Cochrane

Settlers reached the upper Baker valley in the early 20th century, and in 1927 a community called Río Baker was created, covering much of what is now Capitán Prat Province. In 1929, when the settlement stood at a place called Las Latas, the regional intendant set up a land commission to plan a town, and it was moved to a site in the Cochrane River valley about 7 km from Cochrane Lake, known as Pueblo Nuevo, the "new town", while it took shape.

The town was officially inaugurated on 17 March 1954, when a house built for the post office was completed; at the time it had ten houses. Its blocks and plots were finally laid out in 1955. It was later named after Thomas Cochrane, the British naval officer who became the first admiral of the Chilean Navy in 1818 and played a major part in winning independence from Spain. In 1970 it joined the new Baker department, and with the regional reforms of 1975 it became the capital of the renamed Capitán Prat Province.

For decades the town had no road link to the rest of Chile. That changed in 1988, when the Carretera Austral reached it. In the 21st century the area became a focus of environmental campaigns: the HidroAysén dam scheme on the Baker and Pascua rivers was opposed for years and rejected, and in 2018 the former private Parque Patagonia north of town became part of Patagonia National Park.

Cochrane's identity is that of a frontier ranching town. Cattle and sheep are raised on the plains around it, fed on the coirón bunchgrass of the steppe. The endangered huemul, the southern Andean deer, is the commune's emblem, and a metal deer stands in the fountain of the central plaza.

The town looks outward to its landscape. Its residents live with the Baker, the largest river in Chile by volume, with Cochrane Lake and with Monte San Lorenzo, the great granite peak on the Argentine border that climbers approach from here. Fishing, rafting, kayaking and horse riding are local pastimes as well as the basis of a growing tourist trade.

Conservation has become part of local life and debate. The campaign against dams on the Baker drew national attention, and the creation of Patagonia National Park, from former ranch land returned to grassland for guanacos and huemul, has brought new visitors and new jobs, while reshaping a landscape long devoted to livestock.

The commune had about 2,900 people at the 2002 census, most of them in the town, and covers a huge territory of mountains, lakes and glaciers. Cochrane is the capital of Capitán Prat Province and the service centre for the far south of Aysén, with a school and secondary school, a hospital, a bank, a fuel station, restaurants and lodging, and mobile phone coverage that arrived only recently.

The economy rests on cattle and sheep ranching, public services and, more and more, tourism, from fishing guides and rafting trips to the guesthouses and cabins that fill in summer. Food shops and lodging are among its main businesses.

Life is shaped by distance. Route 7, the Carretera Austral, is the only road, and in winter snow and flooding make the gravel tracks around town hard to maintain. Goods arrive from far away, and many errands mean a long drive north to Coyhaique.

Cochrane eats as the ranches of Aysén do. Lamb roasted slowly on an iron cross beside an open fire, cordero al palo, is the dish for celebrations, and beef asado is nearly as common. Bread is often baked at home in wood-fired stoves, and tortas fritas, rounds of fried dough, go with mate, the bitter herbal drink shared from a gourd through a metal straw.

The lakes and rivers around town are known for trout and salmon, and fishing is one of the reasons visitors come. Calafate, the dark blue berry of a thorny Patagonian shrub, is made into jam and sweets, and rhubarb goes into jams and sauces; legend says that anyone who eats calafate will return to Patagonia.

Eating out means a handful of restaurants near the plaza with set lunches, grilled meat and fish, and the town's bakery, the usual stop for travellers stocking up before the road south.