Just imagine an English family, with kids that are 6 and 8 years old, in 1905, traveling through untamed Patagonia in search of their own bit of wild land to settle down.
This family reached El Calafate and found a place in Peninsula Avellaneda, where they tried to acquire a piece of land with the help of the governor. “We came to request the granting of the occupancy permit of two leagues of land in the region of Lake Argentino up to the narrowness where it meets Mount Fría and the banks of the Lake; to the south, with the concession Castillo (Editor’s Note: he refers to Cattle) today Dr. Larraurí ‘s, to the east, with Centinela River and to the west with Mount Frías.” This letter was written by Percival Master but received no written answer, and by 1907 the four family members and their 1200 sheep were evicted by the Santa Cruz Governor Mr. Candiotti and sent to find better luck somewhere else.
It was a year later, and almost winter, when the family found a new place to settle down next to Río Bote. With their cattle spread around but their conviction untouched, they started all over again on the land in the Bote area.
They found more sheep and more men to help, so they started to materialize their dreams. They bred hens and built a shed to work with the sheep; they dipped them, sold some animals, prepared for the shearing, prepared the branding of the animals, chased pumas and got to know Juan Pla, Harold Calcutt, Mr. Carr, William Payne, Knowles, Bob Jones and Paulsen, among others.
But they were not home yet. Their dream came true in 1913 when they finally settled down on Caterina River’s bay, founding Estancia Master.
This place was no more than a humble clay and stone house, but it was home, and they made it clear by planting the poplars you can see nowadays dutifully protecting their abode from the wind.
