San Blas, Nayarit
Encyclopedia
San Blas is both a municipality and municipal seat located on the Pacific coast
of Mexico
in the state of Nayarit
.
, and 40 miles west of the state capital Tepic
. The town has a population of 8,707.
, site of an infamous prison colony, are part of the municipality.
, 'Father' of the California Missions, departed from nearby Las Islitas beach on Matanchen Bay in the locally-built barque
Purísima Concepción to California on March 12, 1768.
San Blas was founded in 1531, but the official date of founding is 1768, when Don Manuel Rivera and 116 families arrived on the orders of the Viceroy of New Spain
, Marqués de Croix
, under the supervision of José de Gálvez
, who was visitador general ("inspector") of New Spain.
In May 1768 San Blas was designated as a new naval base for the Spanish Navy
. At first only two ships were assigned to the port: The packet boat
San Carlos, commanded by Juan Pérez
, and El Principe, commanded by Vicente Vila. Gálvez ordered four new vessels to be built, one of which was the schooner
Sonora, later known for the 1775 voyage of Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra
to Alaska.
From its founding the naval base was providing logistical support for the Franciscan missions
of Alta California
. As the number of missions grew San Blas was required to send supply voyages more frequently, taxing the naval base's small fleet and underfunded finances. San Blas also became the base for Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest. From 1789-1795 San Blas was responsible for establishing and maintaining the Spanish post at Nootka Sound
and Fort San Miguel
. For about twenty years in the late 18th century San Blas was one of the busiest ports and shipbuilding centers on the Pacific coast of the America, rivaling Acapulco
, the eastern terminus of the trans-Pacific Manila galleon
convoy.
In many ways San Blas was a poor choice for a deep sea harbor and settlement. The harbor was so small it could never hold more than four ships at a time. Silting caused by the nearby Río Grande de Santiago
resulted in a need for the harbor to be regularly dredged. The climate's stifling humidity and torrential rains from July to October, coupled with the extensive mangrove
swamps that surrounded the settlement, resulted in San Blas being plagued by clouds of voracious mosquitoes. A variety of sicknesses were endemic, including dysentery
, typhoid fever
, malaria
, and other fevers. Naval officers and workers regularly complained about the climate. When Alessandro Malaspina
visited in 1791 he found San Blas's climate so unhealthy that he refused to stay there, instead transferring his operations and some of San Blas's ships and personnel to Acapulco. San Blas's location was useful and logical, however, because it minimized travel time from Guadalajara
and Mexico City
without increasing the total distance to the Californias
. Also, the area around San Blas had a plentiful supply of hardwoods useful for ship building and repair. Fresh water was also available year round.
At its height the town had 30,000 inhabitants and became headquarters of Spain's General of the Southern Seas.
The old hillside fort was built in 1770 to defend the town's extensive sea trade with the Philippines. Its front has stone carvings of the kings of Spain. On the hill behind the Fort are the ruins of the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, built in 1769. The ruins once contained the bronze bells that are said to have inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
's poem, "The Bells of San Blas". The ruins of a 19th century customs house are on Calle Benito Juárez, three blocks from the main plaza.
During the colonial period, hardwood forests were the raw materials for ships which did a brisk trade with the Philippines
and the manila galleon
, until the shipping moved to the port at Manzanillo
, and later to Acapulco
.
is famous for being the longest surfable wave in the world as listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The area has an abundance of migratory birds in the surrounding estuaries and lowland palm forests, attracting significant numbers of birders. The Christmas Bird Count
regularly finds well over 200 species, with a record 292 species in 1983. There’s an annual international gathering of birders at the Garza Canela Hotel.
The town is also gateway, along with the nearby village of Matanchen
, to the La Tovara park, an extensive mangrove
forest and federally-protected nature preserve accessed by small boats. A boat tour can be taken up the estuary, where a freshwater spring provides the local drinking water as well as a natural swimming hole used by both locals and tourists.
The formerly elegant Playa Hermosa, built in 1951 on a lonely and beautiful stretch of beach about a mile from the plaza. In the 1960s, Hollywood had a brief hideaway flirtation with San Blas when the likes of actor Lee Marvin
discovered San Blas for fishing. The Playa Hermosa was the hotel of choice.
The hotel still gets visitors who gasp in dismay at its present condition and wax nostalgic over its grandeur when they were kids in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Now overgrown with vines, it is little more than a photo opportunity on a lonely stretch of beach.
Pacific Coast
A country's Pacific coast is the part of its coast bordering the Pacific Ocean.-The Americas:Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western border.* Geography of Canada* Geography of Chile* Geography of Colombia...
of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in the state of Nayarit
Nayarit
Nayarit officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its capital city is Tepic.It is located in Western Mexico...
.
City
San Blas is a port and a popular tourist destination, located about 100 miles north of Puerto VallartaPuerto Vallarta
Puerto Vallarta is a Mexican balneario resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean's Bahía de Banderas.The 2010 census reported Puerto Vallarta's population as 255,725 making it the sixth-largest city in the state of Jalisco...
, and 40 miles west of the state capital Tepic
Tepic
Tepic is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Nayarit.It is located in the central part of the state, at.It stands at an altitude above sea level of some 915 meters, on the banks of the Río Mololoa and the Río Tepic, approximately 225 kilometers north-west of Guadalajara, Jalisco....
. The town has a population of 8,707.
Municipality
The total municipality had a population of 37,478 in 2005. Islas MaríasIslas Marías
The Islas Marías are an archipelago of four islands that belong to Mexico. They are located in the Pacific Ocean, some off the coast of the state of Nayarit. They are part of the municipality of San Blas, Nayarit...
, site of an infamous prison colony, are part of the municipality.
History
San Blas is known as the port where the Spanish priest Junipero SerraJunípero Serra
Blessed Junípero Serra, O.F.M., , known as Fra Juníper Serra in Catalan, his mother tongue was a Majorcan Franciscan friar who founded the mission chain in Alta California of the Las Californias Province in New Spain—present day California, United States. Fr...
, 'Father' of the California Missions, departed from nearby Las Islitas beach on Matanchen Bay in the locally-built barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
Purísima Concepción to California on March 12, 1768.
San Blas was founded in 1531, but the official date of founding is 1768, when Don Manuel Rivera and 116 families arrived on the orders of the Viceroy of New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
, Marqués de Croix
Carlos Francisco de Croix, marqués de Croix
Carlos Francisco de Croix, marqués de Croix , was a Spanish general and viceroy of New Spain, from August 25, 1766 to September 22, 1771, a period of considerable turbulence....
, under the supervision of José de Gálvez
José de Gálvez
José de Gálvez y Gallardo, marqués de Sonora was a Spanish lawyer, a colonial official in New Spain and ultimately Minister of the Indies . He was one of the prime figures behind the Bourbon Reforms...
, who was visitador general ("inspector") of New Spain.
In May 1768 San Blas was designated as a new naval base for the Spanish Navy
Spanish Navy
The Spanish Navy is the maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces, one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Armada is responsible for notable achievements in world history such as the discovery of Americas, the first world circumnavigation, and the discovery of a maritime path...
. At first only two ships were assigned to the port: The packet boat
Packet boat
Packet boats were small boats designed for domestic mail, passenger and freight transportation in Europe and its colonies, including North American rivers and canals...
San Carlos, commanded by Juan Pérez
Juan José Pérez Hernández
Juan José Pérez Hernández , often simply Juan Pérez, was an 18th century Spanish explorer. He was the first European to sight, examine, name, and record the islands near present-day British Columbia, Canada...
, and El Principe, commanded by Vicente Vila. Gálvez ordered four new vessels to be built, one of which was the schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
Sonora, later known for the 1775 voyage of Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra
Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra
Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra was a Spanish naval officer born in Lima, Peru. Assigned to the Pacific coast Spanish Naval Department base at San Blas, in the Viceroyalty of New Spain , this navigator explored the Northwest Coast of North America as far north as present day Alaska.Juan...
to Alaska.
From its founding the naval base was providing logistical support for the Franciscan missions
Spanish missions in California
The Spanish missions in California comprise a series of religious and military outposts established by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order between 1769 and 1823 to spread the Christian faith among the local Native Americans. The missions represented the first major effort by Europeans to...
of Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
. As the number of missions grew San Blas was required to send supply voyages more frequently, taxing the naval base's small fleet and underfunded finances. San Blas also became the base for Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest. From 1789-1795 San Blas was responsible for establishing and maintaining the Spanish post at Nootka Sound
Nootka Sound
Nootka Sound is a complex inlet or sound of the Pacific Ocean on the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Historically also known as King George's Sound, as a strait it separates Vancouver Island and Nootka Island.-History:The inlet is part of the...
and Fort San Miguel
Fort San Miguel
For Angola fort, see Fortaleza de São MiguelFort San Miguel was a Spanish fortification at Friendly Cove in Nootka Sound , Vancouver Island....
. For about twenty years in the late 18th century San Blas was one of the busiest ports and shipbuilding centers on the Pacific coast of the America, rivaling Acapulco
Acapulco
Acapulco is a city, municipality and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay and has been a port since the early colonial period of Mexico’s history...
, the eastern terminus of the trans-Pacific Manila galleon
Manila Galleon
The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco, New Spain . The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from...
convoy.
In many ways San Blas was a poor choice for a deep sea harbor and settlement. The harbor was so small it could never hold more than four ships at a time. Silting caused by the nearby Río Grande de Santiago
Río Grande de Santiago
The Río Grande de Santiago is one of the longest rivers in Mexico, measuring up long. The river begins at Lake Chapala and continues roughly north-west through the Sierra Madre Occidental, receiving the Verde, Juchipila, Bolaños, and other tributaries...
resulted in a need for the harbor to be regularly dredged. The climate's stifling humidity and torrential rains from July to October, coupled with the extensive mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
swamps that surrounded the settlement, resulted in San Blas being plagued by clouds of voracious mosquitoes. A variety of sicknesses were endemic, including dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
, typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
, malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
, and other fevers. Naval officers and workers regularly complained about the climate. When Alessandro Malaspina
Alessandro Malaspina
Alessandro Malaspina was an Italian nobleman who spent most of his life as a Spanish naval officer and explorer...
visited in 1791 he found San Blas's climate so unhealthy that he refused to stay there, instead transferring his operations and some of San Blas's ships and personnel to Acapulco. San Blas's location was useful and logical, however, because it minimized travel time from Guadalajara
Guadalajara, Jalisco
Guadalajara is the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, and the seat of the municipality of Guadalajara. The city is located in the central region of Jalisco in the western-pacific area of Mexico. With a population of 1,564,514 it is Mexico's second most populous municipality...
and Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
without increasing the total distance to the Californias
Las Californias
The Californias, or in — - was the name given by the Spanish to their northwestern territory of New Spain, comprising the present day states of Baja California and Baja California Sur on the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico; and the present day U.S. state of California in the United States of...
. Also, the area around San Blas had a plentiful supply of hardwoods useful for ship building and repair. Fresh water was also available year round.
At its height the town had 30,000 inhabitants and became headquarters of Spain's General of the Southern Seas.
The old hillside fort was built in 1770 to defend the town's extensive sea trade with the Philippines. Its front has stone carvings of the kings of Spain. On the hill behind the Fort are the ruins of the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, built in 1769. The ruins once contained the bronze bells that are said to have inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
's poem, "The Bells of San Blas". The ruins of a 19th century customs house are on Calle Benito Juárez, three blocks from the main plaza.
During the colonial period, hardwood forests were the raw materials for ships which did a brisk trade with the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
and the manila galleon
Manila Galleon
The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco, New Spain . The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from...
, until the shipping moved to the port at Manzanillo
Manzanillo, Colima
The name Manzanillo refers to the city as well as its surrounding municipality in the Mexican state of Colima. The city, located on the Pacific Ocean, contains Mexico's busiest port. Manzanillo was the third port created by the Spanish in the Pacific during the New Spain period...
, and later to Acapulco
Acapulco
Acapulco is a city, municipality and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay and has been a port since the early colonial period of Mexico’s history...
.
Recreation and tourism
The area is noted for its fine surfing. Playa de MatanchenMatanchén
Matanchén is the name of both the bay and one of the small towns located just south of San Blas, Nayarit, on the Pacific coast of Mexico. It is known for its exceptionally long surf break. Las Islitas, one of the villages and surfing spots on Matanchén Bay, is documented by the Guinness Book of...
is famous for being the longest surfable wave in the world as listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The area has an abundance of migratory birds in the surrounding estuaries and lowland palm forests, attracting significant numbers of birders. The Christmas Bird Count
Christmas Bird Count
The Christmas Bird Count is a census of birds in the Western Hemisphere, performed annually in the early Northern-hemisphere winter by volunteer birders...
regularly finds well over 200 species, with a record 292 species in 1983. There’s an annual international gathering of birders at the Garza Canela Hotel.
The town is also gateway, along with the nearby village of Matanchen
Matanchén
Matanchén is the name of both the bay and one of the small towns located just south of San Blas, Nayarit, on the Pacific coast of Mexico. It is known for its exceptionally long surf break. Las Islitas, one of the villages and surfing spots on Matanchén Bay, is documented by the Guinness Book of...
, to the La Tovara park, an extensive mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
forest and federally-protected nature preserve accessed by small boats. A boat tour can be taken up the estuary, where a freshwater spring provides the local drinking water as well as a natural swimming hole used by both locals and tourists.
The formerly elegant Playa Hermosa, built in 1951 on a lonely and beautiful stretch of beach about a mile from the plaza. In the 1960s, Hollywood had a brief hideaway flirtation with San Blas when the likes of actor Lee Marvin
Lee Marvin
Lee Marvin was an American film actor. Known for his gravelly voice, white hair and 6' 2" stature, Marvin at first did supporting roles, mostly villains, soldiers and other hardboiled characters, but after winning an Academy Award for Best Actor for his dual roles in Cat Ballou , he landed more...
discovered San Blas for fishing. The Playa Hermosa was the hotel of choice.
The hotel still gets visitors who gasp in dismay at its present condition and wax nostalgic over its grandeur when they were kids in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Now overgrown with vines, it is little more than a photo opportunity on a lonely stretch of beach.
Economy
The economy is based on agriculture, fishing, and the tourist industry. The main crops are beans, sorghum, tobacco, corn, watermelon, and citrus fruits. There is a substantial cattle herd and the raising of shrimp in the extensive marshlands has become a recent economic windfall despite the environmental damage.External links
- Government tourism page
- The Naval Department of San Blas, Spain's Supply and Shipbuilding Center for Alta California and the Pacific Northwest, 1770-1810