It has a relatively cooler climate than most of lowland Ilocos Sur due to its geographical location and proximity to Mountain Province and Benguet.

Igorot traders and Chinese merchants who always had to pass the village frequently used man and horse trails connecting the lowland and upland neighboring localities.

In spite of the fertile lands that abound the place the native used to cultivate only small patches of rice fields, which made the barrio unprogressive.

The system of communication was maintained on a weekly basis due to its poor road that traversed the sloppy mountains zigzagging upward the hills back of Cayus where the storage house was located and down to the lowlands reaching the Malaya River, which sometimes overflow during rainy season making the trail slippery.

In 1883, a malaria epidemic affected the colony prompting the Spanish officials to move to the upland, which is now the present location of the town proper.

The first settlement was established on an elevated healthful well-ventilated place, where a small house for the children of the neighboring barrios, a storage building for tobacco and barracks were constructed.

This time better types of houses were built with an estimated population of 819 residents migrating from other rancherias and barrios of Mailac Cambaguio and Magucmay.

Then another small community was developed with both sections of Cervantes where a spacious administrative building, other ruinous edifices and barracks built of wood for the civil guards, were located.

This explains why at present, Igorot are mostly settled in far-flung barrios, while the Ilocanos, mestizos and those who intermarried with Chinese, Spaniards, Americans and other foreigners populate the central area of the municipality.

1646, passed by the Philippines Commission on May 15, 1907, providing for the transfer of all sub-provinces of Amburayan and large sections of Lepanto and Benguet to Ilocos Sur and La Union.

In June 1945 the USAFIP NL spearheaded by the 121st Infantry, defeated the Japanese Imperial Forces at Bessang Pass, part of Malaya, Cervantes.

The brick municipal building, the Conchar Hotel, and the sturdy and beautiful houses of the town were burned and reduced to ashes.

A monument was unveiled in 1954 at Bessang Pass in honor of the 1,395 United States Armed Forces in the Philippines - Northern Luzon (USAFIP-NL) members killed in this historical place.

On July 5, 1995, an interim Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) was organized and on April 23, 2000, President Joseph Estrada signed Proclamation No.

284 declaring the Bessang Pass National Shrine as Protected Areas (included to NIPAS Act of 1992 or RA 7560) under Natural Monument/Landmark Category.