Rawson, Chubut
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Rawson (; ) is the capital of the Argentine province of Chubut, in Patagonia. 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 – 2 February 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. Rawson is located about south of
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
, some from Trelew, and it is served by the Almirante Marco Andrés Zar Airport 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 oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...
coast, down the river.


History

Rawson was the first town founded by the Welsh immigrants who sailed on the clipper '' Mimosa'' in 1865 to establish a national 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. 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 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 navvies 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 language, Welsh term bardd ('poet') originally referred to the Welsh poets of the M ...
' and established the Patagonia Gorsedd of Bards. 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 (
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
''BWk'')/ cold semi-desert (''BSk'') climate with hot summers, cool winters and low precipitation year-round.


Notable people

* Andrés Yllana, (born 1974), footballer * Sergio Bastida, (born 1979), Argentine-born Bolivian footballer * Gabriel Calderón, (born 1960), footballer and manager * Rubén Ferrer, (born 1975), footballer * Eduardo Sepúlveda, (born 1991), cyclist * Cristian Tula, (born 1978), footballer


Twinned towns

* Blaenau Ffestiniog in
Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
, 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