Puerto Toro was founded in 1892 during the Tierra del Fuego Gold Rush by Governor of Punta Arenas Señoret.

Excluding research stations in Antarctica, Puerto Toro is the southernmost permanently inhabited community on the globe, and some 3,900 km (2425 miles) from the South Pole.

Puerto Toro is inhabited by 36 people according to INE's 2002 census, including fishermen and their families.

According to the classification of the seas of the International Hydrographic Organization[3] it is the only Chilean locality (and port) with coasts and waters belonging to the Atlantic Ocean, defining as the limit the meridian of Cape Horn (67°16′ W) from Tierra del Fuego to the Antarctic continent.

Over a hundred years ago, Puerto Toro was one of the most important towns in the region of the Beagle Channel as a result of the Tierra del Fuego gold rush.