The history of Catorce is an old one as you may have guessed, and it is more interesting as one goes back in time... and also more difficult to know how Catorce was before the arrival of Hispanic people. Here, I will only cover the more recent times - those of the mining town. That recent history starts few years before the year 1638. We have no precise information about Real de Catorce before that year. But since it is well known that it was then when the town was officially declared a "Real" settlement, we can bet it was founded years before as a minor town. How long before 1638 we don't know. The region was being conquered by the Spaniards in ways well known to humanity since very old times and up to this day, I'm talking of war, massacre and all that. The people already living here were fighting back and the town, very new then, knew of some attacks from the tribes that lived around. For sure, the tribes known as Chichimecas were the ones that occupied this land. But Chichimecas is in reality the name central Nahuas (Aztecs), used to call the Nahua and non-Nahua tribes to the north.

It is known that Comanches have raided more than once Catorce country, and at least once, the Real de Catorce itself. One of the last raids came in 1744. Real de Catorce was set on fire and all records from the first century of its history were reduced to plain ash. So, nobody knows for sure the details of this first period, unless the good God cares about till today.
In about 1772, the major mines were discovered and it became one of the more prosperous mining town of the Americas. A history of wealth and also a history of up and downs developed continuously until now. At about the middle of the last century Real de Catorce was still in its "golden" age, although I should say its "silvery" age because it was mainly silver that was coming out of the earth here; the gold came mainly from Concepción del Oro in the neighboring state of Zacatecas. At around year 1888 the main plaza was remodeled, the streets repaired, and the town looks today quite the way it looked then, if not better. It was few years later, at the turn of the century, when the Tunnel was finished as the main way in and out of town. The church and the biggest buildings are a century older than that.

By the beginning of this century when everybody thought that wealth was going to last forever, then came the Mexican revolution and the wealthy people ran out of here. The town entered its period of abandonment that lasted until our days. At the beginning of the last century there were about 15,000 people living here - and hardly more than that at any given time of its history - and all of a sudden only two or three hundred remained. Today there are probably not more than twelve hundred people living here. The present period of revival the town is enjoying started very slowly during de seventies of the last century. The main attraction being its condition of nearly a ghost town. It never was a ghost town though. And now, certainly, it is far from that eerie existence; it is far from being a noisy town as well. It is just a very pleasant and quiet place to live if you like spartan ways. Being a tourist and pilgrimage place around the year, the floating population is certainly part of it. Some people live here year 'round while others are regular regulars. Over the long run, they are part of the community.