Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Southeast Region, Brazil

🇧🇷 Montes Claros is a city located in northern Minas Gerais state, in Brazil. It was made a seat of a municipality in 1831 and attained city status in 1857.

The region was originally inhabited by the Anais  and Tapuias Amerindians. The first Portuguese settlers arrived in this region during the eighteenth century. In 1707 they formed three great ranches: Jaiba, Olhos d'Água and Montes Claros. The latter was created by Antônio Gonçalves Figueira. In order to get his cattle to market Figueira opened up roads to Tranqueiras in Bahia and to the São Francisco River Soon the Fazenda de Montes Claros became the greatest producer of cattle in the north of Minas Gerais, and a small village was formed.

Economy • Primary sector: Producer of dairy and beef cattle, followed by agriculture: beans, corn, manioc, cotton, and irrigated rice. • Secondary sector: The industrial sector began to increase with the arrival of electric power in 1965 and the participation of the government agency SUDENE in the industrial development of the region. Today industry is the main activity in the city. The factories installed are, among others, the largest factory of condensed milk in the world (Nestlé), one of the three factories of insulin in Latin America (BIOBRAS now Novo Nordisk Produção Farmacêutica do Brasil), a modern textile factory (COTENOR), and the seventh largest cement factory in Brazil (LAFARGE BRASIL)

Montes Claros is also recognised nationally as the capital of Carne de Sol, a local jerky-like dry beef and Arroz com Pequi, a very popular meal that is made of rice and Pequi. According to CAGED (Cadastro Geral de Empregados e Desempregados), Montes Claros is ranked #3 in the list of the cities of the state of Minas Gerais in number of employed people, only behind Belo Horizonte and Uberlândia.

Airport Mário Ribeiro Airport has a runway with capability to receive planes as large as Boeing 737. It has a navigation system and a rescue and fire combat system. There are 8 daily flights to Belo Horizonte.

Tourist Industry Montes Claros has innumerous caves and 164 cataloged archaeological sites, among which the most important are the caves of Lapa Grande, where there is an underground river with a length of more than one kilometers. Lapa Grande is located in the Serra da Vieira, 12 km (7.5 mi) from Montes Claros. In the city itself there are several large parks, among which the most important are Parque Municipal Milton Prates, with a lake and zoo. In the rural area there is Parque Sapucaia, a forest reserve and Parque Guimarães Rosa along the banks of the Córrego Carrapato.