The Fotheringham Crossing Pyramid () is a monument located on a hill on the bank of the

Neuquén River The Neuquén River () is the second most important river of the province of Neuquén in the Argentine Patagonia, after the Limay River. Rocks of the Neuquén Basin are fossiliferous, and the basin hosts what may become important fields of ...

, in the neighborhood of Sapere in

Neuquén Neuquén (; ) is the capital city of the Argentine province of Neuquén and of the Confluencia Department, located in the east of the province. It occupies a strip of land west of the confluence of the Limay and Neuquén rivers which form t ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, built to commemorate the crossing of the river by Colonel Fotheringham, Major Fábregras, and an unknown soldier in 1879, during the

Conquest of the Desert The Conquest of the Desert () was an Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, Argentine military campaign directed mainly by General Julio Argentino Roca during the 1870s and 1880s with the intention of establishing dominance over Patagonia, inh ...

Background

At midday on June 11, 1879, an

Argentine Army The Argentine Army () is the Army, land force branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic and the senior military service of Argentina. Under the Argentine Constitution, the president of Argentina is the commander-in-chief of the Armed For ...

retinue led by

Julio Roca Alejo Julio Argentino Roca Paz (July 17, 1843 – October 19, 1914) was an Argentine army general and statesman who served as President of Argentina from 1880 to 1886 and from 1898 to 1904. Roca is the most important representative of the ...

, then Minister of War and the Navy, reached the confluence of the

and

Limay Limay, officially the Municipality of Limay (), is a municipality in the province of Bataan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 78,272 people. History Dominican and Franciscan friars settled Limay by the late 1 ...

Rivers during the

, a military campaign directed against the native population of Argentina. Roca ordered the natives serving among his men to cross the river, but they were unable to do it and almost drowned. He then offered a reward of 2,000

pesos The peso is the monetary unit of several Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, as well as the Philippines. Originating in the Spanish Empire, the word translates to "weight". In most countries of the Americas, the symbol commonly known a ...

to whoever could cross. English-born Ignacio Hamilton Fotheringham, the commander of the 7th Infantry Regiment, took up the challenge, joined by Sergeant Fábregas and an unknown soldier. The strong current knocked the three men out of their horses. Although Fotheringham was dragged downstream by the cold water, he and his men were able to reach the other bank of the river, on the eastern edge of present-day Neuquén.

Monument

The place of the crossing was declared a historic site on December 28, 1943. The pyramid, an

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

about in height and made of brick and cement, was inaugurated on a hill overlooking the bridges spanning the river between Neuquén and the neighboring city of

Cipolletti Cipolletti ( or ) is a city in north of the Patagonian . With a population of 105 482 inhabitants at the , Cipolletti is the third-most populated settlement in the province, after San Carlos de Bariloche and General Roca. Together, with Neuquén ...

on February 3, 1947. A sidewalk and cement benches were built around the monument. The original bronze plaques were stolen, and the pyramid has been repeatedly vandalized with

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

. Along with the Neuquén River bridge, the monument was depicted in the first

test card A test card, also known as a test pattern or start-up/closedown test, is a television test signal, typically broadcast at times when the transmitter is active but no program is being broadcast (often at sign-on and sign-off). Used since the ear ...

of LU84 Canal 7, a local television channel, in 1965. Despite remaining little-known among the general public in Neuquén, the monument is considered to be a symbol of the neighborhood of Sapere by its inhabitants.

References

{{reflist Monuments and memorials in Argentina Neuquén