El Calafate was originally a wagons station in the old times this zone was inhabited by sheep breeders dedicated to the commercialization of wool.

When the wool price got reduced the business became no profitable and El Calafate was losing its main economic activity.

The name of this place is due to a bush that grows in the zone. At the same time the bush has that name because in old times in this area they used to caulk ships. To caulk is the art of make the ships’s hulls waterproof.

Nowadays the visitors can know and taste the clafate fruit in ice creams, liquors and sweets.An old tehuelche legend says: He or she who eats calafate fruit come back.