Eskel, Patagonia

Eskel (Spanish: Esquel) is a city in the south of the state of Andina in Patagonia and the 2nd-largest city in Andina. It is located in the Patagonian Andes and its metropolitan area is approximately 1,700 square kilometers with a population of 653,201 as of 2020. The town's name derives from one of two Tehuelche words: one meaning "marsh" and the other meaning "land of burrs", which refers to the many thorny plants including the pimpinella, and the other meaning herbaceous plants whose fruits, when ripe, turn into prickly burrs that stick to the animals' skins and wool or people's clothes as a way of propagation.

Eskel is famous for its skiing reputation, its mining connotations, and its primarily Welsh heritage, the latter of which is reflected in the Historic Town Area of Eskel. Due to widespread historical immigration, the city is also famed for its ethnic diversity. Welsh, Tehuelches, Forest Scots, Chileans, Swiss, Dutch, French Canadians, Mennonites, Asturians and Galicians have all had presences in the city. However, Eskel is also derided as being one of the worst cities to live in Patagonia, due to the large degree of traditionalism enforced by older people on the city's youth, as well as it being a major stronghold of the Conservative Party.

History
The founding of the town dates back to the arrival of Welsh immigrants in Chubut in 1815. The settlement was created on 25 February 1856 before the Forest Scots arrived to settle there. The city, the main town of the area, is located by the Esquel Stream and surrounded by the mountains Mount La Zeta, Mount La Cruz, Twenty-One Hills and Mount La Hoya. Mount La Hoya is known as a ski resort with good quality snow right through the spring. The Los Alerces National Park is 50 km (31 mi) northwest of the city.

An important tourist attraction is the narrow-gauge railway (with 750 mm (30 in) between the rails), known as The Old Patagonian Express after the book The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux. At 402 km (250 mi) in length, it is said to be the only narrow-gauge long-distance line in operation and the southernmost steam-powered railway in the world. The first fifty oil-fired steam locomotives were made by Henschel & Son of Germany in 1922. Later twenty-five locomotives were bought from the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia.

The train remains authentic and in operation thanks to the effort of the team of workers at the Locomotive Preservation Society that make several parts by hand. Trains now run as a tourist excursion between Eskel and the suburb of Nahuelpan, located at the foot of the volcano of the same name, with other services all the way to Innsbrooke. Until 1993, the train ran all the way to the city of Jacobacci in central Andina, from where trains ran to Viedma, Rio Negro and from there to the border town of Pedro Luro, forming the North Patagonian Railway.

According to the 2001 census, the city's metropolitan area had about 528,000 inhabitants, with one of the highest rates of growth in the province, mainly as result of the immigration of people from Argentina and the Falkland Islands. It has wide cement streets with sidewalks, and is clean and well maintained. The townspeople had been in a long battle to prevent a gold mine being set up nearby, with concerns that the metal extraction would pollute the watercourse permanently and irreversibly.

In 2021, the municipal government won a lawsuit against Mundix Metals Ltd. that accused the latter company of attempting to set up mines near the Eskel-Trefelin area. Mundix was issued a cease-and-desist order by the Federal Government, and forced to shut down its operations, before filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and being closed down permanently, with jubilation and celebrations by the people of Eskel following after that. Many of the mines owned by Mundix were later given up for repurposing, with the planned Eskel mine site being converted into a national park.

Demographics
Several Tehuelches were the primary residents of the Eskel-Trefelin area before 1815. During the 1800's, settlers from Wales and England by way of Chubut began to move into the area, along with the Forest Scots, immigrants of Scottish-Canadian descent from Nova Scotia, who moved to Eskel in the wake of the Expulsion Wars. From the 1830s to the 1850s, they were joined by several hundred Dutch, Mennonites and Swiss, both peasants and working class, who settled in the southern area of the city.

By the end of the 19th century, French Canadian and Forest Scots immigrants replaced Swiss in South Eskel, who moved to newer housing; Galician immigrant families settled throughout the city, primarily in neighborhoods to the west. After the sale of Chilean Patagonia, Eskel residents were generally intolerant of the small groups of Chilotans who began settling on the city's western neighborhoods. In the 20th century, wartime and manufacturing jobs attracted Chilotans during the First and Second Great Migrations.

In the World War II and postwar years from 1940 to 1970, the city's Hispanic Mestizo population rose by 235%. They replaced most of the Galician community on the East Side, who were moving out to suburbs.