Rawson ( is the capital of the
Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...
of
Chubut, in
Patagonia
Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and gl ...
. It has 24,616 inhabitants in 2010, and it is the chief town of the
Rawson Department.
The city is named after
Guillermo Rawson
Guillermo Rawson (24 June 1821 – 20 January 1890) was a medical doctor and politician in nineteenth-century Argentina. In 1862, when he was the Interior Minister of Argentina, he met Captain Love Jones-Parry and Lewis Jones, who were on ...
(1821–1890), Argentine Minister of the Interior, who supported the
Welsh settlement in Argentina
Y Wladfa (, "The Colony"), also occasionally Y Wladychfa Gymreig (, "The Welsh Settlement"), refers to the establishment of settlements by Welsh immigrants in Patagonia, beginning in 1865, mainly along the coast of the lower Chubut Valley. In ...
.
Rawson is located about south of
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
, some from
Trelew
Trelew (, from cy, tref "town" and the name of the founder, Lewis Jones) is a city in the eastern part of the Chubut Province of Argentina. Located in Patagonia, the city is the largest and most populous in the low valley of the Chubut River, wi ...
, and it is served by the
Almirante Marco Andrés Zar Airport
Almirante Marcos A. Zar Airport ( cy, Maes Awyr Almirante Marcos A. Zar, es, Aeropuerto Almirante Marcos A. Zar) is an airport in Trelew, Chubut Province, Argentina, named after the Argentine Navy Admiral and aviator Marcos Andrés Zar. The air ...
in Trelew. It lies on both sides of the
Chubut River.
The city has a fishing port,
Puerto Rawson, on the
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
coast, down the river.
History
Rawson was the first town founded by the
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
immigrants who sailed on the
clipper
A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. "C ...
''
Mimosa
''Mimosa'' is a genus of about 590 species of herbs and shrubs, in the mimosoid clade of the legume family Fabaceae. The generic name is derived from the Greek word (''mimos''), an "actor" or "mime", and the feminine suffix -''osa'', "resembl ...
'' in 1865 to establish a
national
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
colony.
At the time of founding remains of a mud-walled fortress existed on the site.
Settlers dwelled in the fortress various months while they explored the surroundings and built permanent houses.
[ It has been posited that the fort was built in 1853 by non-Indigenous hunters who entered the area to hunt ]feral cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...
. The fortress was known by various names by the settlers. One name was ''Yr Hen Amddiffynfa'' meaning "Old Fortress", another was ''Caer Antur'' meaning "Fort Adventure".[ ]Henry Libanus Jones
Henry may refer to:
People
* Henry (given name)
*Henry (surname)
* Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry
Royalty
* Portuguese royalty
** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal
** Henry, Count of Portugal ...
had called it "Fuerte Paz" in his 1861 ''Explanatory notes on two maps of Patagonia''.[
Between 1885 and 1890 many Italians settled in Rawson. Initially many Italians worked as railway ]navvy
Navvy, a clipping of navigator ( UK) or navigational engineer ( US), is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects and occasionally (in North America) to refer to mechanical shovels and eart ...
s but in time many moved to work in
trade.
The first bridge over the Chubut in Rawson was built of wood in 1889 by the carpenter and Welsh-language poet Griffith Griffiths (1829–1909), who wrote under the bardic name
A bardic name (, ) is a pseudonym used in Wales, Cornwall, or Brittany by poets and other artists, especially those involved in the eisteddfod movement.
The Welsh term bardd ("poet") originally referred to the Welsh poets of the Middle Ages, who m ...
' and established the Patagonia Gorsedd of Bards
A gorsedd (, plural ''gorseddau'') is a community or meeting of modern-day bards. The word is of Welsh origin, meaning "throne". It is spelled gorsedh in Cornish and goursez in Breton.
When the term is used without qualification, it usually r ...
. This bridge was destroyed by a flood ten years later, and was replaced by an iron bridge in 1917. In 2001 a decision was made to rename the iron bridge as ' (poet's bridge) in honor of Griffiths. A plaque was installed at the bridge with information on Griffiths.
Rawson was flooded in 1899 and 1901. While there had been floods before these floods caused a partial depopulation of the town with many choosing to resettle in Trelew. Trelew was temporarily made capital of Chubut in 1903 as Rawson recovered from the floods. This fuelled a rivalry between the towns which was further compounded by differences in their ethnic make-up as Rawson was more Catholic and had a higher proportion of Argentines, Italians and Spanish relative to Trelew. Rawson regained the capital status soon thereafter.
Climate
Rawson experiences a borderline cold desert
The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...
(Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''BWk'')/ cold semi-desert (''BSk'') climate with hot summers, cool winters and low precipitation year-round.
Twinned towns
* Blaenau Ffestiniog
Blaenau Ffestiniog is a town in Gwynedd, Wales. Once a slate mining centre in historic Merionethshire, it now relies much on tourists, drawn for instance to the Ffestiniog Railway and Llechwedd Slate Caverns. It reached a population of 12,00 ...
in Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
, United Kingdom[ ]
References
*
;Attribution
*
External links
Interpatagonia.com: Rawson
*
{{Authority control
Populated places established in 1865
Populated coastal places in Argentina
Populated places in Chubut Province
Capitals of Argentine provinces
Cities in Argentina