Copiapó is the capital of the
Atacama RegionThe III Atacama Region is one of Chile's 15 first order administrative divisions. It comprises three provinces, Chañaral, Copiapó and Huasco. It is border to the north by Antofagasta and to the south by Coquimbo. It is some 800 km north of the capital Santiago.Capital of the region is Copiapo...
and of the Province of Copiapó, in
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
. It was founded on December 8, 1744 by the governor
José Antonio Manso de VelascoJosé Antonio Manso de Velasco y Sánchez de Samaniego, 1st Count of Superunda was a Spanish soldier and politician who served as governor of Chile and viceroy of Peru.-As Governor of Chile:...
.
Copiapó is located at , about 40 miles east of the resort town of
Caldera, ChileCaldera is a seaport in Copiapó Province in the region of Atacama. It has an excellent harbor, protected by breakwaters, being the port city for the productive mining district centring on Copiapó to which it is connected by the first railroad constructed in Chile. In 1903, 2,130 people lived in...
. The population of Copiapó was 9,128 in 1903, 11,617 in 1907 and, as of 2002, there are 129,091 inhabitants. Copiapó lies about 800 km north of
SantiagoSantiago , is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the centre of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of 520 m AMSL...
by the
Copiapó RiverCopiapó River is a river of Chile located in the Atacama Region. Starting at the confluence of the Jorquera and Pulido rivers, the Copiapó flows for only 2.5 km before receiving the waters of the Manflas River....
, in the valley of the same name.
Copiapó is the capital of the
Atacama RegionThe III Atacama Region is one of Chile's 15 first order administrative divisions. It comprises three provinces, Chañaral, Copiapó and Huasco. It is border to the north by Antofagasta and to the south by Coquimbo. It is some 800 km north of the capital Santiago.Capital of the region is Copiapo...
and of the Province of Copiapó, in
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
. It was founded on December 8, 1744 by the governor
José Antonio Manso de VelascoJosé Antonio Manso de Velasco y Sánchez de Samaniego, 1st Count of Superunda was a Spanish soldier and politician who served as governor of Chile and viceroy of Peru.-As Governor of Chile:...
.
Copiapó is located at , about 40 miles east of the resort town of
Caldera, ChileCaldera is a seaport in Copiapó Province in the region of Atacama. It has an excellent harbor, protected by breakwaters, being the port city for the productive mining district centring on Copiapó to which it is connected by the first railroad constructed in Chile. In 1903, 2,130 people lived in...
. The population of Copiapó was 9,128 in 1903, 11,617 in 1907 and, as of 2002, there are 129,091 inhabitants. Copiapó lies about 800 km north of
SantiagoSantiago , is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the centre of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of 520 m AMSL...
by the
Copiapó RiverCopiapó River is a river of Chile located in the Atacama Region. Starting at the confluence of the Jorquera and Pulido rivers, the Copiapó flows for only 2.5 km before receiving the waters of the Manflas River....
, in the valley of the same name. In recent years, the river has dried up due to mining and agricultural activity in the region. The town is surrounded by the
Atacama DesertThe Atacama Desert is a virtually rainless plateau in South America, covering a strip of land on the Pacific coast of South America, west of the Andes mountains. The Atacama desert is, according to NASA, National Geographic and many other publications, the driest desert in the world...
and receives little rain (12 mm/year).
Copiapó is in a rich silver and copper mining district. It possesses a bronze statue of Juan Godoy, discoverer of the Chañarcillo silver mines in the XIX Century.
The Copiapó-Caldera railway line, built in 1850, was the second one in South America. The original wooden railway station is now a National Monument.
History
The town was christened
San Francisco de la Selva de Copiapó or Saint Francis of the Jungle of Copiapó, due to its lush vegetation. Prior to Spanish occupation, the area was inhabited by the
DiaguitaThe Diaguita, also called Diaguita-Calchaquí, are a group of South American indigenous peoples. The Diaguita culture developed between the 8th and 16th centuries in what are now the provinces of Salta, Catamarca, La Rioja and Tucumán in northwestern Argentina, and in the Atacama and Coquimbo...
people under the rule of the
Inca EmpireThe Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru. The Inca Empire arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in early 13th century...
. The earliest archaeological remains of human activity in the Copiapó valley have been dated at ten thousand years BP.
Economy
Copiapó has a diversified and potential economy, but
miningMining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock salt and potash...
is the largest economic activity.
The Copiapó Basin has a great deal of copper ore, mined by companies such as "Minera Candelaria", which extracts copper near Tierra Amarilla (neighboring commune). This generates a need for transportation, light industry, and services. "Little mining" represents over 30% of the production. The copper obtained by "pirquineros" (miners) goes to the Copper Refinery of Paipote.
AgricultureAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
is the second largest source of income in this area, largely grape production, with olives, tomatoes, avocados and some citrus fruits also playing a part.
IndustryAn industry is the manufacturing of a good or service within a category. Although industry is a broad term for any kind of economic production, in economics and urban planning industry is a synonym for the secondary sector, which is a type of economic activity involved in the manufacturing of raw...
: Copiapó has mainly light industry, and some medium industry such as INACESA plant and Paipote Cooper Refinery.
CommerceCommerce is a division of trade or production which deals with the exchange of goods and services from producer to final consumer. It comprises the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information, or money between two or more entities...
is growing in Copiapó, largely old and new small and medium enterprises. Downtown Copiapó activity mirrors Copiapó's progress Some native enterprises have grown rapidly in the last decade as to Albasini and Don Álvaro chain-stores. Free-market policies along with a higher demand and better economic expectations have forced the arrival of big national enterprises such as the supermarkets DECA (1999), JUMBO (2005), and LIDER (2006).
TourismTourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other...
in Copiapó has not been developed due to a large bureaucracy, a lack of private investment, and poor information for investors.
Significant attractions of Copiapó are the Mineralogic Museum, Plaza de Armas, Regional Museum of the Matta Family, and the Wooden Railway Station.
Education
Copiapó provides education from kindergarten to high school.
Liceo Católico Atacama, Scuola Italiana d'Copiapó, San Lorenzo School and Escuela Técnico-Professional have of the highest PSU scores of the city.
Other important schools are Liceo Mercedes Fritis McKenney, A-4 High School, Liceo de Música de Copiapó, Colegio El Chañar, Colegio Almenar, Colegio Cervantino, Liceo El Palomar, and Liceo Comercial.
Copiapó also provides college education. The
Universidad de AtacamaUniversity of Atacama or UDA is a university in Chile. It is part of the Chilean Traditional Universities. The university is located in Copiapó, in the Third Region, Atacama....
was founded in 1857, and specializes in Mining Engineering but provides training in Law, Education, and Geology. It is a member of the "Council of Rectors" and is considered a Traditional University.
During the last five years, two new private colleges have come to Copiapó, the Universidad del Mar (2004) and the Universidad Santo Tomás (2007), and INACAP, a national-covering technical institute.
Politics
After the
return to democracyThe Chilean transition to democracy began on September 11, 1980, when a Constitution establishing a transition itinerary was approved in a plebiscite. From March 11, 1981 to March 11, 1990, several organic constitutional laws were approved leading to the final restoration of democracy...
in 1990, there have been four mayoral elections held in Copiapó.
In 1992, Mónica Calcutta (PPD) won the election against 24 candidates. Her ruling was characterized by public expenditure on green areas, parks, and street paving, and public infrastructure such as the new building of the city-hall (1994), the Estadio Techado (1996), and the Technological School (1996).
During her term, Calcutta encouraged people to participation. One of these activities was the "Train of History" carried out in 1994 (for the 250 years of Copiapó) and 1995.
Despite all these expenditures, the City-Hall ended-up with no debt for 1996.
In 1996, Calcutta ran for the re-election, but was defeated by the socialist candidate Marcos López (city-councilor (1992–1996)) by a narrow margin of 146 votes. López's term differed substantially from Calcutta's; his first three years as mayor did not see any important public expenditures in visible things. They came out the year before the following election.
The 2000 election had a very confrontational one. López and Calcutta ran for re-election together with 10 other candidates. In spite of surveys that gave a virtual tie between them, López won the election with an overwhelming 50.07% of the votes to 31.52% of his rival.
López's second term in office was characterized for high public expenditures, part of it from the Central Government to improve Chilean infrastructure toward the bicentennial of Independence.
These expenditures went towards redesigning the Central Square, Matta Avenue and the City Chamber.
In 2004, Marcos López was elected to another term, defeating the rightist candidate René Aedo (RN) with 50.01% to 40.82% of the votes.
Copiapó UFO sighting
Copiapó was said to be the site of an
unidentified flying objectUnidentified flying object is the popular term for any aerial phenomenon whose cause cannot be easily or immediately identified...
sighting in 1864. According to researcher Chris Aubeck, the story first appeared in print in the March 18, 1868 issue of the newspaper
El Constituyente, which was itself cited in the journal
The Zoologist then in
Lo!Lo! was the third published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort .- Overview :Of Fort's four books, this volume deals most frequently and scathingly with astronomy...
, a 1931 book by American investigator
Charles FortCharles Hoy Fort was an American writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena.Fort's books sold well and remain in print. Today, the terms "Fortean" and "Forteana" are used to characterise various anomalous phenomena....
. Fort's account was the basis of a later account in
Anatomy of a Phenomenon (1965) by ufologist
Jacques ValleeJacques F. Vallée, , is a French-born venture capitalist, computer scientist, author, ufologist and former astronomer. He currently resides in San Francisco, California in the United States. Jacques F. Vallée, (born September 24, 1939, Pontoise, France), is a French-born venture capitalist,...
.
Aubeck reports that the original newspaper article described the object as "an enormous bird."