History
See also: Tierra del Fuego Gold RushThe Yahgan people were the first inhabitants of the region that became known to Europeans in the early sixteenth century, but it was not until the 19th century that Europeans started to be interested in the zone and its peoples. In 1890 there were approximately 300 goldminers in the Picton, Lennox and Nueva islands and Puerto Toro which was founded in 1892. Puerto Navarino, on the west side of the Navarino island, was founded in June 1938. Puerto Williams itself was founded 1953 and its naval hospital was inaugurated in 1960 with 463 m2 (today 638 m2). In 2002 the electrical power supply was transferred from the Chilean Navy to a private provide.
According to the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1984 between Chile and Argentina Puerto Williams is the start point for vessels of all nations in traffic between the Straits of Magellan and Argentine ports in the Beagle Channel.
Read more about this topic: Puerto Williams
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There is nothing truer than myth: history, in its attempt to “realize” myth, distorts it, stops halfway; when history claims to have “succeeded” this is nothing but humbug and mystification. Everything we dream is “realizable.” Reality does not have to be: it is simply what it is.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
“History, as an entirety, could only exist in the eyes of an observer outside it and outside the world. History only exists, in the final analysis, for God.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Humankind has understood history as a series of battles because, to this day, it regards conflict as the central facet of life.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)