Paso Mayor

**Paso Mayor** is a place located 40 km from Punta Alta and 50 km from the city of Bahía Blanca, in the municipality of Coronel Rosales, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

## History

According to several historians, many hundred thousands years ago, at this place was the only point possible for both humans and animals to cross  the Grande River.  In the 19th century, when the measurements, plans and divisions of the area lands began to be made, the people began to  call this pass "Paso del Mayor Iturra", meaning " The pass of Mayor Iturra".  Iturra was the Mayor of that area at the time. Iturra used this pass while grazing his cows, and the people while referring to it, they could say " the pass that Mayor Iturra use" later became the "Pass of Mayor Iturra" and finally shortened to " Pass of the Mayor".  To present date, that name still exists in the documents of the place.  Today, that point of the River acts as the natural limit / boundary of the  of two municipalities of Coronel Rosales and Coronel Pringles.

From the history of the place we can mention the "Posta Paso Mayor"  which was a place where travellers could have their tired horses changed for Fresh ones. This place was owned by one local man called Laporte. He also owned a  "Pulperia"  a kind of supermarket which majored in selling Hides and Skins as well as Liquor. This "Posta" and "Pulperia" with the arrival of the railroad were greatly affected, since the Wagons and Carriages replaced the Horses. and with transportation made easy, trading of Hides and Skins also moved to another level. The "Pulperia became a grocery store until it finally closed in the 30's.

Although it is a place where today there are very few inhabitants, once in its golden age, it reached more than 200 inhabitants. currently it does not exceed 20 people (INDEC, 2010).

## Economy

It is predominantly agricultural being the optimal land for the cultivation of wheat, soy and sorghum in addition to the breeding of cattle and piggery.

## Personalities

Born on October 2, 1887 between the villages of Las Oscuras and Paso Mayor, Violet Jessop the "unsinkable" daughter of Irish parents is part of a group of settlers who founded  the "English Colony of Sauce Grande" by the year 1868, which at that time belonged to Bahía Blanca, the place now belongs to the municipality of Coronel Rosales.

After the death of her father in 1903 the whole family  decided to go to London (Great Britain) where they could have more luck than they had lived here, in Argentina.

In September 1910, she entered as a waitress the prestigious naval company "White Star Line" famous for being the owner of the most luxurious transatlantic ships of the time. Two years later she was part of the crew of the largest and most luxurious boat of the time the RMS _Titanic_, which sank on the first trip. She was among the few survivors.

With the outbreak of the Great War, another ship, the transatlantic HMHS _Britannic_, Sister ship of the _Titanic_, was put at the service of the British Navy as a hospital ship, Violet Jessop  having done a nursing course, board the ship as one of the aid tours, but on November 21, 1916 the ship collided with a German mine and sunk in less than an hour. She was again rescued alive.

She was in England when she retired, bought a small farm and was dedicated to raising animals. She always remembered her childhood and the land that saw her born, Argentina, as "My People".

## Sites of Interest

Within its limits you can find several sites of interest to highlight that make Paso Mayor a place to know and discover.

- The Seven Bridges over the Rio Grande Sauce. The bridges, is a riveted iron construction, built between 1908 and 1910 by the French company in charge of the Rosario Puerto Belgrano Railroad. It is a structure of 268 meters long divided into seven sections: six are bridges type "truss" known as cage type and one "beam". Although the railroad stopped going through that bridge in the 70's, the structure remains intact on the bed of the formerly mighty river now converted into a stream at that point.
- The ruins of the "Posta Paso Mayor", a building with more than 150 years old, currently in the process of being restored.
- The Shrine of Schoenstatt, Shrine of the Mother and Queen of the Peace, founded by the very initiator of that Christian movement, the German, Father Joseph Kentenich on April 12, 1952.
- The abandoned Paso Mayor train station (closed of any operation in 1977)