Culiacan

Culiacán lies in the river country of northwestern Mexico, where the Tamazula and Humaya meet and flow toward the Gulf of California. Before the Spanish conquest, communities occupied the fertile valleys between the coast and the Sierra Madre Occidental. The name preserves that of an Indigenous settlement known to the newcomers as Colhuacan. In 1531 Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán founded the Spanish villa of San Miguel de Culiacán during his violent campaign through the northwest. It served as a foothold for further expeditions and colonial settlement. After Mexican independence, Culiacán gained city status in 1823 and became the capital of Sinaloa in 1830, when Sinaloa and Sonora were separated.