Due to its mining roots, its colonial buildings, and its landscape, Zacualpan was named "Pueblo con Encanto" (A Town with Charm) between 2006 and 2009.

[2] The name of Zacualpan comes from the nahuatl words tzacualli (something that hides, stores, or conceals) and pan (on or above).

[4] The first contact between the Couixcas and the Spaniards occurred in November, 1519: Hernán Cortés had sent a delegation under Gonzalo de Umbria and a group of Spaniards and guides provided by Moctezuma Xocoyotzin to survey the existing gold mines in the domain of Zacatula, (Zacatotlan).

This tax was destined to be sent back to Spain then under the reign of Charles V. In 1521, the governors of Matlazingo, Malinalco, and Couixco asked Cortes to make them his vassals[4] Around that time, it was forbidden and under penalty of death to establish Spanish towns in close contact with indigenous towns.

The first alloy haciendas where established in Zacualpan in 1562[4] During the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821), the government in Zacualpan was in charge of Manuel de la Concha, who at one point, abandoned the town and came back between 1816 and 1817 under the protection of the lieutenant colonel Manuel Gomez Pedraza and the second lieutenant colonel Mateo Cuitly from the royalist army.

At the same time, Pedro Ascencio de Alquisiras conducted a guerrilla warfare in the region, establishing his headquarters in Zacualpan on March 12, 1821.

It is unknown who was left in charge of the government of Zacualpan (perhaps the task fell into the hands of is second-in-command Felipe Martinez).

In 1919, the mine of El Alacran reached peak production and in 1927 consisted of 9 levels with a depth of 300 meters underground.