**Monción** is a city and municipality of the Santiago Rodríguez province, in northwestern Dominican Republic. Its old name was *Guaraguanó*, a Taíno name that sometimes is used. The Municipio of Monción was founder by Joaquin Izquierdo, Anastasio Valle, Tomás Genao, Luis José Saldá, Dionicio Bueno y Siriaco Peralta.

History
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The town was founded by people that came to look for gold in the Mao river and other rivers of the region. Later, some families came to live here to cut the many trees, mainly pines, that were around the town.

On 9 April 1884, it was created the *Puesto Cantonal de Guaraguanó* in the Monte Cristi province. "Puesto Cantonal" was similar to a municipality; in English, "County (Military) Post". On 23 March 1898, the name of *Guaraguanó* was changed to the present name, *Monción*, in honor of *Benito Monción*, one of the heroes of the Restoration War against Spain.

When the Santiago Rodríguez province was created in 1948, Monción was one of the municipalities of that new province.

Population
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The municipality had, in 2014, a total population of 11,753: 6,069 men and 5,684 women. The urban population was 67.5% of the total population.

Geography
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Monción is on the northern side of the *Cordillera Central* ("Central mountain range") and has a total area of 138.9 km2 (54 sq mi), about 12.1% of the total area of the province of Santiago Rodríguez. The city is an elevation of 364 m (1,194 ft), and at 36 km (22 mi) to the southeast of Sabaneta, the capital of the province.

It does not have any municipal district (a municipal district is a subdivision of a municipality).

The municipality of Monción has the Valverde province to the north, the Santiago province to the west and south, and the municipality of Sabaneta to the west.

### Climate

Monción has a tropical wet and dry/savanna climate (Köppen-Geiger classification: **Aw**) with a pronounced dry season in winter.

The average amount of rainfall for the year in the city is 1,297.9 mm (51.1 in). The month with the most precipitation on average is May with 219.5 mm (8.6 in) of rainfall, followed by October with 181.4 mm (7.1 in).

The driest season is winter. The month with the least rainfall on average is January with an average of 42.6 mm (1.7 in) and the second is February with 56.3 mm (2.2 in).

Monción is in a warm region; the average temperature for the year is 24.1 °C (75.4 °F). The warmest month, on average, is August with an average temperature of 26 °C (78.8 °F). The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of 21.9 °C (71.4 °F).



| Climate data for Monción (1961–1990) |
| --- |
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 28.5(83.3) | 28.8(83.8) | 30.2(86.4) | 30.7(87.3) | 31.1(88.0) | 31.9(89.4) | 32.6(90.7) | 33.1(91.6) | 32.5(90.5) | 31.4(88.5) | 29.4(84.9) | 28.5(83.3) | 30.7(87.3) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 21.9(71.4) | 22.3(72.1) | 23.5(74.3) | 24.2(75.6) | 24.7(76.5) | 25.4(77.7) | 25.8(78.4) | 26.0(78.8) | 25.6(78.1) | 24.9(76.8) | 23.3(73.9) | 22.0(71.6) | 24.1(75.4) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 15.3(59.5) | 15.7(60.3) | 16.6(61.9) | 17.5(63.5) | 18.5(65.3) | 18.9(66.0) | 19.0(66.2) | 19.0(66.2) | 18.7(65.7) | 18.4(65.1) | 17.3(63.1) | 15.9(60.6) | 17.6(63.6) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 42.6(1.68) | 56.3(2.22) | 67.3(2.65) | 147.4(5.80) | 219.5(8.64) | 130.9(5.15) | 62.1(2.44) | 82.2(3.24) | 141.7(5.58) | 181.4(7.14) | 110.8(4.36) | 55.7(2.19) | 1,297.9(51.09) |
| Source 1: NOAA |
| Source 2: **Climatemps.com** |

Economy
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The main economic activity of the municipality is farming. Monción is the centre of production of *casabe* (a kind of bread, of Taíno origin, made with the flour of manioc).