BRIEF HISTORY OF SAN ESTEBAN

Along the rugged and elongated coastline of the province of Ilocos Sur lies the small town of San Esteban. It is only 1,900 hectares large, the population about 7,200. Its people depend on farming, those living in the coastal areas engage in fishing and there are stone craftsmen making up the store industry for which the town is known.

San Esteban in endowed with a coastal line of about 5 kilometers of raw beaches. It is only recently that landowner developed their properties into beach resorts, making San Esteban one of the destinations of people out for a picnic or for a swim in the shallow seas.

This municipality is three hundred sixty three kilometers north of Metro Manila and forty-five kilometer south of Vigan City, the provincial capital. It is bounded on the north by the municipality of Santa Maria and on the south by the town of Santiago. Crosswise by foothills, to the east are mountains bordering the municipality of Burgos, and to the west is the China Sea. San Esteban consists of ten barangays, four of them are along the coastline, three on the mountainside and the rest are along the National Highway.

According to the history of the municipality, San Esteban was once a wilderness teeming the grasses like the cogon and bagbagotot. The town was thus named Cabagbagototan because of the grass abundance. Another legend tells that a certain stranger named Iban or Esteban was stoned to death at the feast of Naglawlawan, a place where they gathered and made offerings to their anitos. The most coherent tale on row this town was named pertains to the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen, who was stoned to death because of thumped-up charge of blasphemy against Moses and the Law. When the Augustinian fathers came to Ciudad Fernandina and spread out in the year 1625, they founded the parish of San Esteban; but it has always been attached to the town of Santiago until 1910. Since this town had many stones or rocks from which mortar and pestle and other stone products were made, it was logical for the friars to name the place SAN ESTEBAN.

"In our desire to leave a lasting legacy and prove to all that in spite of out twilight years we can actively contribute and show concern towards community development, we humbly dedicate to the present and future generations of our beloved hometown of San Esteban this boundary marker".

Thus goes the dedication etched in the marble plaque composed by the Senior Citizens of San Nicolas, the people behind this project. It is mounted on the pedestal of the newly built 20 ft. high and triangular shaped San Esteban Marker, the latest landmark that dots the changing landscape of the town.