El Real de Santa María is a

corregimiento ''Corregimiento'' (; ca, Corregiment, ) is a Spanish term used for country subdivisions for royal administrative purposes, ensuring districts were under crown control as opposed to local elites. A ''corregimiento'' was usually headed by a '' corr ...

Pinogana District Pinogana District () is a district (''distrito'') of Darién Province in Panama. The population according to the 2000 census was 12,823; the latest estimate (for 2019) is 26,160.Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo, Panama. The district cov ...

Darién Province Darién (, , ) is a province in Panama whose capital city is La Palma. With an area of , it is located at the eastern end of the country and bordered to the north by the province of Panamá and the region of Kuna Yala. To the south, it is border ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

with a population of 1,183 as of 2010. It is the seat of Pinogana District. Its population as of 1990 was 1,201; its population as of 2000 was 1,185. The town of El Real is on the Pirre River, a small tributary of the

Tuira River The Tuira River is located in the Darién Province of eastern Panama. It flows into the Bay of San Miguel at the province capital of La Palma. It is the largest river in Panama, and one of its tributaries, the Chucunaque River, is the longest ...

. It is by boat to the town of

Yaviza Yaviza is a town and corregimiento in Pinogana District, Darién Province, Panama with a population of 4,441 as of 2010. Location The town marks the southeastern end of the northern half of the Pan-American Highway, at the north end of the Dari ...

, the terminus of the

Pan American Highway The Pan-American Highway (french: (Auto)route panaméricaine/transaméricaine; pt, Rodovia/Auto-estrada Pan-americana; es, Autopista/Carretera/Ruta Panamericana) is a network of roads stretching across the Americas and measuring about in to ...

. The town was founded by the Spanish as a fort in 1665 to protect their gold mining interests in the area.The history of mining and mineral exploration in Panama: From Pre-Columbian gold mining to modern copper mining
Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana, vol. 72, no. 3, 00012, 2020 (" The deposits were first worked by the Spaniards in about 1665 when the fort and mining town of El Real de Santa Maria was founded on the Río Tuira") The English Buccaneer

Bartholomew Sharp Bartholomew Sharp (c. 1650 – 29 October 1702) was an English buccaneer and privateer. His career of piracy lasted seven years (1675–1682). In the Caribbean he took several ships, and raided the Gulf of Honduras and Portobelo. He took command ...

took over the town and fort in 1680, but found the Spanish had removed most of the gold they hoped to seize, and left after a few days.A Biographical Sketch of Captain Dampier
''The United States Services Journal'', p. 316 (1837)

El Real Airport El Real de Santa María Airport is an airstrip serving the small town of El Real de Santa María, in the Darién Province of Panama. El Real is southwest of Yaviza, the southern end of the North American section of the Pan American Highway. Th ...

is an

airstrip An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

serving the area.

References

Corregimientos of Darién Province Populated places in Darién Province Populated places established in 1665 {{Darién-geo-stub