iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Puerto Williams

Puerto Williams
Enlarge picture
View of Puerto Williams from the port
View of Puerto Williams from the port
Nickname: The World's southernmost town
Coordinates:
Country Chile
Region Magallanes
Province Antártica Chilena
Founded as Puerto Luisa
Founded 21 November, 1953
Government
 - Mayor Jose Luis Soto Passek
Population (2002)
 - Town 2,262


Enlarge picture
Puerto Williams in Tierra del Fuego
Puerto Williams is a Chilean port, located on Isla Navarino facing the Beagle Channel. It is the capital of Antártica Chilena Province, one of the four provinces located in the Magallanes y Antártica Chilena Region. It is also the capital of the Commune of Cabo de Hornos (formerly Navarino) and is administered by the Municipality of Cabo de Hornos which also administers the Commune of Antártica. Cabo de Hornos is the only municipality in the country which administers more than one commune.

Puerto Williams claims to be the southernmost "town" in the world, using the definition of "town" (pueblo in Spanish), established by the National Bureau of Statistics in Chile. The town was named after Captain John Williams (or Juan Guillermos), who founded Fuerte Bulnes (Fort Bulnes) on the Brunswick Peninsula in 1843. Founded by geopolitical reasons Puerto Luisa was its original name. Since foundation in 1953 the town has served primarily as a naval base. In recent years tourism has contributed to an increase in the economic activity of Puerto Williams. It has a population of nearly 2500, including both naval personnel and civilians. Access is by air or by a ferry service from Punta Arenas, 350 kilometers to the north in Chile, or by a private yacht charter from Ushuaia, Argentina. There is, however, no direct, continuous commercial link with Argentine territory. Most of the houses in Puerto Williams belong to the Chilean Navy.

Tourism

Tourism to Puerto Williams and Isla Navarino is being encouraged. The community has a small airport. Most lodgings for tourists are hostels.

There are several trails for multi-day hikes and back-packing trips in the mountains south of Puerto Williams. Remains of indian campsites and fishtraps can be found along the coast east of Puerto Williams. Puerto Williams is home to the Martin Gusinde Anthropological Museum, which depicts the lives of both the Yamana or Yahgan and Selknam peoples who once inhabited Tierra del Fuego. For easy exploration of some of the subantarctic forest, the Omora Ethnobotanical Park is five kilometres down the road to the west.

The Cabo de Hornos (Cape Horn) National Park may be reached by boat from Puerto Williams which serves as a useful jump-off point for exploring this and other area attractions. During the summer months (January-March), private sailboats and charter yachts use "PW" as a departure port for Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsula; the half-sunken M/V Micalvi is often pressed into service as a yacht club.

See also

External links



Coordinates:
Motto
Por la Razón o la Fuerza
(Spanish: "By right or might")
Anthem
Himno Nacional de Chile
..... Click the link for more information.
Magallanes y Antártica Chilena Region is the southernmost, largest and second least populated region of Chile. In Chile's Roman numeral system of designation of regions, it is Region XII.
..... Click the link for more information.
Provincia Antártica Chilena is one of four provinces in its southernmost region, Magallanes y Antártica Chilena Region. The capital is Puerto Williams. The province is nearly 1,250,000 km² in area, which makes it almost twice as large as all other provinces of Chile combined.
..... Click the link for more information.
November 21 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events


..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1920s  1930s  1940s  - 1950s -  1960s  1970s  1980s
1950 1951 1952 - 1953 - 1954 1955 1956

Year 1953 (MCMLIII
..... Click the link for more information.
20th century - 21st century - 22nd century
1970s  1980s  1990s  - 2000s -  2010s  2020s  2030s
1999 2000 2001 - 2002 - 2003 2004 2005

2002 by topic:
News by month
Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - Jun
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
Por la Razón o la Fuerza
(Spanish: "By right or might")
Anthem
Himno Nacional de Chile
..... Click the link for more information.
Isla Navarino is a Chilean island located strategically between Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, to the north, and the Cape Horn, to the south. The island forms part of the Commune of Cabo de Hornos, southernmost in the country and in the world, belonging to the Antártica Chilena
..... Click the link for more information.
Beagle Channel is a strait separating islands of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, in extreme southern South America. It separates Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego from several smaller islands to the south.
..... Click the link for more information.
capital (also called capital city or political capital — although the latter phrase has a second meaning based on an alternative sense of "capital") is the center of government.
..... Click the link for more information.
Provincia Antártica Chilena is one of four provinces in its southernmost region, Magallanes y Antártica Chilena Region. The capital is Puerto Williams. The province is nearly 1,250,000 km² in area, which makes it almost twice as large as all other provinces of Chile combined.
..... Click the link for more information.
province is a territorial unit, almost always a country subdivision.

Roman provinces

The word is attested in English since c.1330, deriving from Old French province (13th c.
..... Click the link for more information.
Magallanes is the Spanish name of Ferdinand Magellan. It can refer to a number of things:

Places in the Philippines:
  • Magallanes, Agusan del Norte
  • Magallanes, Cavite
  • Magallanes, Sorsogon
  • Magallanes MRT Station
  • Magallanes Village

..... Click the link for more information.
Chile

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
Chile

  • Constitution
  • President
  • Michelle Bachelet
  • National Congress

..... Click the link for more information.
Chile

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
Chile

  • Constitution
  • President
  • Michelle Bachelet
  • National Congress

..... Click the link for more information.
Antártica is one of two communes ("comunas") of the Antártica Chilena Province in the Magallanes y Antártica Chilena Region, and covers all of the Chilean Antarctic Territory. It is administered by the Commune of Cabo de Hornos municipality.
..... Click the link for more information.
Fuerte Bulnes is a Chilean fort located by the Strait of Magellan, 62 km south of Punta Arenas. It was founded in 1843 over a rocky hill at Punta Santa Ana, under the command of President Manuel Bulnes Prieto.
..... Click the link for more information.
Brunswick Peninsula (Spanish: Península de Brunswick) is a large peninsula in Magallanes y la Antártica Region, Patagonia, Chile, at .
..... Click the link for more information.
18th century - 19th century - 20th century
1810s  1820s  1830s  - 1840s -  1850s  1860s  1870s
1840 1841 1842 - 1843 - 1844 1845 1846

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
Geopolitics is the study that analyzes geography, history and social science with reference to spatial politics and patterns at various scales (ranging from home, city, region, state to international and cosmopolitics).
..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1920s  1930s  1940s  - 1950s -  1960s  1970s  1980s
1950 1951 1952 - 1953 - 1954 1955 1956

Year 1953 (MCMLIII
..... Click the link for more information.
Punta Arenas
View of the city of Punta Arenas. In the background the Strait of Magellan and the North coast of Tierra del Fuego

Coordinates:
Country Chile
Region
..... Click the link for more information.
For other uses, see Ushuaia (disambiguation).
Ushuaia (pronounced [uˈswa.ja]) is the capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, and claims to be the world's southernmost city (see
..... Click the link for more information.
Chilean Navy (Armada de Chile) is the naval force of Chile.

Present

The 25,000-person navy, including 5,200 marines, is directed by Admiral Rodolfo Codina. Of the fleet of 66 surface vessels, only six (soon to be increased to eight) are major combatant ships and they are
..... Click the link for more information.
Isla Navarino is a Chilean island located strategically between Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, to the north, and the Cape Horn, to the south. The island forms part of the Commune of Cabo de Hornos, southernmost in the country and in the world, belonging to the Antártica Chilena
..... Click the link for more information.
Yamana may mean:
  • Yámana, an alternate name for the Yaghan language and people, in Chile
  • Yamana clan, a Japanese clan (Sengoku period)
  • Yamana Gold Inc., a Canadian-based gold mining company operating in South and Central America

..... Click the link for more information.
Yaghan, also called Yagan, Yahgan (the original spelling), Yámana or Yamana, are the indigenous inhabitants of the islands south of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego extending their presence into Cape Horn.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Selk'nam, also known as the Ona lived in the Tierra del Fuego islands, in southern Chile and Argentina. They were one of the last aboriginal groups in South America to be reached by Westerners, in the late 19th century, when the Chilean and Argentine governments began
..... Click the link for more information.
Tierra del Fuego (Spanish for "Land of Fire") (English pronunciation [tiˈɛɹə dɛl ˈfwego]; Spanish [ˈtjera ð̞el ˈfweɰo]
..... Click the link for more information.
Omora Ethnobotanical Park is a protected area of 3 square kilometres located in Navarino Island. The park includes a representative variety sub-Antarctic flora, recovered for self development of the community, and amusement; created in November 2000.
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter