Fort Abipones (Spanish: ''Fuerte de Abipones'') was a military outpost in the

Quebrachos Department Quebrachos (Spanish : ''Departamento Quebrachos'') is a department of Argentina in Santiago del Estero Province Santiago del Estero (), also known simply as Santiago, is a province in the north of Argentina. Neighboring provinces, clockwise fr ...

near the southern border of

Santiago del Estero Province Santiago del Estero (), also known simply as Santiago, is a province in the north of Argentina. Neighboring provinces, clockwise from the north, are Salta, Chaco, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Catamarca and Tucumán. History The indigenous inhabitant ...

of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, today's Argentina. Now in ruins, it remains a tourist attraction. It is named for the indigenous

Abipón people The Abipones ( es, Abipones, singular ) were an indigenous people of Argentina's Gran Chaco region, speakers of one of the Guaicuruan languages. They ceased to exist as an independent ethnic group in the early 19th century. A small number of sur ...

. The fort was established to protect the frontier of Río Seco, supporting the forts of San Juan, Candelaria (built by

Francisco Bedoya Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name '' Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed " Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father o ...

), Saladillo and Puesto de Sánchez. At that time, the settlers were under threat from the Chaco Indians. During the early years of independence,

Juan Felipe Ibarra Juan Felipe Ibarra (1 May 1787 - 15 July 1851) was an Argentine soldier and politician. He was one of the ''caudillos'' who dominated the Argentine interior during the formation of the national state, and ruled the province of his birth for deca ...

commanded the militia at the fort, and also owned land in the vicinity. He led his men on the first military expedition to Upper Peru, and in March 1820 led these men in support of the revolution in

Santiago del Estero Santiago del Estero (, Spanish for ''Saint-James-Upon-The-Lagoon'') is the capital of Santiago del Estero Province in northern Argentina. It has a population of 252,192 inhabitants, () making it the twelfth largest city in the country, with a surf ...

when it declared autonomy from the

Republic of Tucumán The Republic of Tucumán (''República de Tucumán'') was a short-lived state centered on the town of San Miguel de Tucumán in today's Argentina that was formed after the collapse of central authority in 1820, and that broke up the next year. The ...

created by

Bernabé Aráoz Bernabé Aráoz (1776 – 24 March 1824) was a governor of Tucumán Province in what is now Argentina during the early nineteenth century, and President of the short-lived Republic of Tucumán. Aráoz came from a wealthy and influential family in ...

References

Citations Sources * * * * {{coord missing, Argentina Historic sites in Argentina