Pedernales, Dominican Republic

**Pedernales** is a Dominican city and the capital of the Pedernales province, in the southwest of the country close to the border with Haiti.

## Name

The name of "Pedernales" was given to the town when it was founded because that was the name of the river that now is the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

_Pedernales_ or _silex_ ("flint") is the name of a hard mineral that is common in the region.

## History

Before the conquest of the island by European people, some native groups lived around the place where the city of Pedernales is now. But soon those groups disappeared and very few people came to live here because it is a very dry region.

When the French colony of _Saint-Domingue_ (present Haiti) was created, the Pedernales river was the southern border between that colony and the Spanish colony of _Santo Domingo_ (present Dominican Republic). During those colonial times, some soldiers came here for some time but almost nobody lived here for a long time.

In 1927, the Dominican government brought farmers from other places of the country and made a town for them; the new town was given the name of Pedernales and its first administrator was Sócrates Nolasco who later became a well-known writer.

The town became, in 1938, a municipal district (an administrative division of a municipality in the Dominican Republic) of Enriquillo, province of Barahona.

When the Pedernales province was created in 1957, the town of Pedernales became the capital of the new province.

## Population

The municipality had, in , a total population of 14,590: 7,473 men and 7,117 women. The urban population was  of the total population.

## Geography

The only rivers in the municipality, and in the province, are the Pedernales river and its tributary Mulito.

Sierra de Bahoruco ("Bahoruco mountain range") is in the northern half of the municipality; its highest mountain, and the highest mountain of the province, is _Loma del Toro_,  above sea level, in the limits with the Independencia province.

The municipality has a total area of  and has only one municipal district (a subdivision of a municipality): José Francisco Peña Gómez.

The altitude of the city of Pedernales is  above sea level.

The municipality of Pedernales has the Independencia Province to the north, the Barahona Province to the east, the municipality of Oviedo to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the south and Haiti to the west. The city is at about  from the border with Haiti.

### Climate

Pedernales has a subtropical steppe/low-latitude semi-arid hot climate (Köppen-Geiger classification: **BSh**).

The average amount of rainfall for the year in the city is . The month with the most precipitation on average is September with  of rainfall, followed by October with .

The driest season is winter. The month with the least rainfall on average is January with an average of  followed by February with an average of .

Pedernales is in a hot region; the average temperature for the year is . The warmest month, on average, is August with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of .

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## Administrative division

The municipality of Pedernales has only one municipal district:

|Code|Municipal district|Population <small>(2010)</small>|
| --- | --- | --- |
|160102|José Francisco Peña Gómez|9,701|

## Economy

Because Pedernales is on the border, the trade with Haiti is important. But the main economic activity is farming, mainly on the mountains, where coffee and beans are important products. Potato, cabbage and other vegetables are produced in the Sierra de Bahoruco.

Fishing is also an important activity in the province, mainly close to the Beata Island, where lobster, conch and several kind of fishes are caught.

Tourism is becoming an important economic activity because there are several beautiful beaches with white sand, like _Cabo Rojo_ and _Bahía de las Águilas_. There are two of the largest national parks of the country: the _Jaragua National Park_ and the _Sierra de Bahoruco National Park_.

Mining of limestone to send to other countries and for a cement factory is another important economic activity in the municipality.

## Infobox (settlement)

- **name**: Pedernales
- **settlement type**: Municipality
- **image skyline**: Pedernales_Dominican_Republic.jpg
- **image caption**: A street in Pedernales
- **pushpin map**: Dominican Republic
- **pushpin relief**: 1
- **subdivision type**: Country
- **subdivision name**: Dominican Republic
- **subdivision type1**: Provinces of the Dominican Republic, Province
- **subdivision name1**: Pedernales Province, Pedernales
- **parts type**: Provinces of the Dominican Republic, Municipal District
- **parts style**: para
- **p1**: José Francisco Peña Gómez
- **established title**: Founded
- **established date**: 1927
- **established title2**: Municipality since
- **established date2**:
1957
- **area total km2**: 883.8
- **area urban km2**: 6.62
- **elevation m**: 10
- **population total**: 14590
- **total type**: Total
- **population urban**: 13077
- **population density km2**: auto
- **population demonym**: Pedernalense
- **timezone**: Atlantic Standard Time Zone, AST
- **utc offset**: -4
- **timezone dst**: Atlantic Standard Time Zone, AST
- **utc offset dst**: -4
- **blank name sec1**: Distance
- **blank info sec1**: to Santa Cruz de Barahona, Barahona
 to Santo Domingo