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Fitz Roy and Jaramillo are two towns in the Deseado department, separated by twenty kilometers of Patagonian steppe and sometimes by gusts of wind that make Santa Cruz’s arid landscape even more lonely. The train, inaugurated in good times, arrived there and made connection between cities possible. There was an ambitious project aimed at building railway lines to connect cities. But the plan wasn’t just forgottenbut the few branches that had been in operation since 1909 and for nearly 70 years closed more than 40 years ago.
On January 15, 1978, on the orders of de facto president Jorge Rafael Videla, the tracks running from Puerto Deseado through Jaramillo and Fitz Roy to Coronel Las Heras, the passenger transfer branch considered the southernmost in the world, were cut. A day earlier, on January 14, the message came via telegram: “The closure of the railway branch is ordered and then the process of complete scrapping (disarmament) of the rolling stock begins..
The railway had its rise and fall, and in this final phase the towns that had sprung up around the stations had to move elsewhere. The men and women who had resisted and carried out historic uprisings such as the strikes of 1920 and 1921known as Patagonia Rebelde or Patagonia Trágica, saw the possibility of a future interrupted for new generations. Then everything changed.
And how everything changed, The residents of Fitz Roy and Jaramillo made a decision several years ago. When the train does not reach its destination, when the stations close their doors and the workers are left without their source of work, the community takes the opposite path. He restores walls and paints facades, cleans windows and trims weeds, saves objects and documents and opens two museums to preserve identity. “The community is the guardian of the territory,” says Vilma Huenelican Hraste, director of cultural heritage for Jaramillo and Fitz Roy.
In 2021, the Facón Grande Museum was inauguratedin Jaramillo and in 2022 the Fitz Roy Rural Station Interpretation Centertwo unique places in Patagonia for their advanced technology. The locations are embedded in a metaversial space; Through the Spatial application (from the Play Store) you can access, visit, tour and view sheet by sheet from anywhere in the world and at any time. “We are very proud to have these two museums in these cities that have no more than 600 inhabitants,” says Vilma.
The Fitz Roy Rural Station Interpretation Center It is a journey through the history of the countryside from the beginning of the century (1902) to the end of the strongest wool production period in the 1970s, when the train stopped running. There you will learn more about the life of the old settlerstheir jobs and tasks, everything that has to do with the farm worker and the wool producer. “It shows the various activities that were carried out with the sheep on the ranches in the area, herding, marking, shearing and breeding of reproductive animals in the sheds,” they say. It reflects the enormous activity that took place around the railway line that crossed the northeast from Puerto Deseado to Coronel Las Heras.
The Facon Grande Museum – named after José Font, the leader of the strikers in the Santa Cruz area, who was shot with other workers near Jaramillo – is intended exclusively for the rural strikes of 1920 and 1921. The story of Rebel Patagonia through The Avengers of Rebel Patagoniathe 4 volumes by Osvaldo Bayer, Argentine historian, writer, journalist and anarchist activist.
The museum presents the historical story on perfectly lit panels and at a viewing height comfortable for elementary school students. This site, with impeccable aesthetics, not only welcomes tourists or casual visitors, but also targets primary, secondary and university students, as well as the careers of history teachers and tourism technicians from Santa Cruz and the rest of Chubut’s universities. It offers specialized guides in different time periods who not only narrate historical events but also provide information about current events: In 2023, many cases were heard in court. “When we talk about strikes in the countryside, we talk about our workers, our neighbors, our grandparents, our neighbors’ great-grandparents. The Facón Grande Museum comes very close to our feelings. We do not tell a story about strangers. We had to be responsible for this historical dissemination,” they say from the museum.
In the museum there is a wooden cross that was found 20 years ago on the San José ranch in the town of Gobernador Gregores. The owner of the property took it to Osvaldo Bayer in El Tugurio, the place in the Belgrano district where Bayer did his research, but Bayer returned it to Jaramillo. In 2009, he gave it to then-Development Commissioner Ana María Urriselqui, telling her that the cross would be the museum’s first piece, inaugurated 12 years later. One of the most shocking events was the shooting of a striker staged using sculpturesand this is reflected in the external area. Since 2017, the two museums have been part of the Provincial Table of Patagonian Strikes and the Provincial Commission for Remembrance.
Directly in front of it, one street further, is the Casa Matera “Don Francisco”. It is a place that saves furniture and objects that were in this historic house over the years from the beginning of the century to the 70s. In the middle of the main room is A communal table where the tourist can sit and ask questions about the tours conducted, learning to drink mate as a foreigner, tasting fried cakes, buñuelos and the delicious 80 hits cake. “It is a cozy place where as a tourist you can stop for a while, relax, open maps and see how the route continues,” says Vilma.
Fitz Roy Rural Station Interpretation Center. Belgrano s/n, corner of Gral. Lavalle. T: (297) 526-0636 (Whatsapp only). IG: @Turismofitzroyjaramillo
Facon Grande Museum. José Font s/n. T: (297) 476-4700. IG: @Patrimonios_Jaramillo.Fitzroy and FB: /PatrimoniosJaramilloyFitz Roy
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