San Quintin
San Quintin; Past Present and Future
San Quintin, located roughly 4 hours south of the US border, has one of the largest bays on Baja’s west coast. The bay has two sections; inner bay and outer bay. Both offer many activities including sport fishing, kayaking, beachcombing, and clamming; as well as bird watching and hunting. A small town of 25,000 is filled with much history and culture. Most of the residents of this town are farmers and are successful at using nature’s resources; however this wasn’t always the case in San Quintin.
In the late 1800’s, ILC, a U.S. based company who owned most of northern Baja at that time had sold their land to a British Land Company. This British land company's plans were to create massive wealth with agriculture in San Quintin. Due to the expected large wheat production, transportation outlets were needed. A pier was built and construction began for a railway to connect to California. To the fiscal dismay of the settlers, a drought hit the area, forcing these settlers to leave financially devastated. In the inner bay area, there are still remains of the railroad, gristmill, pier, and cemetery left by these English settlers and underwater at the mouth of the Bahiá San Quintin, lays a locomotive.
Today, San Quintin is abundant with produce farming, vineyards, and olive groves. Many tourists come to enjoy the serene coastal atmosphere. Not yet hit by the “Baby Boom Movement”, San Quintin offers visitors much history and culture in an area untapped, but as the coast from Tijuana to Ensenada continues to expand at such an unbelievable high rate and oceanfront land becomes scarce; San Quintin will soon be another “Hot Spot” for oceanfront real estate and development will be inevitable.
Francia Vela - Gramaglia
References:
www.Bajalife.com
www.bajaquest.com