Estado De Durango

The city of Durango was built on a wide valley in which a primitive Spanish village named Nombre de Dios was founded. By the 16th century, the firstconquerors who crossed through its territory were Cristobal de Onate, José Angulo and Gines Vazquez del Mercado, the latter attracted by the illusion of theexistence of a large supply of silver; he had ultimately discovered a special deposit of iron, which now bears his name. In 1562 Don Francisco deIbarra, the son of one of the celebrated founders of Zacatecas, explored the region and founded the Villa de Guadiana, near the old settlement of Nombre deDios which soon became known as the Nueva Vizcaya in memory of the Spanish province of where his family came. Due to untamed territory and also to prevent areduction in population, Ibarra bought a mine that offered the Indigenous peoples and the Spanish explorers work, with the sole condition that they inturn would settle in the new-founded city.

As in the colonial history of many cities, the founding of Durango is not exempt from the participation ofmany historical figures, some of which, in addition to Don Francisco de Ibarra, was the scribe Don Sebastian Quiroz, who produced the first correspondencerecord, the lieutenant Martin Renteria, who carried the banner of conquest, and the captain's Alonso Pacheco, Martín López de Ibarra, Bartolome deArreola and Martín de Gamon.

According to the 1921 Mexican census, the city had a population of 67,456 out of which 21,300 were European immigrants.