The first traders to enter Las Nieves were natives of Butuan City. They used to travel along the Agusan River in wooden dug-out boats or baoto using a long paddle called ga-o. The Manobo and Higaonon tribes which include the Jovellar, Tepnage, Bayan, Legis, Taga-ang and Kulisan were the first dominant families in the area. Respected warriors or bagani such as Dagohoy and Kulisan were considered influential leaders.
The Manobo and Higaonon used bags made from woven abaca fibers called camuyot to carry their belongings around. Their customary forms of entertainment were traditional war dances called kalasag and the other ceremonial dances such as binaylan, inamo and binanog. Their songs were accompanied by the musical instrument agong which was believed to have been made of pure gold.
In the year 1875, on orders from the Bishop of Cebu, a group of Spanish Jesuit Missionaries disembarked at the Port of Butuan. Although they were not the first missionaries to arrive as Augustinian Recollects had been here before them, their coming promised something different for they intended to do more than maintain the parishes that the Roman Catholic Church have established. The Jesuits wanted to civilize the province by converting the beliefs of local residents, the Manobo and the Higaonon into Christianity. They also wanted to establish the locals in villages where they could be taught the rudiments of religion, education and self-government.
It was in February of 1877 that Father Saturnino Urios, with two other Jesuit Missionaries, Father Ramon Pamies and Father Jose Casellas, announced the beginning of their mission to preach the gospel to the natives. They traversed the length and breadth of the Agusan Valley, its main river, and all its known tributaries, risking death from malarial mosquito, leeches and inhospitable tribal chieftains or datus. However, Father Urios and his companions persisted in their quest. It is to him and his fellow Jesuits that we owe the founding and early history of Las Nieves, which was about a day’s paddling upstream from Butuan.
The Jesuit missionaries paddled upstream and passed by the rancherias of Bugabus, Danquias and Pinanaan. Rancherias were small scattered settlements of Manobo clans along Agusan River.
In April 1877, Father Urios reported to his superior in Manila the successful founding of five villages along the Agusan River. The villages were Las Nieves, Remedios, Esperanza, Guadalupe and San Luis.
Las Nieves, the area that Father Urios first founded, was formerly named Pinana-an or a place for hunting as it was called by its early inhabitants. The natives or Manobos used to catch wild pigs, birds, fishes and other animals with their bows and arrows or panâ here.
There is an old story passed down through generations that upon their first day in this community, Father Urios and his companions were so amazed when they woke up. Intense cold and thick fog blanketed the valley that it seems as if snow was falling. Father Urios was reminded of his hometown in Jativa, Spain near Valencia that they were overjoyed and shouted, “La nieve! La nieve!” which means “The snow! The snow!”
With its vast agricultural land, alluvial plains stretching up to the mountains and its cool weather, Las Nieves most closely resembled the home region of Father Urios in Jativa. It is of great significance that in honor of their patroness, the Nuestra Señora de Las Nieves or Our Lady of the Snow, he named this place Las Nieves.
There was no doubt whatsoever that Las Nieves was very close to Fr. Urios’ heart. He never failed to mention it in his numerous letter and reports to his superiors in Manila, that Las Nieves was never a source of sorrow or anxiety. It was unlike other towns and villages where killings, barbaric practices and uncivilized deeds were rampant.
No doubt this same legacy of peace has persisted. A convert named Jose Domingo, formerly a notorious bagani, was named gobernadorcillo or the equivalent of a mayor in present times. In 1890, a flotilla was prepared at Butuan and set out with eight bancas. It was a trip of jubilation and they performed baptisms along the way in Amparo, Las Nieves, Esperanza, Verdu and Remedios.
Father Urios repeatedly travelled in the jungles of Agusan that he suffered fevers and illnesses. In 1891, malaria forced him to go to Manila to rest and to recover. He returned to Agusan to visit before leaving for Tagoloan, Misamis, in preparation for his transfer to Davao.
He ended his Agusan mission with numerous accomplishments. After his death on October, 1916, the loyal Roman Catholics in Butuan renamed the Butuan Parochial School to Father Urios College (now Father Saturnino Urios University) to honor the memory of the great Jesuit Missionary. Moreover, such honor was not deprived from him in his own hometown in Jativa, Spain and in Las Nieves. For there are only two places in the world which bears Father Urios’ name; Urios Street and Plaza in Jativa and Urios Street in Poblacion, Las Nieves.
In 1943, Las Nieves became the headquarters of the Agusan 110th and 113rd Infantry Division during the battle in Walao, Loreto, Agusan del Sur. Right after the battle, it was constituted as a Municipal District under the Municipality of Esperanza. The appointed officials were Bonifacio Jovellar, Canuto Calo, Eufronio Rosales, Lino Jovellar and Celso Torralba as mayor.
Eufronio Rosales was the first elected mayor in 1955 under the political line up of Congressman Guillermo R. Sanchez. He also became the first Municipal Mayor when the Municipality of Las Nieves was created by a Republic Act in July 2, 1962. It was formally and officially separated from Esperanza on June 25, 1963 by virtue of Executive Order Number 42 issued by the president of the Philippines, His Excellency Diosdado Macapagal.
On 27 March 2021, over 304 NPA militiamen and supporters of the New People's Army surrendered at Las Nieves in Barangay Ibuan to the Philippine Government, dismantling the rebels' key support in the area.[5]
Geography
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the municipality has a land area of 582.69 square kilometres (224.98 sq mi)[6] constituting 21.34% of the 2,730.24-square-kilometre- (1,054.15 sq mi) total area of Agusan del Norte.
^ abCensus of Population and Housing (2010). "Caraga"(PDF). Total Population by Province, City, Municipality and Barangay. National Statistics Office. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
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