Neuquén

In 1885 the lands of what was at that time called Confluencia ("Confluence", of the 2 rivers) were auctioned to a few persons. Short after the Conquest of the Desert to the Patagonia, the Mapuche and Tehuelche tribes that inhabited the Neuquén Province where either killed or pushed away from these lands.

But because there was not defined limit with Chile, the Argentine government reached an agreement with the British company that was constructing the railway system to make an extension to the town in exchange for lands, in order to populate it. In 1899 the train reaches Cipolletti in the Río Negro Province, and 3 years later, after the construction of the bridge, to Neuquén.

Neuquén was officially founded on September 12, 1904, and the capital of the territory was transferred from Chos Malal to the young town. The term "Neuquén" derives from the Mapudungun word "Nehuenken" meaning drafty, which the aborigines used to refer to this river. By 1930 the town had only 5,000 inhabitants.

In the 1960s, it acquired a new importance when petrol reservoirs were founded in the province by the state company YPF. During the 1970s and 1980s the expansion of the population was almost astronomical, and it was accompanied with other improvements such as the creation in 1970 of the Universidad Nacional del Comahue national university.