El Triunfo

El Triunfo is an agricultural town now but it used to be a mine town due to its large amount of quartz, silver, and gold. It is a very small town with only about 300 people. The town was founded around 1730. in 1750, gold was found, so people from many different countries came here. The mining was started by chinese slaves. There was around 1,000 people here when it was a mining town. In 1829, El Triunfo became the capital of baja california sur for two years. The houses built here were moved to La Paz. It almost became a ghost town because there was a spread of skin cancer due to water contamination from the mines. They mixed water with mercury to separate gold from silver which caused the contamination. Now, people regularly live to 100 under the belief that quartz cleanse their illnesses. There is not much pollution today.