Chan Chan (forest)

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Chan Chan was a dense forest in southern Chile, between Osorno and La Unión. In the summer of 1851, it was deliberately set on fire by order of Vicente Pérez Rosales, a colonization official who would later become Minister of Colonization. A native Huilliche man, Pichi Juan, started fires in several places and barely escaped death by hiding inside the trunk of a Nothofagus dombeyi. By 1859, despite much of Chan Chan and other forests being cleared, Rosales still claimed that Southern Chile was largely forested. The fire burned for about three months and caused dense smoke over Valdivia for weeks.