Carampangue River is a small river in

Arauco Province Arauco Province ( es, Provincia de Arauco) is one of four provinces of the Chilean region of Bío Bío. It spans a coastal area of just south of the mouth of the Biobío River, the traditional demarcation between the nation's major natural reg ...

, Bío Bío Region of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. It has its main source in the hill of la Piedra, South of the Heights of Purgatorio in the

Nahuelbuta Range The Nahuelbuta Range or Cordillera de Nahuelbuta () is a mountain range in Bio-Bio and Araucania Region, southern Chile. It is located along the Pacific coast and forms part of the larger Chilean Coast Range. The name of the range derives from th ...

southwest of the town of Santa Juana, and it runs to the Northwest to empty into the Bay of Arauco north of Arauco, Chile. In its upper half it receives several streams from the forests of the Nahuelbuta Range that flow shortly after into a lower section that traverses a fertile and open valley, in which the

Pedro de Valdivia Pedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia or Valdiva (; April 17, 1497 – December 25, 1553) was a Spanish conquistador and the first royal governor of Chile. After serving with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders, he was sent to South America in 1534, wh ...

's fort of San Felipe de Rauco or Old Arauco was first built, and the town of this name that was on the north shore. Its main tributaries are the riachuelos of Conumo and of Los Patos. In the lowest reach of the river it has about 12 to 14 kilometers that allows the navigation of small boats. Originally its upper section was named in mapudungun ''Raghleuvu'', clay river, and in the lower section had its present name, that later became the name of the whole, a compound of ''caran'', "to form a town", and of ''pangui'', "the lion".

Sources

Francisco Solano Asta Buruaga y Cienfuegos, Diccionario geográfico de la República de Chile, NUEVA YORK, D. APPLETON Y COMPAÑÍA, 1899: Carampangue. —(Rio). Page 120
Rivers of Biobío Region Rivers of Chile {{Chile-river-stub