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THE COAST SOUTH - The Welsh |
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Puerto Madryn was founded in 1865, when 150 Welsh arrived at the Argentine coast on board the "Mimosa" and baptized this natural port "Puerto Madryn". Proper settlements started in 1886, when the railway track between Madryn and Trelew was built and Welsh, Spanish and Italian immigrants were hired for its construction. They still celebrate the Festival of Disembarking in honor of the Mimosa that arrived full of future Patagonian settlers. Punta Cuevas is the place where the remains of the first site of Puerto Madryn can be found; the first traces of modern settlement in Patagonia. The remains are excavations, situated above the high tide level. According to reports of the time, there were originally 16 huts. The rest of the excavations were eroded by the sea, but the area which these took up (100 meters= can be easily noticed. Juan Meisen said that "Madryn used to be very small, where Gales Avenue is at present, there used to be farm wires, there were no streets, that is why at present you can still find streets without "ochavas" the latest street is the present Sarmiento. Espaņa, the present San Martin, used to be half street, the other half was a ditch with wooden bridges to join the present 28 de Julio and Belgrano. Espaņa was the only inhabited street, then there was a small group of sheds and that was all. There were no industries. Wool was baled with presses and hoisting machines pulled by horses, generally (from the book "The forgotten Madryn" by Juan Meisen, You can now visit true Welsh descendants at Gaiman and stop there at some of the teahouses. The Welsh have managed to preserve some of their traditional ways of life.
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