History

75 million years ago . Fossils from the region give faith to the rivers and seas that ruled the landscape.

12,000 years ago . The first residents arrived and settled on the skirts of the Nazas and Aguanaval rivers. There were pine and oak forests, very different from the flora found nowadays. Hunting and fishing were the main productive activities.

1500’s . When the Spaniards conquered, they named the region Comarca Lagunera, although it was commonly known as Nación Chichimeca, famous for its defiant people. Its most interesting legacy for the future is their attempt to write their message through drawings on caves and carvings on stone.

1598 . The Misión de Santa María de las Parras was founded by the Spanish Jesuit explorer Juan Agustín de Espinoza with the help of the local tribes. They planted the grapevines that amounted to more than four and a half million by the year 1700. The Jesuits brought with them the fig tree, grapevine, orange, apple, pear and peach trees, avocados, walnuts and grenades from Spain and South of México. The land was considered Royal Patrimony of Spain.

1850 . The construction of the Calabazas Dam began, with the goal to make the water of the Nazas River available for irrigating the cotton agriculture that in turn gave an enormous boost to the textile industry, thus creating important commercial liaisons with the surrounding towns. With the expectation of this great economic opportunity came many new citizens.

The Indian savages often attacked, capturing their horses and cattle, stealing the harvests and destroying the constructions. A watchtower (torre) was built on the shores of the river to keep an eye on the farmers’ crops. Soon, many chose to work the land around the tower to take cover under its protection. It’s this tower that gave the city its name.

September 4, 1868 the river overflowed, tearing down the watchtower, yet the dam wasn’t harmed and agriculture continued as usual.

1867 Benito Juárez, President of México, hid for two years the Nation’s Archives in a cave called La Cueva del Tabaco, now a tourism site, while he fought against the imposed and short-lived empire of Maximiliano de Habsburgo.

1879 Don Andrés Eppen, with vast knowledge of agricultural and administrative affairs, helped to greatly increase the farmers’ productivity. Thus creating greater transportation needs.

1883 The Railroad México Paso del Norte from Ciudad Juarez established the Lerdo Station. Which quickly detonated a great economic activity for the area. The railroad to Torreón was also built, and with it came both the recognition of Torreón as village and the construction of a railroad station. Which led to the urbanization of the surrounding area for warehouses, streets for orderly access and homes for the workers. Eppen hired engineer Federico Wulff for such task. Wulff built his home on top of a hill close to the place selected for the railroad station so he could constantly overview its progress; the house is now the Casa del Cerro Museum. From then on, Torreón grew at a very fast rate; the blocks of land Wulff traced were quickly sold.

1885 Santiago Lavín Cuadra traced the blocks that would be the beginning of Gómez Palacio . He offered the land free of charge on one condition: building walls around its limits and planting trees.

September 15, 1885 the first real estate transaction of Gómez Palacio is registered, and so becomes the official date of its founding. Santiago Lavín Cuadra named it after the late Francisco Gómez Palacio for his merits while working for President Benito Juarez and his great achievements as Governor of Durango.

November 16, 1894 Lerdo officially considered a city, named after the great liberal intellectual Don Miguel Lerdo de Tejada.

1901 Torreón’s metallurgical industry - Met Mex Peñoles was inaugurated and still holds the tribute of being the central economic activity of the region.

Diciember 21,1905 . Gómez Palacio is officialy considered City.

September 15, 1907 . Torreón officially named City.

1907 . The U.S. owned company “Ferrocarril Central Mexicano” set up stations in Gómez Palacio . The Americans that used to operate the trains taught the Mexican workers their craft.

May 15, 1911 . During the Mexican Revolution, Francisco I. Madero’s troops take the city, slaughtering many.

October 1, 1913 . Pancho Villa’s troops invade, burning many properties. In 1916 he invades again, requesting a 1 million pesos ransom for its freedom.

1930 . The Electric Plant Francke is installed in Gómez Palacio , greatly encouraging its industrial development.

May 24, 1939 . Francisco Sarabia, born in Lerdo, becomes a hero of the aviation history establishing a new world record with a perilous non-stop flight from Ciudad de Mexico to New York City in his famous biplane Gee-Bee “Conquistador del Cielo” . Regretfully, he perished on the flight back to Mexico in June 7, 1939 when he crashed into the waters of the Potomac River minutes after take off due to an engine malfunction. The plane was rescued with the help of the US Government and is now finely restored and on display inside its own museum in Lerdo.

1940 . Torreón’s “Francisco Sarabia Tinoco” Airport is inaugurated, named after the remarkable aviation pioneer.

1950 . Local milk farmers establish the milk-processing plant Lala. La Laguna’s national leadership in the milk industry is currently consolidated with eight factories throughout the country, processing and distributing 1,060,000 gallons a day.

1995 With NAFTA came a great economic boost to La Laguna, important international industries that have been operating in the region ever since: John Deere, Sumitomo, Lincoln Electric, Caterpillar, Delphi, Red Kap, LG Philips, Hanes and others. Likewise, local companies seized the opportunity for massive export.