Mazatlan history

During the early years of 19th century the city of Mazatlán was full of huts which were being used by indios as their homes. The famous French explorer Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars was the one who revealed this fact about the city of Mazatlán. It was the year 1829 when Machado (a banker from Philippines) entered the city of Mazatlán and saw that there were huge chances to conduct business with people who were busy bring in container business which was due to the port of this city. Businessmen from various countries like Asia Pacific, Europe, Peru, Chile, and United States were continuously bringing in vessels to this city as per their business. Machado was quick to make few friends in this new city and became part of the growing population of Mazatlán. It was the year 1836 when stats showed that the population of this city was around 5000 inhabitants.

The city of Mazatlán faced the sever American Mexican War between the years 1846 to 1848. During this time the American army entered the city of Mazatlán and hence the Mexican army had to leave the city in order to avoid heavy shelling from the enemies. In another incident it was the mid of 1864 when French armies attacked the city of Mazatlán 12 times in some manner or the other. Somehow the city did not suffer much from these attacks and casualties were zero even after this series of attacks.

It was the year 1868 when the captain of a famous ship, Mr. William H. Bridge, tried his best to hijack the port of Mazatlán and attack the city by making that port as his base. He had to take such a serious step as the local custom officials had seized around 23 ounces of gold from his ship.

It was the year 1879 when the port of Mazatlán was gifted with its own lighthouse due to the increase in traffic in this port. The lighthouse was named as El Faro. During those days the light of this lighthouse was static and hence many times ships would consider it to be a star. This was the reason why the light was changed to a revolving on by the year 1905. The lamp was handcrafted in the country of Paris during those days but as of today the lighthouse contains a thousand watt bulb which is visible from around 60 kilometers.