Guerrero Negro is the largest town located in the municipality of Mulegé in the state of Baja California Sur. It had a population of 11,894 in the 2005 census. Guerrero Negro is served by Guerrero Negro Airport.
The population of Guerrero Negro was born in 1957 when a North American by the name of Daniel Ludwig--who also constructed the hotel Acapulco Princess in the port of Acapulco, Mexico--decided to install a salt mine there to supply the demand of salt in the western United States. The salt mine was established around the coastal lagoon Eye of Hare taking advantage of the heavy salinity of the place, without realizing that eventually this company, called Exportadora de Sal, S.A., of C.V., would become the greatest salt mine of the world, with a production of seven million tons of salt to the year, exported to the main centers of consumption of the river basin of the Pacific, especially Japan, Korea, the United States, Canada, Taiwan and New Zealand. In 1973 Daniel Ludwig sold the company to the Mexican government and the corporation Mitsubishi, 51% and 49% respectively, giving rise to a historic business success which continues to date. The company is distinguished not only by its growth and its yield, but also by the progress which has reached more than thousand employees, their community and its ecological surroundings: The salt mine, located in a site of extraordinary beauty, within a reserve of the biosphere, has been pivotal in the development of the region, where each winter whales gather, tens of species of resident and migratory birds stay, visiting birds originating mainly in the United States and Europe.
The town is on Mexican Federal Highway 1.
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