Austral Road Guide, Chile Chico

Information of Chile Chico

The district of Chile Chico is located on the south shore of Lake Carrera, in the General Carrera province of Region XI of Aisén.
It is located 1,777 kilometers from Santiago, 190 km from Cochrane and 395 km from Coyhaique.

The presence of Lake General Carrera provides Chile Chico with unique microclimatic characteristics in the southern region, which allow the cultivation of peaches, apples, pumpkins, watermelons, corn, beans, other products from agriculture in the central area of ??the country, and the characteristic fruit of the city: the cherry.
These natural conditions have given the town, the name of "Ciudad del Sol" and make it the most important settlement point of the province. Chile Chico is one of the oldest towns in the Aysen Region. Its first inhabitants arrived in the area in the year 1905, and the colonization was marked by the incidents of 1918, known as "the war of small chile", in which the settlers had to face carabineros.


How to get:
By plane:
The nearest airport is Balmaceda Airport in the city of Coyhaique:

By car:
From the north or from the south, you must travel Route 7 or Carretera Austral. You get to Chile Chico or Puerto Ibañez by the secondary routes that surround the Carrera Lake. The towns of Bahía Jara, Fachinal, Mallín Grande, Puerto Guadal, Puerto Bertrand and Río Leones belong to the commune.

Historia

From the General Arbitration Treaty of 1902 between Chile and Argentina, which outlined the Aysenian frontier, a slow migratory process began of Chilean settlers who entered from Argentine territory and settled in different areas of Aysén.

In 1909, a group of them settled on the southern shore of Lake General Carrera, attracted by the peculiar microclimate of the area that allows the cultivation of cereals and the planting of fruit trees. However, in 1917, the advanced colonizer had to face an unexpected problem: the lands were leased to the Swedish Carlos von Flack, although they were occupied by the settlers. Organized to prevent the eviction of their lands and led by José Antolín Silva Ormeño, whom they called the general, the settlers confronted the carabineros sent to enforce the judicial orders. The Carabineros killed a settler; the settlers killed three carabineros, captured others and expelled the others. This event happened to be known as the Chile Chico War.

The death of the three carabineros at the hands of the settlers had a great impact on Chilean public opinion, forcing the government to annul the lease; at the same time that consolidated the position of the settlers in front of the big cattle companies of the region.

After the Second World War, between 1947 and 1949 a group of Belgian families settled in Chile Chico. Many of their descendants (approximately 20,000) live today in different cities of the country, mainly in Santiago.

Finally, the district of Chile Chico was created in 1959 under the name of Lake Buenos Aires, as this is the name that had in both countries the lake that bathes this town. Later, the Chilean part of the lake was renamed the Lake General Carrera, and for this reason the commune was renamed Chile Chico.