An orphan's Story

On our last day in Ushuaia we hired a car and drove North across the Island through the valleys of the Fuegian Andes. We crossed the Andes Mountains by the Garibaldi Pass, stopping to admire the view from the top. We descended the Pass to reach the Escondido Lake, and then Fagnano Lake. We pulled off the road at the Argentinian Navy Lifeboat station on Fagnano Lake where there were some superb photo opportunities. Once again the weather was warm and bright, with sunscreen being the requirement rather than layers of clothing.

Retracing our route, after a short while we turned off to drive along a 45km dirt track to Estancia Harberton on the edge of the Beagle Channel. The story of Harberton is an interesting one. In 1844 a 2 year old abandoned child was found in Bristol, England. He wore a letter "t" on his clothing and he was found on a bridge, so the orphan was named Thomas Bridges, and was taken in by the Rev. G. P. Despard. At the age of 13 he travelled with the Despard family to the Anglican mission on the Falkland Islands. Despard took 4 native Yamani people from Tierra del Fuego to educate them in the Falklands. Here Bridges learned the language of the Yamani. At the age of 19 he was left in charge of the mission. He returned to England at the age of 26 to become a Pastor and married Mary Ann Varder of Harberton. Together they returned and set up the first mission in Ushuaia. In 1886 he gave up being a Pastor and took on Argentinian citizenship as he wanted to purchase some land and start farming. The Estancia Harberton was constructed in England, disassembled, shipped to Argentina and then reassembled beside the Beagle Channel. It was one of the first prefabricated buildings in the world and is now one of the oldest buildings on the Island. At its peak the Estancia managed 20,000 sheep and produce from the farm supplied the Argentine navy in Ushuaia. Bridges died in 1898. The Estancia has remained in the family and the 5th generation of Bridges now run the farm.