The strait is shorter and more sheltered than the Drake Passage, the often stormy open sea route around Cape Horn, which is beset by frequent gale-force winds and icebergs.

Upon their arrival in the region, they would have encountered native equines (Hippidion), the large ground sloth Mylodon, saber toothed cats (Smilodon) the extinct jaguar subspecies Panthera onca mesembrina, the bear Arctotherium, the superficially camel-like Macrauchenia, the fox-like canid Dusicyon avus and lamine camelids, including the extant vicuña and guanaco.

The Tehuelche were the only non-maritime culture in the area;[dubious – discuss] they fished and gathered shellfish along the coast during the winter and moved into the southern Andes in the summer to hunt.

[7] It is possible that Tierra del Fuego was connected to the mainland in the Early Holocene (c. 9000 years BP) much in the same way that Riesco Island was back then.

[9] Selk'nam migration to Tierra del Fuego is generally thought to have displaced a related non-seafaring people, the Haush that once occupied most of the main island.

[10] According to a Selk'nam myth the strait was created along with the Beagle Channel and Fagnano Lake by slingshots falling on Earth during the fight of Taiyín with a witch who was said to have "retained the waters and the foods".

[12] (A report by António Galvão in 1563 that mentions early charts showing the strait as "Dragon's Tail" has led to speculation that there might have been earlier contact, but this is generally discounted.

San Antonio, charged to explore Magdalen Sound, failed to return to the fleet, instead sailing back to Spain under Estêvão Gomes, who imprisoned the captain Mesquita.

[20] Andrés de Urdaneta who had first hand experience of the strait by his participation in the Loaísa expedition, argued before viceroy Antonio de Mendoza in the 1550s for the establishment of an Asia–Mexico trade route and presented arguments against the establishment of rival route of direct trade between Spain and Asia through the strait of Magellan.

According to Urdaneta, climate would made passage through the strait possible only during summer and that therefore ships would need to stay the winter in a more northern port.

In Europe it was viewed by some as an opportunity and a strategic location to facilitate long-range trade, though Antonio Pigafetta seemed to have understood his voyage through the area as an unrepeatable feat.

[22][23] As Valdivia consolidated his claims, he mentions in a 1548 letter to the Council of the Indies the possibility of establishing contacts between Chile and Seville through the strait.

Ulloa reached Woods Bay, but faced with the steep coastline and lack of provisions and fearing entrapment in the strait during the winter, he turned around, returning to Chilean ports in February 1554.

[25] Even in Chiloé the Spanish encountered difficulties, having to abandon their initial economic model based on gold mining and "hispanic-mediterranean" agriculture.

The Spanish failure to colonize the Strait of Magellan made the Chiloé Archipelago key in protecting western Patagonia from foreign intrusions.

In 1616, Dutch travelers, including Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire, discovered Cape Horn and recognized the southern end of Tierra del Fuego.

Years later, a Spanish expedition commanded by brothers Bartolomé and Gonzalo Nodal verified this discovery[15] making in the way also the first circumnavigation of Tierra del Fuego.

[35][36] The ill-fated men had attempted to reach one of the islets to install a metal plaque indicating the King of Spain's ownership of the territory.

[39] The focus of Spanish attention to repel tentative English settlements shifted from the Pacific coast of Patagonia to the Straits of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego.

[41] The 1837 French expedition of Dumont D'Urville surveyed the area of Puerto del Hambre and the navigational conditions in the Strait of Magellan.

These remains apparently belonged to a more ancient period than collections made by Darwin on HMS Beagle and other naturalists, and therefore were of great scientific interest.

President Manuel Bulnes ordered this expedition after consulting the Chilean libertador Bernardo O'Higgins, who feared an occupation by Great Britain or France.

The Strait's curving channel, with widths varying between 1.9 and 22 miles (3 to 35 km), experiences unpredictable winds and tidal currents,[49] leading sailing ships to prefer the Drake Passage, where they had more room to maneuver.

He experienced a 40-day hiatus in the strait due to storms and adverse weather,[c] while piloting the gaff-rigged sloop oyster boat Spray in the first solo global circumnavigation.

[55] The Primera Angostura is the closest approach of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego to mainland South America.

[56] Possibly, new tourism industries could be established in the eastern part of the strait for watching southern right whales,[57] as the number of observations in the area has increased in recent years.

[62] The strait is prone to Williwaws, "a sudden violent, cold, katabatic gust of wind descending from a mountainous coast of high latitudes to the sea".

With a dim light on the horizon we could see large waves crashing heavily in the western part of the islands: a vision that hardly anyone can imagine ...[69]This strait is one of the region's most popular tourist destinations.

[71] The strait provides a well-protected inland waterway sheltered from rough weather and high seas, allowing for safe navigation.

[clarification needed] This is the case for all traffic between the Chile and Argentina and the cities in Tierra del Fuego, Porvenir, Cerro Sombrero, Timaukel, Ushuaia, and Río Grande.