[1] The silver ores of Caracoles were discovered on March 24, 1870, by a Chilean prospecting team led by José Díaz Gana that had departed from the port town of Antofagasta.

[1] According to Oreste Plath "some old miners believe that" Caracoles was discovered much earlier, presumably in 1811, by two Aragonese men who were escaping persecution during the independence era.

[4] The site of Caracoles evolved rapidly from a series of rudimentary shelts and huts in 1870 to a small hamlet in 1871.

[2] Its accurate location led to dispute between the Bolivian and the Chilean Governments because the Boundary Treaty of 1866 between Chile and Bolivia ordered that tax incomes from the region between the 23°S and the 25°S should be divided in equal parts.

[5] After Chilean conquest in 1879 the town was declared head of Caracoles Department in Antofagasta Province.