THERE are in fact no icebergs here, still some 700 miles from Antarctica, but these extreme latitudes have long conveyed a sense of wildness.
"The mountains ... rose in one unbroken sweep from the water's edge, and were covered to the height of fourteen or fifteen hundred feet by the dusky-colored forest," Darwin wrote nearly two centuries ago in what is believed to be a description of Ushuaia.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday May 12, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 38 words Type of Material: Correction
Cape Horn: An article in Thursday's Section A on Earth's southernmost city said 16th century explorers Sir Francis Drake and Ferdinand Magellan rounded Cape Horn. They actually went through what is now known as the Strait of Magellan.
Today, the busy main drag boasts an Irish pub, sundry boutiques, rough-weather outfitters and the inevitable proliferation of seafood eateries, cafes and the ubiquitous \o7parrillas\f7, or barbecue restaurants.
A jumble of boxy buildings marches up from the water's edge, while an industrial strip, the product of a 1980s industrialization drive, sits at the shore of the Beagle Channel, named after the brig sloop that carried Darwin here in the 1830s.
In the harbor, factory fishing ships mingle with cruise liners, sailboats, tour vessels and the occasional research skiff.
"If people want to spend all that money to come here and see some penguins, that's fine by me," says Javier Adaro, who works as a deckhand on a catamaran that ferries visitors through Tierra del Fuego.
The first Europeans to arrive in these parts were 16th century navigators and explorers, such as Sir Francis Drake and Ferdinand Magellan, rounding Cape Horn. Magellan, commenting on the eerie fires and smoke that emanated from unseen native camps, gave the land its current name, Tierra del Fuego, or Land of Fire.
In the 19th century, Anglican missionaries experienced mixed success in converting the Yamana, one of Tierra del Fuego's indigenous peoples, whom Darwin had decried as "miserable degraded savages." Ushuaia takes its name from a Yamana word meaning "the sheltered site."
Thomas Bridges, the most acclaimed of the British evangelist wave, chronicled the Yamana language and the catastrophic demise of Tierra del Fuego's tribes to illness after the Europeans' arrival. Bridges' descendants turned to sheep ranching, still a Patagonian mainstay.
In the early 20th century, Ushuaia was a Siberia-like outpost, and Argentina built a notorious prison compound here, with convicts put to work building roads and other infrastructure. The prison is now a museum, its former cells exhibits on former inmates, Antarctic voyagers and others whose paths have crossed the town.
The Argentine government was keen to spur development after the prison was shut down, but had mixed results over the years.
