 el fuerte () is a city and its surrounding municipality in the northwestern mexican state of sinaloa. the city population reported in the 2010 census were 12,566 people. el fuerte, meaning "the fort", was named "pueblo mÃ¡gico" ("magical town") in 2009, for it has many attractions and a special, pretty-small-town aura. ==history== the city was founded in 1563 by the spanish conquistador francisco de ibarra, the first explorer of the lofty sierra madre occidental mountains. in 1610 a fort was built to ward off the fierce zuaque and tehueco native americans, who constantly harassed the spaniards. for years, el fuer
Populated_places_established_in_1563 Populated_places_in_Sinaloa