Modern lakes Colhue Huapi and Musters are located in the middle of the Patagonian badlands, in the arid steppe of Chubut province, Argentina. They are surrounded by plateaus and basaltic mesas (see them in Google maps). They were not formed by glacers and are quite a distance from the Andean forests, yet they have an interesting story regarding their origin, and some curious native myths about how they formed.
The origin of Lakes Colhue Huapi and Musters
There was a low-lying area, a depression in the Patagonian steppe south of Mount Puricelli. Which received the output of the Paleo-Senguer river (formed in the Andes by the outflow of lakes Fontana and La Plata, and by several smaller rivers like Rio Mayo, Genoa, and Gato). At the end of the last Ice Age, Senguer carried more water and formed the Sarmiento Paleolake (named after the town that stands beside the modern lakes).
Paleolake Sarmiento covered an area of 4,300 km2 (roughly 1,660 sq. mi.) and its surface rose to a level 60 meters above the current lake levels (196 ft.) it was large yet shallow (not more than 80 m - 262 ft).
At first the Senguer River bypassed the depression, flowing along what is the current Chico River valley towards the northeast, meeting the Chubut River and reaching the Atlantic (see a in the image below). The depression was fed by the scant rain that fell in the area.
A dry period followed, and the paleolake shrank (seee b in the image).
It was followed by the capture of the Senguer when a creek that ran along the Valle Hermoso valley eroded upstream and led the Senguer River to flow along it, into the depression (see c in the image). This flooded the depression and the lake grew to its maximum size.
This took place around 8,400 years ago. The lake drained towards the northeast along the valley of the Chico river.
Around 6,000 years ago, a dry period set in, and the Senguer carried less water, this led to a drop in the level of the Sarmiento paleolake. It shrank, and split into the two current lakes, Musters and Colhue Huapi. (see d in the image).
The Native Myths
Berta Vidal de Battini compiled an ancient story told by Aurelio Nahuelquir in 1950 (source), it tells about the flood that formed Lake Colhue Huapi:
"My grandfather said that his grandparents told him that their grandparents said how the Lake Colhue Huapi appeared there. This is very ancient. Many, many years ago, the site of the lake was in those days a deep bog, like the Sacana salt flats. There was grass, and there was water and there were plenty of guanaco and ostrich to huynt. In this spot there was a large population of pure Tehuelches, with their animals and their homes, and all the tools they used, men and women. But, nobody knows how a great tragedy came about like a storm, and water welled up everywhere. They were all covered by the water, submerged the people with their animals, and everything, as if it was a punishment. And, there, this large and very pretty lake was formed, Lake Colhué-Huapí. It seems that an island remained, but it can't be seen. "
Was this an ancestral memory of the capture of the Senguer River and the flood that submerged the Sarmiento depression?
Battini also mentioned a story by Juan Quichanal (1952), from Sarmiento, it tells about the origin of Lake Musters, as a consequence of a camaruco (a traditional ceremony or prayer where they asked their gods for help favors and to ward off misfortunes).
"Many, many years ago, the countrymen of ancient times lived in Lake Musters. My great-uncle told me. He said it was very, very dry, and windy all day. The wind drove them mad. It didn't rain during the whole year. The animals died. There was nothing to eat. The people didn't have anything to hunt... the guanaco had gone far, far away to the hills of the Cordillera. The people had no option but to do a camaruco, a very large camaruco to plead for water and be well.
They say that all the people of the Cordillera sent messages to those in the lowlands to make a camaruco together. A tribe came down from the Cordillera. They all gathered together, and they waited for those people who lived where Lake Musters is. But those people didn't come. It is said that they had done their own separate camaruco and it rained. It rained a lot, a lot, and it formed alare lake. They say that when the other people went down to the lake, it got ancry and the waters rose, and growled, and a strong wind blew. This was the cry of the people that were there, under the waters of the lake. It can be heard from very far. This is what the old people at Lake Musters said."
Lake Creatures
See my posts on the Lake Colhue Huapi creature and the Giant Sloth at Lake Musters.
Both lakes are slowly drying out, due to the use of Senguer's water to irrigate the farms in Sarmiento. Below is a view of each lake: Colhue Huapi, with sand dunes (top), Musters (bottom)
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©
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