During the colonial period Oruro was the second great mining centre of Alto Peru, ranking next to Potosí in the wealth of its mines and the luxury and extravagance of its inhabitants. The fiestas, pageants, and tourneys of the Real Villa de San Felipe de Austria frequently rivalled in splendor those of the Villa Imperial itself, and the population increased so rapidly in consequence of a continuous development of mineral wealth that, from a hundred inhabitants at the time of its foundation in 1604, the city grew to number seventy-six thousand residents in 1678.

The earliest history regarding Oruro is found in pre-Columbian records which state that several Incas visited this locality, and that it was an important centre of population in the province of Collasuyo. The great Pachacutec, who is generally considered the most noted of the Peruvian emperors after Manco-Ccapac, made Oruro his place of residence for some months while conducting expeditions to various sections of the Aymará province. The Spaniards passed very close to this settlement when they first invaded Collasuyo and founded the city of Paria, three or four leagues distant, but it was not until 1595 that its existence was discovered by the conquerors, when a curate named Don Francisco de Medrano, who had been told by the Indians of the mineral wealth of this neighborhood, found his way to the little pueblo of Oruro, or Uru-uru, meaning “whence comes the light,” and established here his authority as its first alcalde. As previously stated, the city was not officially founded until some years later, when, according to the interesting old document which is still preserved in the archives of the city, the ceremony was performed under the authority of Don Manuel Castro y Padilla, who represented His Catholic Majesty King Philip III. The occasion was one of great importance to the new colony, and the official services were marked by extreme formality, beginning with the celebration of mass and the unfurling of the royal standard, while a choir of priests sang the hymn of Veni Sancte Spiritus, and the site of the new municipality was blessed with solemn consecration. The standard was thrice raised during the naming of the city: “The very noble and loyal city of San Felipe de Austria, for the King Don Philip our sovereign and for his successors in the Crown of Castile and Leon and Peru, whom may God keep for many years.” As was the custom upon such occasions, a gallows was immediately set up in token of the royal possession. Oruro sustained well the dignity of a royal city, christened with imposing rites, and in the social and political events of the colonial period took a conspicuous part, the citizens being especially renowned for their hospitality, which was lavishly shown upon the noted occasions when high political and church authorities from Spain visited this prominent centre of colonial wealth.

Not only did Oruro count among the richest and most important cities of the viceroyalty of Peru, but it early became noted for the independent character of its citizens, who were among the first to raise the standard of revolution against the tyranny of Spanish rule, and to whose valiant and loyal efforts some of the most noted victories of the Independence were due. Since the inauguration of the republic the city has twice been honored by a supreme decree of eulogy, the first qualifying it as “heroic and intrepid, deserving the national admiration,” and the second, as “first city savior of the institutions.” Congress has held sessions here upon several occasions, and, in recent years especially, the city has been constantly advancing in commercial as well as in political importance.

Although Oruro has a severe climate, due to its situation on the high plateau, at an altitude of about twelve thousand five hundred feet above sea level, exposed to strong southwest winds, which in July, August, and September are sometimes veritable hurricanes; it is healthful, and those who live there, foreigners as well as natives, find it agreeable, except during the worst season. There are many foreign residents in Oruro, English, German, French, and North American, who have established very comfortable homes and have organized several clubs. The chief activity of the town centres in the principal plaza and in the streets branching from it in all directions. Owing to the great altitude and the exposure of the city to cold winds, vegetation has not shown any great development in this district, and the city itself presents a rather dull aspect without the adornment of trees and shrubs. But the plaza is well paved and makes a pleasant promenade, and during the favorable season band concerts are frequently held here. Some of the more important buildings face the plaza, such as the University, the Government House, and others, though there are large and well-built edifices on all the principal streets. The Spanish style of architecture prevails, and houses are generally of one or two story construction. To the North American the aspect of long rows of buildings of one or more stories in height is particularly foreign, and at first sight disappointing, as it seems to indicate lack of enterprise or of prosperity. But a visit to one of these modest-looking houses is often a surprising revelation, as they make up in surface space what they lack in height, and sometimes cover a remarkably large area, with their patios and corridors. The churches, hospitals, and schools are commodious buildings, and the city has a theatre, a mineralogical museum, and a public library.

The rapid increase of production in the mines of the department of Oruro has contributed to make its capital an important industrial centre; and as the new system of railways provides for several branches from this point to the eastern and southern cities of the republic, its growing fame as a rich entrepôt for the valuable mineral products of neighboring departments will make it still better known as one of the great mining centres of the world. The present population of the city is about eighteen thousand inhabitants, though it is increasing annually since the exploitation of tin has attracted many people to this department and to its chief city.

The department of Oruro covers fifty thousand square kilomètres, and is divided into four provinces, Cercado, Carangas, Poopo, and Abaroa, each of them rich in minerals and renowned for their splendid contributions to the royal treasury during colonial times. At one time five thousand mines were in operation in this department alone, and it is recorded that during the three years preceding the Independence its mining taxes to the Crown amounted to forty million dollars. The Socavón de la Virgen, San José, Huanuni, Negro Pabellón, Morococala, and Antequera, which now chiefly represent rich mines of tin, were, centuries ago, the sites of important silver mines, the tin being held of such little value that it was rarely extracted. The Socavón de la Virgen is situated close to the city of Oruro, at the foot of the neighboring cerro, and it is still rich in silver as well as in tin. It has the distinction of being one of the oldest mines in Bolivia, having been the first exploited by the curate Don Francisco de Medrano, when he discovered and settled in the Aymará pueblo of the Serrania Uru-Uru, at the foot of the Cerro Pie de Gallo, or cock’s foot. The Compañía Minera de Oruro now owns this mine, which is provided with modern machinery, the establishment for the treatment of its ores being situated at Machacamarca, where both silver and tin are extracted by the amalgamation and lixiviation processes.

The San José mine is situated two miles from the city of Oruro, in a sheltered slope of the serrania, where a very busy little town has grown up to mark the site occupied four hundred years ago by an Indian settlement. The town of San José is a typical mining pueblo, containing about two thousand inhabitants, and on feast days it is a scene of great revelry. Like all towns of the plateau, it has scanty vegetation, and the people supply all the brightness there is in the landscape. Photography is inadequate to give a correct picture of these gorgeous spectacles, which depend so much on the “color scheme” for their effectiveness. The town of San José is lighted by electricity and has several modern improvements. This mine has always produced silver, and is still worked on a small scale for that metal, though the mining of tin is usurping the silver industry here as elsewhere. Modern machinery is used in the mine, which has twin vertical shafts of nine hundred and seventy feet in depth, that are worked from the surface by a steam engine of two cylinders. The principal square is situated in the centre of the working region of the mine, and is one thousand feet deep. It is served by a Robey engine of forty horse power. The socavón, or entering passage, which is three hundred feet long, with walls and roof of hewn stone, is without a rival of its kind in South America. The equipment for this mine is said to have cost one hundred and fifty thousand bolivianos. Machinery for the treatment of tin ores has been set up in the ingenios, and in 1902 the new Wetherill machine was adopted for the electro-magnetic treatment of ores. The mine yields about fifty-five thousand dollars monthly in silver and tin, the ores being shipped over the private railway of the owners to the ingenio, where the silver ore is treated by lixiviation, and the tin ore by concentration and smelting. About one thousand workmen are employed in the San José mine, those above ground working the customary ten hours a day, and those inside the mine eight hours a day. The mine is provided with water brought in pipes from a stream twelve miles away. The water taken out of the mine is deposited in tanks to be used in the concentration of the tin ores.

The mines of Antequera, as well as that of San José, are still worked for silver, though the principal attention is given to tin mining. Antequera was famous during the colonial period for rich lodes of silver, and they have yielded millions of dollars of this precious metal under the republic, though now they are exploited chiefly for tin. Several large companies are engaged in developing the mines, most of which are fitted up with modern improvements, the ingenios being equipped with the best machinery for the elaboration of the ores. All the Antequera mines are located in the vicinity of Poopo, on the Antofagasta and Oruro Railway, where there are several large ingenios. Poopo is a thriving little town of three thousand inhabitants, with considerable commercial movement, being the nearest railroad centre for a large territory. The extent and importance of the mining industry in this section is illustrated by the fact that one company is under contract to deliver two thousand quintals, about two hundred thousand pounds, of metal daily to the railroad, to be carried to the ingenio of Bella Vista, in consideration of which the railway has extended its line to this establishment, passing through Antequera.

Huanuni is said to contain the richest tin mines in the department of Oruro. It is situated fifteen miles from the station of Machacamarca, on the Antofagasta and Oruro Railway, and can be reached by diligence, as there is a good coach road. The beautiful Cerro of Pozocani, in which the mines of Huanuni are located, is conical in form, not unlike the noble Potosí, and rises to a height of ten thousand feet above the neighboring quebrada. It is crossed by innumerable lodes and veins, which have been worked on a large scale and are still yielding enormous riches. The Cataricagua vein, now under exploitation, produced one thousand one hundred and ninety-two tons of bar tin, of two thousand two hundred and forty pounds per ton, in 1905, the value of bar tin being about one hundred pounds sterling per ton, though the market price varies, sometimes reaching one hundred and fifty pounds sterling per ton. The Cataricagua vein varies in width from two to eight feet, and the quality of tin is uniformly good, selected ore containing fifty per cent oxide, while the poorest quality yields twenty per cent. The washings which remain after the ores have been treated are put through a second process, and are found to contain about five per cent oxides. In some instances, selected ore yields as much as sixty-five per cent tin, without concentration, and the washings yield fifteen per cent. The company which is operating this mine has ten crushers and several automatic strainers and rotatory tables for the concentration of the ores by the Cornish system.

The treatment of nearly all tin ores in Bolivia is limited to grinding and concentration, the product being exported in the form of sand barrilla, containing an average of sixty-four per cent of metallic tin, or, as in the case of some of the Potosí mines previously mentioned, in the form of bars. The mines of Negro Pabellón, Morococala, and Vilacollo form a group about ten miles north of Huanuni, in the vicinity of Paria. Negro Pabellón is especially noted for the superior quality of its tin and for the facility with which the ores are treated. The principal lode is about three feet in width, and is crossed by several smaller veins, rich pockets of the valuable metal being found at the various points of intersection. The barrillas obtained from the concentration of these ores contain more than seventy per cent tin. In the Morococala mine, the ores yield a good grade of tin, the principal lode measuring in some places from twelve to fifteen feet in width, and containing very rich oxides. Vilacollo is situated a short distance from Morococala, in a cerro of the same name. It was formerly a rich silver mine, and has produced great quantities of both silver and tin. Though the lodes contain continuous veins of hard tin ore of different widths up to two feet, and, owing to the extreme hardness, difficulties are encountered in extracting this metal, yet, on the other hand, veins are met with which contain kidneys and grains interposed, and these are worked with profit, while the tin pyrites are treated for the extraction of the metal by first being calcined and then crushed and put through the concentration process. About ten miles south of Huanuni, the tin mines of Challa-Apacheta are notable for the great width of the principal lode, which measures from twenty-five to thirty feet in places, though the ore is not so rich as in thinner veins, owing to the mixture of gravel and clay.

Berenguela, which is situated about fifty miles east of Oruro on the heights to the south of the Quebrada de Arque, is said by some authorities to possess a quality of tin not excelled by any other mines in Bolivia. Although it belongs to the province of Cochabamba, all the metal is exported through Oruro, the mines being located about midway between the two departmental capitals. The Spaniards worked the mines for silver, but it is only within a few years that its rich tin mines have been exploited to any extent, the silver veins of this Cerro being distinct from those which contain tin in abundance. The hydraulic machinery used in operating the mines is established about three-quarters of a mile away where an abundant water supply is obtained. There is a town called Berenguela in the province of Pacajes, in the department of La Paz, near the border of Oruro, where alabaster is found, and these places are frequently confounded with each other.

Every province of the department of Oruro is rich in mineral products. The Cercado, of which the city of Oruro is the capital, is particularly famous as the district in which the rich tin mines of Huanuni are located, though the adjoining province of Poopo also claims distinction for the wealth it represents in the Antequera and other mines. Not only silver and tin, but many other valuable minerals are found in large quantities in this department. Iron, lead, manganese, bismuth, and antimony have been discovered in the provinces of Cercado and Poopo, awaiting only the necessary capital for their exploitation on a large scale. Antimony is exported in ores containing from fifty per cent to sixty-four per cent of the metal. The province of Abaroa, named in honor of one of Bolivia’s heroes in the War of the Pacific, covers a territory rich in minerals, of which Challapata is the thriving capital. There are two towns called Challapata, within a mile of each other, the old city being the more picturesque, though of less importance commercially. It is noted for its beautiful old church, which was erected during the colonial period, and which is frequently visited by travellers because of the rich ornaments in silver that it contains. The modern town of Challapata is of recent existence, having been founded only in 1893, as a station on the line of the recently constructed Antofagasta and Oruro Railway. It is a town of about two thousand five hundred inhabitants, many of them foreigners, who are engaged in mining enterprises. The second city in the department in size, it is important as a railroad town and the terminus of the coach roads from Potosí and Sucre. Among other towns of this department, the historic Salinas de Garcí-Mendoza is deserving of special mention, as it was once the centre of rich silver mines, which yielded great fortunes during the colonial period. It is a small town of less than two thousand inhabitants, but preserves many social features of its more prosperous past, and its people are noted for their hospitality.

The province of Carangas is rich in minerals, and has other industries which have been developed on a small scale. The serrania of Carangas was once the centre of the silver-mining industry in this part of the plateau, but owing to the inundation of the mines, and lack of proper machinery with which to put them again in working order, they remained abandoned until purchased by a company recently established, which, it is said, possesses sufficient capital to develop their full productiveness. Under the viceroyalty the town of Carangas was rich and prosperous and had its grand fiestas as did the other “silver cities” of Alto Peru; in its deserted streets are still to be seen vestiges of the opulence of former days, arches, carved doorways, and churches. The province has a small population now, less than twenty thousand people altogether, the greater number being Indians, who are engaged in tending flocks of sheep, goats, and alpacas, or in hunting the vicuña and the chinchilla. Vegetation is scanty, though the Indian raises potatoes, quinoa, and barley sufficient for his own use.

In the southwestern district of the department of Oruro, in the province of Carangas, are found large deposits of borax, those of Chilcaya covering an area of about thirty thousand acres. The borax of Chilcaya is considered equal to the best produced anywhere in the world. It is exported through the port of Arica, a little more than a hundred miles distant. The saline deposits found in the department of Oruro, especially in the region of Chilcaya and Coipasa, are said to mark the southern limit of the great lake which scientists claim once covered the plateau for an area of over forty thousand square miles, and constituted the chief reservoir of the Amazon. The lake Chilcaya is entirely within the limits of this department, Coipasa marking the boundary between Oruro and Potosí. The boracic capa, or layer, which is found on this lake is a foot thick, more or less, of a very high grade, and the production per acre is estimated at one thousand five hundred tons. Though Chilcaya is surrounded by cerros, the climate is cold and windy, and the aspect is bleak and dreary in the extreme, as the very nature of the soil in this region makes it impossible for anything, even puna grass, to flourish.

No city in Bolivia looks out upon a more favorable prospect than Oruro, which is entering on a new era of prosperity, signalized by the inauguration of the railway system, which is to branch out from this point in all directions, and by the not less interesting ceremonies which a few months ago marked the establishment of new educational institutions of the greatest importance.

The citizens of Oruro, foreign as well as Bolivian, are enthusiastic in their efforts to promote the interests of the municipality, and the favorable attitude of the Bolivians toward foreign residents is exemplified by the fact that a foreigner, Mr. John B. Minchin, is president of the Municipal Council. Mr. Minchin has lived many years in Oruro, and is firmly convinced of the bright promise of the future already illuminating his adopted country. He has made a careful study of the country under various aspects, and his authority on many subjects, particularly mining, is accepted as the best known. Under his administration, the city of Oruro is undergoing many important improvements. Another foreigner, who has lived in Oruro so many years that he is known throughout the department as “Don Andrés,” is Mr. Andrew Penny, who has contributed a great deal toward the development of the mining industry in this department. He is identified with the success of the San José, Huanuni, and other mines, and is highly esteemed by all who know him for his sterling character and kindness of heart.

The chief authority in the department is the prefect, to whose initiative is due the progress of the department in general. Dr. Victor Sanjinés, the present prefect, who succeeded Señor Dr. Andrés Muñoz a few months ago, is a distinguished leader in the politics of his country, and has given proofs of exceptional administrative ability in various official posts. Under his direction, the roads and other public works are receiving special attention, and the city, as well as the department, is benefiting by many improvements in the condition of the highways. With the conclusion of the new railway to La Paz, Oruro will be within a few hours’ distance of that city, and when the line to Arica is put in operation it will be possible to leave Oruro at night and arrive at the seaport next morning. Oruro will no longer be only the terminus of a railway, but the centre from which trains will run in many directions.