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The present-day Fresno region was already visited in the years 1549 by Captain Baltasar Maldonado and later by Hernán Venegas and Francisco Núñez Pedroso, who after recognizing the territory, identifying some mining deposits, withdrew due to the bellicosity of the indigenous indigenous tribes from the area. who presented fierce resistance under the command of the famous Cacique Yuldama and his companions Unicoa, Cirirqua, Ondama and Uniatepa. In 1574, the advance Jiménez de Quesada founded a town, Santa Águeda del Gualí, of which only its short thirty-year existence is remembered, assuming its location in a place between the current populations of Fresno and Mariquita. Between 1850 and 1854, a group of Antioquia colonizers made up of Miguel María de los Ríos began to reach the region, which was crossed by the famous and difficult Camino de Herveo that linked the eastern part of the country with the western areas of Popayán and Antioquia. , Bonifacio Miranda, Celedonio Ospina, Norberto Gaviria, Miguel Calderón, Dionisio and Antonio Arango, Cipriano and Domingo Díaz, Lino Flórez and Francisco Pinilla, who later founded a town, Mosquesada, in memory of General Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera and Conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez of Quesada. To obtain the adjudication of the land, the initial settlers and other immigrants who, attracted by the advantages and wealth of the region, settled in it, went to the offices of Colonel Anselmo Pinilla who was a neighbor, due to the extensive lands that he had received. in what is now recognized as Palocabildo, as a reward for the military services rendered to the National Government. Collected by Colonel Pinilla the information of witnesses to verify the vacant land to the west of the mining possessions of Mariquita and Santana (Falan) and near the Páramo de Herveo, demonstrated the approach of more than two hundred people in the sector, mostly from Antioquia, and once the social convenience of the new colony was verified, with an Executive Resolution of October 10, 1857, 7,680 hectares of vacant land were transferred in the place suggested by the applicants and for the proposed purposes. Said Resolution was confirmed in the following year with a Resolution of October 27, 1858, through which the lands were awarded to all the neighboring settlers. Shortly after it was founded, the name of the village was changed to FRESNO, in commemoration of the tree of the same name, with flowers of an intense golden color, abundant in the region. For memory and grateful remembrance of the current generations, the names of the founders already mentioned are added to those of the first settlers: Narciso del Río, Pedro Grisales; Juan Francisco, Emigdio and Miguel Calderón, Ramón Benito and Sebastián Henao, Evaristo Duque, Pantaleón González, Domingo Díaz, Julián Cuartas, Policarpo and Vicente Rodríguez, Salvador de los Ríos, Jesús María and Silvestre Serna, Miguel Amézquita, Luciano and Pedro Véliz, Antonio Alvarado, Julián Medina, José María Arias, Fruto Aguirre, José Antonio Rojas, Remigio Álvarez, Antonio Restrepo, Ricardo Bahena, Marucho Botero, Ramón Gaviria and Pacífico Enciso. After the initial award of vacant land, Law 62 of 1879 issued by the Congress of the United States of Colombia, established: “Give to the residents of the village of Fresno, in the Sovereign State of Tolima, twenty thousand hectares of land wastelands destined to the promotion of the population ”. By Decree 650 of October 13, 1887, Fresno was elevated from its village status to the category of Municipality, by General Manuel Casabianca, Governor of the Department of Tolima.



It is a municipality of Tolima (Colombia), located 142 km from Ibagué, the capital of the Department. It was founded in 1574 by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, it is called the Calle Real de Colombia, it is believed that its name is due to the fact that in ancient times at the time of the conquest many and diverse types of ash trees were found, of which there are Very few. It has important educational institutions among which the San José Technical Educational Institution, the María Auxiliadora Technical Educational Institution and the Niña María Technical Educational Institution stand out, each with its own and unique specialty assigned by the SENA ´´ National Learning System) and the Secretary of Education of the Tolima Department; It also has secondary schools such as the Simón Bolívar school, Alto de la Cruz and El Guayabo, among others.



Population: 40,000 inhabitants.

Geography

Altitude: 1,466 meters.

Latitude: 005º 09´ 20´ N

Longitude: 075º 02´ 25´ W



Economy: Important coffee producing center in the department of Tolima, it is the second largest municipality in the department after Lebanon.

It is divided into the townships of El Tablazo, La Aguadita, San Bernardo, Agua Claras, Campeón, la sierra, El Guayavo, Betania, El Hatillo, Partidas, Piedra Grande and Brisas de Gualí.





Fresno has a varied topography: with pronounced and rugged reliefs towards the Gualí and Guarinó canyons and sometimes with pleasant hills, such as in the areas of Mireya, Primavera, El Espejo, Ríosucio, La Sierra, Alegrías, La Esmeralda, among others. .

Featured landforms:

The mountain ranges of La Sierra, Topacio, the Argollas blades, La Florida, Los Andes, Paramillo, Santa Rosa and Trincheras, Cerro La Linda and Cerro Azul.

They also stand out as tourist sites from which you have a beautiful view:

High from heaven

Eagle High

In Fresno interest in archeology is beginning to awaken, in this field sites that have traces of ancient settlers such as Piedra Grande are beginning to gain importance.

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