Estancia Cristina was founded in 1914 by Joseph Percival Masters, an Englishman who came to Patagonia with his wife in 1900. Having heard marvels about the Patagonian lands of Southern Argentina and being in search of a promising future, he decided to embark with his wife towards Buenos Aires, to later travel to Río Gallegos.
They soon found employment in the Estancia El Cóndor, south of Río Gallegos in an area called “Zanja Honda”, referred to by its owners as “The Gap”. It was here that their two kids were born: Percibal Herbert Masters in 1902 and Elinor Cristina Masters in 1904.
The Masters had for a long time heard about the territories situated west to the Patagonian steppe, near a great Lake called Argentino, where there were fine lands for cattle raising waiting for adventurous pioneers to settle down and set up their new homes there. Therefore, and after having saved some money, they acquired some horses and cows and started their journey from Río Gallegos towards the west, which took them several years. They were employed in the estancias they were reaching on their way to the west. Once in the Lago Argentino area, they tried to settle down in several places but not quite successfully as the lands they were after had already been occupied or had been granted to others by the authorities of the province.
As time went by, Mr. Master was able to acquire a small rescue boat from a shipreck occurred on the Estrecho de Magallanes (Strait of Magellan), with which he started to transport all his belongings -including cattle-, towards a sheltered place in the southern bank of the North Channel of the Avellaneda Peninsula, named Square Bay (Bahía Escuadra). As the rough lake and winds prevented him from sailing with his tiny ship, he recovered and rebuilt an old steam boat which he baptized Cesar, as well as another smaller vessel used as cargo ship. It was in this way that he restarted to transport his possessions towards the Brazo Norte (north channel) of the Lago Argentino, known at present as Brazo Cristina.
Mr Masters named his home Estancia Cristina in honour to his little daughter, as it was customary in those days. They lived in tents set near the lake for the first year, later building their first house using the nearby stones and lake mud instead of cement, a task that took them almost a year to accomplish. Once the house was finished, they built a pump for the water supply, which was very primitive. As it did not provide sufficient water, Mr. Masters conceived a very intelligent device -known as La Noria-, which was steadily used as water source for all the estancia in the more than seven decades that were to come. Needless to say, the first years were times of hard work, effort and restraint.
As a response to his brother Joseph´s invitation, Fred came to Patagonia to join the family in its efforts to progress. Himself an engineer, he devoted to the design and the rebuilding of the main house of the estancia, rendering it much more comfortable and spacious. The Masters were undoubtedly able to turn this hostile and deserted piece of land into a small paradise.
In these years, the estancia counted with 22,000 hectares of land surrounded by glaciers, snow peaks and lakes of great natural beauty. Cattle then consisted of 27,000 sheeps, 30 cows and some 50 horses.
When Mr. and Mrs. Masters died, the estancia went into Herbert´s hands, who was then married to Janet Mc Donad. Herbert died in 1984, leaving Janet to manage the property alone. Workers started to flee away and the 12,000 cattleheads started to disappear as a result of robbery and the local “ pumas”.
Due to the lack of maintenance, the estancia started a period of decay and Janet, -in an effort to revive it- signed an agreement with the Argentine National Parks and decided to abandon the extint cattle activity, devoting the estancia to touristic activities. Finally, Jannet died in 1997. We nowadays keep well alive the history of this family who -with the effort and endurance common to every old pioneers- left an everlasting mark in this unique region. |
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