérrez, Teacher Pedro Quintana, Dentist Juan Portaleu, Alfonso Serrano, Juan Altuna, Oscar Aranda, José Cordero, Ignacio Araus, Teodoro Holmberg, Juan Mac-Kay, Germán Duhalde and some others.

As the years went by, some creations remain still today. That is the case of the Glorieta (terrace of the Odeon) and the Central Font. After that the square was designed by Mr. Monreal, many changes has experimented without changing its original form.