Rawson, Chubut

Template:Expand Spanish Template:Infobox settlement Rawson (Template:IPA; Template:IPA) 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 (1821–1890), Argentine Minister of the Interior, who supported the Welsh settlement in Argentina.Template:Sfnp

Rawson is located about Template:Cvt south of Buenos Aires, some Template:Cvt from Trelew, and it is served by the Almirante Marco Andrés Zar Airport in Trelew. It lies on both sides of the Chubut River.

File:Puerto Rawson.jpg

Fishing trawlers in Puerto Rawson

The city has a fishing port, Puerto Rawson, on the Atlantic coast, Template:Cvt down the river.

History

Template:Stack Rawson was the first town founded by the Welsh immigrants who sailed on the clipper Mimosa in 1865 to establish a national colony.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfnp

At the time of founding remains of a mud-walled fortress existed on the site.Template:Sfnp<ref name=Williams2003>Template:Cite web</ref> Settlers dwelled in the fortress various months while they explored the surroundings and built permanent houses.<ref name=Williams2003/> It has been posited that the fort was built in 1853 by non-Indigenous hunters who entered the area to hunt feral cattle.Template:Sfnp The fortress was known by various names by the settlers. One name was Yr Hen Amddiffynfa meaning "Old Fortress",Template:Sfnp another was Caer Antur meaning "Fort Adventure".<ref name=Williams2003/>Template:Sfnp Henry Libanus Jones had called it "Fuerte Paz" in his 1861 Explanatory notes on two maps of Patagonia.<ref name=Williams2003/>

Between 1885 and 1890 many Italians settled in Rawson.Template:Sfnp Initially many Italians worked as railway navvies but in time many moved to work in trade.Template:Sfnp

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 Template:Lang and established the Patagonia Gorsedd of Bards.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web Template:Dead link</ref> 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 Template:Lang (poet's bridge) in honor of Griffiths. A plaque was installed at the bridge with information on Griffiths.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Rawson was flooded in 1899 and 1901.Template:Sfnp While there had been floods before, these floods caused a partial depopulation of the town with many choosing to resettle in Trelew.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp Rawson regained the capital status soon thereafter.Template:Sfnp

Climate

Rawson experiences a borderline cold desert (Köppen BWk)/cold semi-desert (BSk) climate with hot summers, cool winters and low precipitation year-round.

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File:Rawson ejido.png

Map of the town

File:Chubut - Rawson.jpg

Homeowner and his Merino sheep.