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Prior to the colonization of México by Spain the area known today as Mazatlán was inhabited by an indigenous people who called themselves the Totorames.

Footprints In The Sand

From Mazatlán Magazine 2008

Scientists have found petroglyphs on the off shore islands of Mazatlán that they believe date back as far as 10,000 years. The Indian word Mazatlán is based on the Nahutal Indian word Mazatl, meaning the place of the deer and Nahutal was the language spoken by the Aztec Indians. According to their own legends, the Aztec Nation began in a place called Aztlan, somewhere in the northwest regions of present day Mexico.  At that time the Aztecs were a small nomadic aggregation of tribal peoples living on the margins of civilized Mesoamerica.  During the 12th century they embarked on a period of wandering and in the 13th century settled in the central basin of México.

In 1531 Nuño Beltran de Guzman, a renegade opportunist and an enemy of Hernán Cortes, captured Culiacan, which today is the state capital of Sinaloa. The location where Mazatlan exists was officially founded by Nuño Beltron de Guzman and 25 other Spaniards as a temporary settlement on Easter Sunday in the same year.  He was followed to this region by a conquistador named Francisco Ibarra who founded the nearby mining village of Copala in 1565.  The name Mazatlán was first mentioned historically in 1602 but referred to the small village of San Juan Bautista de Mazatlán which is now called Villa Union and is actually located 20 miles south of present day Mazatlán.

Although Mazatlán was not yet established in the 1600’s, it appears that French and English Pirates were the first to take advantage of the strategic benefits of Mazatlan’s hill screened harbor and they would lay in wait for the occasional richly laden Spanish Galleons transporting gold and silver up and down the Pacific coast. In response, the colonial government established a small presidio on the harbor with watchtowers atop the hills.  By the 1800’s, the pirates were gone and Mazatlán began to develop as a port town. The year 1821 brought Mexican independence from Spanish colonial rule after a ten-year struggle.

Mazatlan was not established by the Spanish nor the Indians but by a group of very enterprising German immigrants who developed the port facilities in order to import agricultural equipment. Once they got started, heavy international trade followed quickly. Mazatlán’s architecture is a portrait of the substantial German, Spanish and French merchant influx after Mexico’s independence from Spain.Mazatlán is honeycombed with limestone caves and they were utilized during this period to store ice imported from San Francisco.  Mazatlecan families used this ice to preserve their seafood and other perishables before the days of household refrigerators.

During the era of the dictatorial President Porfirio Diaz, from 1876 through 1910, the railroad arrived in Mazatlán, the port and the lighthouse were modernized, the cathedral was finished and this was the beginning of a new age of education, the arts and journalism.

The Teatro Rubio was completed in the early 1890’s which became the premier opera house for the Pacific coastal region around Mazatlan.

The nineteenth century also brought a tragedy to Mazatlán.  After arriving by ship from La Paz in August of 1883, most of the touring company of operatic star Angela Peralta was stricken with yellow fever.  The world famous Diva, Angel Peralta passed away in the very building that currently houses Mazatlán’s cultural arts center.  Sadly, most of her adoring audience missed her performance because the epidemic claimed the lives of more than 2,500 Mazatlecos.

Mazatlán has prospered as a port city throughout recorded history and even served as the capital of Sinaloa from 1859 to 1873.   During it’s existence it has been repeatedly attacked and occupied by the United States, France, Great Britain and even bombed by an airplane during the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917) by General Venustiano Carranza.

After the uproar of revolution and the chaos that accompanied it, order was finally restored in the 1920’s and what followed was 10 years of prosperity. The 1930’s brought the Great Depression in the United States and Mazatlán suffered equally. But after World War II there were major port improvements and new highways began to connect the city with trading partners north and south.

Mazatlán was "discovered" by vacationers in the late 1940’s thanks to it’s world class sport fishery and fantastic climate.  Mazatlán became Mexico’s first major resort in the 1950’s thanks in part to the vision of the "Crazy Gringo". In the fall of 1955 the Playa Mazatlán Hotel opened. The hotel began as a modest two-story building of about 80 rooms facing the ocean plus a restaurant and a saltwater swimming pool. And, it sat on an absolutely beautiful, secluded beach about five miles north of old Mazatlán overlooking the Pacific and the offshore islands. Almost instantly, the hotel gained appeal. The project was the dream of an American developer named Gene George. Today’s "Golden Zone" tourist district literally grew up around his hotel. As tourism continued to increase, high-rise resort hotels and upscale restaurants opened in the "Golden Zone". By the early 1990s, Mazatlán was hosting a million visitors annually.

Now in the 21st century, Mazatlán continues to grow and attract foreign interest. Much of the charm of Mazatlán is it’s contrast of old and new. A vacationer can bask on a gorgeous beach at an ultra-modern resort by day and enjoy dinner surrounded by a classic European ambience at night including an after dinner symphonic concert, ballet or opera at the Angela Peralta Theater.

The next chapter in the unusually long history of this paradise by the sea is just beginning to take shape. A "new" man-made small-craft marina that was constructed north of the Golden Zone laid dormant for more than twelve years until 2005. Only two years have past since the first two new condominium developments were started. Today there are close to forty developers either designing, constructing or completing the next generation of fabulous full ownership vacation properties that are being purchased by savvy investors and retirees faster than they can be conceived.