Museo del Caracol
The meaning of Tepalcatepec is "cerro de los tepalcates"
Created because the mexicas were on the state.
The origin of this town was on the south near to the hacienda "El Consengue"
The foundation of this town goes over hundreds of years before the chichimecas.
The people sold cotton and salt to the Tabasco Empire.
It was given to Alonso Avalos as an entrusts, but he went to Spain and never come back.
It became Christian because of the franciscans of Tancítaro.
On 1580 the spanish living there lived from the cacao orchards and the cattle stays and produced corn and cotton in big quantities.
In the seventeenth century it was a party of Indians, and the town was managed by a priest and had 19 neighbors, belonged Chilatán and Alima neighborhoods, as well as the town of Santa Ana and the Xilotlán. Counted with hospitals that where supported of small livestock.
At the beginning it only had 685 people and belonged to the town of Coahuayana.
On December 10,1831, it was given the title of town that belonged to Apatzingan.
On June 22,1877, it was stablished as a town.
Miguel Baca Valencia (1884-1953) was a militar that was President of the town. He defends de people of the cristero movement attacks.
Coordinates: 19º11' N 102º51' W
370 m over the sea level.
It has a 780.22 Km² (square kilometers) surface, and represents the 1.33% of the State territory.
Its relief is constituted by the Sierra Madre del Sur, Tepalcatepec depression and the hills of Cabeza de Vaca, la Chuta, la Cocina and la Romera.
His hydrography is constituted by the rivers Tepalcatepec, las Mesas, Pinolapa, Colomititán and Los Otates.
Its climate is tropical and dry steppe with summer rains . It has an annual rainfall of 822.0 mm , and temperatures ranging between 12.0 and 44.5 degrees Celsius.
In the municipality it dominates the tropical deciduous forest with tepeguaje, ceiba, zapote, guaje y mando y el bosque espinoso con amolé, cardones, teteches, viejitos y huisaches.
The forest surface timber is occupied by oak and pine, thickets and non-timber species characteristic of lowland . The municipality also has deposits of iron, barite and silver.
The grounds of the municipality date from the periods Cenozoic , Mesozoic and Cretaceous , and relate mainly to the type of coffee, mountain gray , chestnut and mountain meadow . They are intended primarily for livestock and forestry, and to a lesser extent in agricultural work .