Tierra del Fuego gold rush

Between 1883 and 1906 Tierra del Fuego experienced a gold rush attracting a large number of Chileans, Argentines and Europeans to the archipelago, including a large number of Dalmatians. The gold rush led to the formation of the first towns in the archipelago and fueled economic growth in Punta Arenas. After the goldrush was over most gold diggers left the archipelago, while the remaining settlers engaged in sheep farming and fishing. Indigenous Selk'nam populations declined sharply during the rush.

In 1879 an expedition led by Chilean Navy officer Ramón Serrano Montaner discovered gold in some watercourses of western Tierra del Fuego. However the gold rush was triggered only in 1884. That year the French steamship Arctique ran aground on the northern coast of Cape Virgenes. An expedition sent for its rescue discovered gold in a place called Zanja a Pique. When news reached Punta Arenas many inhabitants left for Zanja a Pique. From Punta Arenas the news then reached Buenos Aires.

In Buenos Aires the press portrayed the gold findings comparing it to the rushes of Australia and California. In that city many companies were formed for the purpose of extracting gold.Julio Popper, a mining engineer, was contracted by one of these companies in Buenos Aires. Popper then proceeded to recruit a number of Dalmatians from the many immigrants that lived in Buenos Aires those years. With these workers Popper set out to exploit the findings of El Páramo in San Sebastián Bay. Another camp was established in Sloggett Bay at the southern coast of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego.

The gold rush reached the Chilean islands south of Beagle Channel so that by 1893 over thousand men, most of them Dalmatians, lived there. However, by 1894 gold extraction begun to decline in these islands and deposits became gradually depleted. A number of enterprises formed in the 1900s to extract gold from the islands south of Beagle Channel ended with meager results.

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