NUEVA VIZCAYA. Nueva Vizcaya was the first province of northern
Mexico to be explored and settled by the Spanish. Sometimes
called the kingdom of Nueva Vizcaya, it served as the
"heartland" of the northern frontier for some 250 years. In the
early years of settlement the name referred to the area north of
Zacatecas. The province eventually included most of the modern
Mexican states of Chihuahua and Durango, and, at different
times, parts of Sinaloa, Sonora, and Coahuila. The area was
initially explored by Nuño de Guzmán in 1531, José de Angulo in
1533, and Ginés Vázquez de Mercado in 1552. Francisco de Ibarra
explored the region in 1554, and mining and missionary
activities commenced soon thereafter. In 1562 Ibarra was
appointed to colonize the region, then regarded as the
northernmost part of the province of Nueva Galicia. Ibarra began
to establish settlements and organized the region as Nueva
Vizcaya, named for his home province of Vizcaya, Spain. The
capital of the province, Durango, was similarly named fo