El Penon

El Penon is a county with agricultural and livestock belonging to the province of Barahona in the southwest of the Dominican Republic.  According to the Archives of the Indies,  El Penon was founded in the seventeenth century in the hills of Mena.  There are reports that men moved to the large hill at the Laguna El Rincon and Cabral to fish, hunt and search for eggs.

Additionally, some channels in the Old El Penon, were located on the right bank of the Rio Yaque del Sur, people went down the hill in search of water and fertile land for agriculture.  El Penon is also known as The Southern Mesopotamia because it is located between two stools: El Rincon de la Laguna Cabral and the Rio Yaque del Sur.

The origin of the name has two versions, one is that it is due to the existence of many large stones or El Penons on the hill, and the other version is that the community was founded by Spanish Jeronimo Pena.

The first settlers who settled here were the families Segura, Lopez, Cornielle, Happy, Olivero, and Melo Espinosa.  The El Penon ran into one of three rural schools that had special pilots in the country in the 50s, in that school taught courses in industrial arts, home economics, agriculture and education.   The other two schools were in La Herradura Santiago de los Caballeros, the other in Higuey. The three schools were run by the now defunct International Cooperative Service.

In April 1961 it was upgraded to a decree by President Trujillo, but it did not take effect because of the tyrant’s death on May 30^th of that year. The condition of the Municipal District took effect in the period 1982-1986.