The discoverer of the region was Don Gil González Dávila, in the year 1522, when he made the first land tour of our national territory, from the southeast sector to the Avancari indigenous town (today Abangaritos, canton of Puntarenas). In 1563 Don Juan Vázquez de Coronado passed through the area. In 1895 the first hermitage was built on the coast of the Golfo Dulce. During the Archbishopric of Monsignor Don Rafael Otón Castro Jiménez, First Archbishop of Costa Rica, on August 20, 1938, the parish dedicated to Our Lady of the Angels was founded, which is currently a suffragan of the Diocese of San Isidro of El General of the Ecclesiastical Province of Costa Rica. At the beginning of the last century, some Chiricans and Nicaraguans, who were later joined by, between 1912 and 1915, a few Costa Ricans, formed the hamlet of El Pozo, today Ciudad Cortés, where they were dedicated to the cultivation of rice and to livestock.
By Law No. 31 of June 26, 1914, the canton of Osa was created, with the village of Buenos Aires as its head, which was granted the category of Villa. It covered an area of 7,623 square kilometers, representing 15% of the national territory. The first Municipal Council of Osa, which held its session in 1915 in the villa of Buenos Aires, was composed of the regular council members: Mr. Emilio Ortiz, Mr. Natividad Vidal, and Mr. Felipe Méndez. The Municipal Secretary was Mr. Francisco Lago and the Political Chief was Mr. Pío Acuña Chaves.
In the territorial division for administrative purposes, Law No. 20 of October 18, 1915, the river port of El Pozo appears as a neighborhood of the fourth district of the canton of Osa. This port was the main and almost only communication route at that time. To reach the region from the port of Puntarenas, it was done via vessels that entered from the sea through the mouth of the Térraba River. In March 1915, during the administration of Mr. Alfredo González Flores, two schools were built: one in the settlement of El Pozo, currently named Nieborowsky School; and another in Palmar de los Indios (now Palmar Norte), under the name Castañeda School, which in the 1950s was renamed Eduardo Garnier. The Osa Agricultural Technical Professional High School began its teaching activities in 1962, during the government of Mr. Mario Echandi Jiménez.
Golfito