San Carlos

History

Long before the resort, Yaqui, Guaima and Seri people moved through this coast, living from the waters of the Gulf of California and using the Tetakawi hill as a refuge. The Yaqui know the hill as Tákale, split hill, for the shape of its summit. The name San Carlos is said to come from a ship that once sheltered in the bay.

For a long time the land was a single large cattle ranch, the Baviso de Navarro, owned by Cayetano Navarro, remembered as a hero of the Battle of Guaymas. It was later split into four ranches: Los Algodones, San Carlos, El Baviso and El Represo. Boat owners and water sports fans gradually made the bay a favorite spot, and in the mid-1950s Rafael T. Caballero bought three of the ranches and hired planners to lay out a tourist community in stages.

In September 1963, under Governor Luis Encinas, the state formally created the township of San Carlos Nuevo Guaymas within the municipality of Guaymas, and a federal tourism zoning followed in 1980. Film crews came too: Catch-22 was shot here in 1969, and later Lucky Lady and The Mask of Zorro. After two unsuccessful candidacies, San Carlos was named a Pueblo Mágico in June 2023.