Pinal de Amoles

History

Hunter-gatherers lived in these mountains thousands of years ago, and from the 13th century Pame and Chichimeca Jonaz groups settled the area. Their resistance kept the Spanish from controlling the Sierra Gorda for some two centuries, although soldiers, missionaries and prospectors kept pushing in. The first mine in the area opened at Escanela in 1599.

The town was founded on March 19, 1606, as the mining camp Real de San José de Amoles, along the extension of the royal road toward Xilitla. Pinal means pine grove, and amole is a Nahuatl word for a root used as soap. For a time it was the seat of an alcaldía mayor covering most of what is now northern Querétaro, but as the silver thinned out the seat moved to Cadereyta by 1675. Spanish control was secured only in the mid-1700s, after the defeat of the Chichimeca Jonaz at the Battle of Media Luna. The parish church of San José was built in 1770 and 1771.

After independence most of the mines gave out, and the town came to depend on its forests. The municipality was created in 1932. Today visitors come for the forest and the reserve, and in 2023 Pinal de Amoles was named a Pueblo Mágico.