Micay

The Micay River runs from Colombia’s Western Cordillera through humid forest to the Pacific coast. Its valleys were inhabited by Indigenous communities before colonial mining extended into the region. By the seventeenth century gold workings had developed in nearby river basins, and miners from Popayán came to dominate the Micay district. Enslaved Africans were forced to work the alluvial deposits, while river routes connected the mines to the coast.