The Biobío River is the second largest river in Chile. It originates from Icalma and Galletué lakes in the Andes and flows 380 km to the Gulf of Arauco on the Pacific Ocean.
Coronel is a Chilean city and commune, located in the Concepción Province of the eighth region of Bio Bío.
Yumbel is a city and commune of the Province of Bío Bío in the region of the same name, Chile.
La Frontera is a name used in Chile to refer to the region around the Bío Bío River, or to the whole area between there and the Toltén River. The use of this latter definition is largely coterminous with the historical usage of Araucanía. The term was coined during the period when the region was the frontier of the Captaincy General of Chile, then a part of the Spanish Empire and later the Republic of Chile, with the Mapuche people inhabiting the Araucanía following their revolt in 1598. Subsequently, the Spanish Empire established a system of forts between the Bío Bío River and the Itata River, as well as some within the Araucanía. This system continued through the 18th century and into the 19th century.
Santa Cruz de Óñez was a fort founded by Martín García Óñez de Loyola in May 1594, near the confluence of the Bio-Bio and Laja Rivers on the right bank of the upper reach of the Rele River in Catiray, ten kilometers south of the Bio-Bio. The site was in an elevated location but with a shortage of water. Gold mines were located across the Rele on a stream called Millapoa.
Santa Juana is a city and commune of the Concepción Province in the Bío Bío Region of Chile. It lies south and west of the Biobío River in the valley of Catirai and is 48 kilometers from Concepción, Chile.
Catirai or Catiray is the region of the Moluche Aillarehue of Catiray in old Araucanía. It is now the Santa Juana commune of the Concepción Province and the Nacimiento commune of the Bío Bío Province of the Bío Bío Region, of Chile. It includes the eastern slope of the mountains of the Nahuelbuta Range in its northern extremity where they descend toward the valley of the Biobío River and that contains the sources of the streams that flow into the Culenco River,. Below the Tavolevo they flow directly into the Biobío. First the Rele River, then the riachuelos of Patagual and Pilún, Estero Huedilhue and the riachuelos of Pileo and Tricauco. Catiray comes from the Mapudungun callyíi, to cut, and of raigheii, the flower of the trees, meaning short flowers.
Carampangue River is a small river in Arauco Province, Bío Bío Region of Chile. It has its main source in the hill of la Piedra, South of the Heights of Purgatorio in the Nahuelbuta Range southwest of the town of Santa Juana, and it runs to the Northwest to empty into the Bay of Arauco north of Arauco, Chile. In its upper half it receives several streams from the forests of the Nahuelbuta Range that flow shortly after into a lower section that traverses a fertile and open valley, in which the Pedro de Valdivia's fort of San Felipe de Rauco or Old Arauco was first built, and the town of this name that was on the north shore. Its main tributaries are the riachuelos of Conumo and of Los Patos. In the lowest reach of the river it has about 12 to 14 kilometers that allows the navigation of small boats.
San Rosendo is a Chilean city and commune in Bío Bío Province, Bío Bío Region.
Negrete is a Chilean town and commune in Bío Bío Province, Bío Bío Region. It is bordered by the commune of Los Ángeles to the north, Renaico to the south, Mulchén to the east and Nacimiento to the west.
Tavolevo River, a tributary of the Biobío River. in Chile. It has two tributaries the Culenco River flowing southeast from the Nahuelbuta Range in the Catirai region and the Nicodahue River that flows north from the La Araucanía Region and its two tributaries the Esperanza and Maitenrehue Rivers that all originate northwest of Angol. It is sometimes considered part of the Nicodahue River. The Tavolevo flows into the Bio Bio fifty kilometers beyond the confluence of the Nicodahue and Culenco Rivers and seven kilometers to the north of Nacimiento. Immediately downstream from its mouth was the location of the old fort of Espirito Santo and on its banks significant placer gold deposits. The river was navigable by flatboats up to nine kilometers above its confluence with the Bio Bio. Its Mapudungun name meant confluence.
Santa Cruz de Coya was a city established by the governor of Chile Martín García Oñez de Loyola on the site of the fort of Santa Cruz de Oñez, in 1595. It was named for his wife Beatriz Clara Coya, a member of the royal Incan house. The Mapuche called the city Millacoya, meaning gold princess from the mapudungun milla, gold and the quechua coya, princess.
Lebu River an important river of the Arauco Province. It has his sources in the western slope of the Nahuelbuta Range to the east of the city and port of Lebu, capital of the province and named for the river.
San Jerónimo de Millapoa was a fort founded by Alonso de Sotomayor in 1585. It dominated the small valleys of the eastern slopes of the Nahuelbuta Range of Catirai, in the upper part of the Culenco River, in the mountainous area 25 kilometers south of the modern commune of Santa Juana. The fort had a small garrison for the defense of that region that left it in the general rising of the Mapuche in 1599. It was repopulated in 1607 under Governor Alonso Garcia Ramon, but it did not last for much longer, always harassed by the Mapuche it was demolished by the Spaniards as part of the peace with Catirai worked out at the May 1612 Parliament of Catirai.
Chivicura was a fort erected in 1593 by the Royal Governor of Chile, Martín García Oñez de Loyola on the south bank of the Biobío River, to the west of the confluence of the Rele River with the Bio Bio, in what is now the commune of Santa Juana, Chile. It was in communication with the fort Jesus de Huenuraquí across the river securing the communications of the city of Santa Cruz de Coya in Catirai. Both forts and the city were destroyed by the Moluche in 1599. The name Chivicura means light stone, from chiv or shyv, light and from cura, stone.
Talcamávida is a town in the commune of Hualqui in the Biobío Region of Chile. It is located on the north bank of the Bio Bio River across from Santa Juana on the opposite shore. It occupied a plain along the river 42 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean that is part of a small valley surrounded by to the north by a high wooded mountainous area. It is 40 kilometers from Yumbel, to the east northeast, 24 km from Hualqui and 47 km from Concepcion to the north.
Nuestra Señora de Halle was a fort in the modern Bío Bío Region of Chile, established in 1603 by Governor Alonso de Ribera. It was situated on the south bank of the Bio Bio River in Catirai, along the upper part of its confluence with the Rele River. It was a little up river from the confluence of the Bio Bio and Laja rivers and the fort of San Rosendo. Ribera named the fort for the city of Halle, in Belgium where he had previously spent many years in the war there.
Rele River is a river in the commune of Santa Juana. It has its origin to the south southeast of Santa Juana, from where it runs to the northeast from among the slopes of the heights of the Nahuelbuta Range and runs to the east to the Bio Bio River in which it empties a little above the confluence with the Laja River. It a river with a small volume and its course is 20 kilometers long. It has a tributary that joins it from the south, the Riachuelo Millapoa or de las Minas from the gold mines that in the sixteenth century were worked on its banks. Immediately on the north bank of the Rele River from the Millapoa was the location of the old city of Santa Cruz de Coya. At the mouth of the river was the old fort and town of Monterrey de la Frontera. A small town of Monterey now exists nearby. The Mapudungun name comes from the verb relen, “to face up”.
Quilacoya River is located in the Hualqui commune of Concepcion Province of Chile. It has course of about 40 kilometers with a small volume. It originates in the southern slopes of the series of heights of Lucay that run from east to west in the southern part of the commune of Florida. It runs to the southwest to join the Bío Bío River on the North bank nine kilometers above the town of Hualqui.
Río Matilde is a short river in the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. It forms from the confluence of Rio Pastillo and Rio Canas. Río Matilde is one of the 14 rivers in the municipality and, forming at an altitude of just 15 feet (4.6 m), it forms at an altitude lower than any other river in the municipality.
