The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1909-06-19
The
S0uthe[lHl0St
Town In
the World.
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ID
The seemingly hopeless inhosp!.-
able region Of Fuegia, spurned as p
possession even by England, has WITH
in a decade been apportloned be-
tween Argentine and Chile. Longitude
6S degrees SO minutes west divides
the area of TERRA del Fuego almost
in half. The eastern part and the
islands to the east were allotted to
Argentina, the western part and all
Islands to the south and west to
Chile.
This was the region in which the
cold Fuegiar midsummer found me,
anchored off a lone penal colony OF
murderers and felnus midway along
the southern coast of TERRA del Fue
go and three hundred miles south
and east of Punta Arenas.
Less than thirty years ago, d thou
sand to fifteen hundred Yahgans VIZ
tied this bay every year. Now, in the
innermost corner, where once glist-
ened his village shell-heaps, lies a
white mans town.
The falling anchor splashed a mass
of spray into the air and sent flock
of wild kelp-geese winging shore
wards Shortly the frigate's launch
"v-d' a converging wake to where a
small pier, decayed and broken, thrust
it's nose impertinently into the bay.
Landing, l walked it's short length.
and stepped into the southernmos1
town of the world. Ushuaia (Oosho-
owia), Mouth of the Bay" the wild
Yahgans named their village, and
Ushuaia it has remained.
With the exception of the little
steamer Oreste, which makes trips
irregularly from Punta Arenas, and m
occasional tramp" which loads WITH
timber or brings supplies. few yes
sells are seen. Tri-monthly, mas-o-
menus (more or less), the Argentine
transport Piedra-buena crawls down
the coast from Buenos Ayres, often
with prisoners in her hold. but sell
dom carries any back, and once year
in the bay. Thus is Ushuaia prac-
tically cut off from communication
with the rest of the world; for. as
yet, no wire sings its lone chant
through the deep mountain forests be-
hind the town, or creeps its suhter-
ranean way fifteen hundred miles
north to the Mecca of the South
American world, Buenos Ayres.
Save for the settlement at Ushuaia
two sheep ranches, three lumber
camps, an abandoned mining-camp,
and a few isolated settlers, these
regions are weird and deserted. Here
in the white hush of winter and gray
cold of summer the penal colony
lives and works. But the climate is
healthy, and perhaps it's very rigors
are conducive to quieting the bloody
passions which formerly dominated
and still seem to brood over many
who live within its confines.
The population may be divided in
to two parts: the half who stay be-
cause they have to, and the other
half who stay ibecause-well, it is not
necessary to go into pasts at Ushuaia.
A roadway runs the length of the
town. The bay laps in on one side;
on the other front the principal
buildings-a little church of the pad
res; schoolhouse, the headquarters
Of the Vigilantes (constabulary), the
Governors house, few shops and sa-
looms. The rest-a hundred houses
or Scramble mp the several side
streets, until they chin out among the
stumps of some timber lands from
which they have sprung. The houses
are mostly built of boards, some OF
corrugated iron, and are i'll adapted
to protect the inhabitants from the
rigors of a subantarctic climate. A
single telephone wire connects the
Governors house and Vigilante head
quarters with the two prisons, while
a limited system of electric lights
sheds it's welcome rays through the
long dark winter months These two
institutions are the raison d'etre for
this little nucleus of population, mum
bering less than five hundred souls.
Charles w. Furlong, in Harper's.