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Introducing Ushuaia
A busy port and adventure hub, Ushuaia is a sliver of steep streets and jumbled buildings set between the Beagle Channel and the snowcapped Martial Range. It’s a location matched by few, and chest-beating Ushuaia takes full advantage of its end-of-the-world status as an increasing number of Antarctica-bound vessels call in to port. Its endless mercantile hustle knows no irony: the souvenir shop named for Jeremy Button (a native kidnapped for show in England), the ski center named for a destructive invasive species…you get the idea. That said, with a pint of the world’s southernmost microbrew in hand, you can happily plot the dazzling outdoor options: hiking, sailing, skiing, kayaking and even scuba diving are just minutes from town.
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In 1870 the British-based South American Missionary Society set its sights on the Yaghan, a people whom Charles Darwin had deemed ‘the lowest form of humanity on earth.’ The mission made Ushuaia its first permanent Fuegian outpost, but the Yaghan, who had survived 6000 years without contact, were vulnerable to foreign-brought illnesses and faced increasing infringement by sealers, settlers and gold prospectors. These days, the legacy of Ushuaia’s original inhabitants has been reduced to shell mounds, Thomas Bridges’ famous dictionary of the Yaghan language and the Jeremy Button souvenir shop.
Between 1884 and 1947 Argentina imitated Britain’s example with Australia and made the city a penal colony, incarcerating many of its most notorious criminals and political prisoners here and on remote Isla de los Estados (Staten Island). In 1906 the military prison was moved to Ushuaia, and in 1911 it was combined with the Carcel de Reincidentes, which had incarcerated civilian recidivists since 1896. Since 1950 the town has been an important naval base.
Tierra del Fuego’s comparatively high wages draw Argentines from all over to resettle here, and some locals lament the loss of the small-town culture that existed until recently. Meanwhile, expansion means a jumble of housing developments advancing in the few directions the mad geography allows.
Last updated: Feb 17, 2009
