Río Grande (Tierra del Fuego)

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Rio Grande
Rio Grande Argentina.jpg
Basic data
Surface: 12,181 km 2
location 53 ° 47 ′  S , 67 ° 42 ′  W Coordinates: 53 ° 47 ′  S , 67 ° 42 ′  W
Height above d. M .: 0  m
Population (2010): 66,475
Density: 5.5 inhabitants / km²
  (Argentina)
 
 
administration
Province : Tierra del FuegoTierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego
Department : Rio Grande
Mayor: Gustavo Melella, UCR
Others
Postal code : V9420
Telephone code: 02964
Río Grande website

With 66,475 inhabitants (2010, INDEC ) off Ushuaia, Río Grande is the largest city on the island of Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America . It is the capital of the department of the same name in the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego .

The name of the city goes back to the river of the same name, on the banks of which the first whites settled in the middle of the Selk'nam tribal area in 1893 with the foundation of the Salesian mission . Significant impulses for the settlement came from the beginning of sheep breeding and gold mining by Julio Popper .

The city was officially founded by decree in 1921 and soon developed into a trading center and port for the surrounding estancias . Río Grande remained an insignificant small town for a long time until the island of Tierra del Fuego was declared a special economic zone in the 1970s . The city then experienced rapid growth: the oil, electronics and media industries settled here.

In the 1990s, the city's industry experienced a severe crisis and many businesses had to close. Only after the devaluation of the Argentine peso (2002) was it possible to revive some of the farms.

Town twinning

Web links