The official website of San Felipe, B.C.
HISTORY OF SAN FELIPE
A fascinating tale of epic feats and adventures could be described as the history of San Felipe. Firstly because the myths and legends had had a veil of mystery and magic over our peninsula that the ancients described as an island inhabited by giants that were governed in golden cities by beautiful women that were the leaders of our era. Daring Spaniard sailors, attracted by those stories and avid for adventures and riches in reckless voyages, traveled our coasts to what we now know as the High Gulf of California. This is credited to Don Hernando Fernando Cortes and Don Francisco Ulloa. Later on, Don Hernando de Alarcon and Don Domingo del Castillo arrived and made the first cartography of the area. They discovered a beautiful bay that christened it Santa Catarina. This is what we know today as San Felipe. Years later, and by the cartographic works carried out by the Italian Evangelist Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, it was proven that the discovered lands were a great peninsula.
To culminate this story, so that the historians and writers would accept the name of San Felipe for this Bay, it is attributed to the Missionary Father Juan de Ugarte for the big influence that he represented on arriving to this area on February 5, 1721. This date is the calendar day that celebrates the onomastic saints’ day of San Felipe de Jesus (Saint Philippe of Jesus).
We can’t stop recognizing the bravery and courage shown, as all his predecessors, by Father Don Fernando Consag that in 1746 carried out several detailed cartographic works locating San Felipe and the impressive mass of rock that emerges from the sea in front of San Felipe. It was known before as the Fragata Island, and today is named Consag Small Island in honor of that distinguished navigator.
Years ahead, during the Administration of General Abelardo L. Rodriguez Governor of the Northern Territory of Baja California, it started to get organized, and the first fishing camps were settled. By the year 1976 the first Sub-delegation was established, and it was represented by Don Octavio Vega Ruiz.
Its start as future tourist destination could be dated back to 1947 when the Compañia Industrial del Golfo de Cortez (The Gulf of Cortez Industrial Company), owned by Don Jose Ma. Rodriguez Lujan, purchased the land owned by Don Guillermo Andrade’s inheritance with the purpose to start an International type Tourist Development, and taking advantage of its closeness to the United Sates. Later on, and during the year 1947, the construction of the San Felipe Highway starts, ending in 1951.
On a symposium called by the XIII Local Government and carried out in this Port, it was established that the foundation date of San Felipe was on February 5, 1925.
