| Chapada dos Veadeiros - History |
The Chapada dos Veadeiros isn’t considered such a special place for nothing,
located in the Central-East of Brazil, the region is one of the oldest geological formation in the world, approximately 1,8 billion years old,
and its sub solo is basically made up of rock crystal which is the transparence quartz, besides metals and other minerals.
According to the NASA, the glow reflected from the Chapada dos Veadeiros can be
see even from outer space and maybe this is the reason for so many speculations about the extraterrestrial activities in the place. The mystic
atmosphere also comes from the fact that the parallel 14 – the same that crosses Machu Picchu, passes through the region.
The vegetation of the place is the Cerrado (woodsy pasture) and the rain varies
quite a lot, alternating from long dry spells in the winter and heavy rain in the summer. The Brazilian territory has more than 200 million
hectares covered by the Cerrado, but less than 1% of the area is protected by units of conservation, among them is the National Park of
Chapada dos Veadeiros.
In 1912, the first large mine of rock crystal of Chapada was discovered and the
local settling occurred in function of the attempt to explore this mineral, and several miners camps ended up be caning cities. In the decade
of the 70’S, new types of inhabitants started to arrive in the cities of the region. They were people who left stressing life of the large
urban centers in search of a better life in the country: the alternatives.
The National Park of the Chapada dos Veadeiros was created in the beginning of
the decade the 60’S during the full race in direction of the center of Brazil due to the construction of Brasilia, the new capital of the
President Juscelino Kubitschek. In that time a possible concern with the preservation of the nature near what would be the new political
center of the country and also the proposal of protecting the springs of the rivers that supplied the water to the region of the Amazonas,
forced the President Juscelino Kubitschek, counting on the support of a foundation, to idealize and to demarcate the area of the park.
In this way, in 1961, the National Park of Tocantins with on area of 625 thousand
hectares was created, which were reduced 10 times before the name was changed to Parque Nacional da Chapada dos Veadeiros that is an ironic
reference to the deer hunters that frequented the place. Today, after many enlargements and reductions in the protected area, the Park kept
around 65 thousand hectares but only a small part is open to the public.
The park began to attract tourists in the decade of the 80’S, but it was only in
the 90’S that the region began to be considered one of the principal tourist points of the country for those who book for adventure as well as
those who intend to live mystic experiences in contact with the nature.
Today, mining and any other type of extraction harmful to the nature is prohibited
by law; however the majority of the residents of the cities near the Park live off the tourism. Many former miners were carefully trained to
work as guides, preserving the natural resources. Since December of 2001, the Parque Nacional da Chapada dos Veadeiros has been recorded as
World Heritage by Unesco. |
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