The beautiful City of Baguio, also known as the Summer Capital of the Philippines, was just one of the 31 tiny settlements, or rancherias, established at around 1846 by the early Spanish colonizers in the pine-covered highlands of the Benguet province. Back then, the rancheria that would eventually become Baguio City was called Kafagway, a village inhabited by the Kankana-ey and Ibaloi tribes of the Cordilleras. Rising around 5,000 feet or 1,524 meters above sea level, Kafagway and the rest of the Benguet province was perfect for growing arabica coffee, as the Spanish settlers discovered. The coffee trees, however, would outlast the Spanish colonizers for elsewhere in the world, something else was brewing that would change the destiny of Kafagway.
Spanish Occupation. During their occupation of the Philippines, the Spanish colonizers conducted a series of expeditions, led by Juan Salcedo in 1572 and Don Q. M. Quirante in 1694 to the cool mountains of Benguet.
American Occupation. When the Americans arrived in Baguio, after Spain ceded the entire Philippine islands to the United States of America for $20,000.00, they found the pine-covered hills and the cool heights ideal for retreats from the sweltering heat of the lowlands. In what was termed a “supreme feat of engineering” they carved Kennon Road from the mountains surrounding the Bued River Canyon, connecting Kafagway to the Pangasinan and Ilocos lowlands
Early in 1900 the Americans established their government with H. Phelps Whitmarsh as the first civil governor appointed for the first provincial government established in the Philippine Islands, Benguet. At that time, the Philippines was still under the U.S. Military Government.
Baguio was then the capital of Benguet, and the American’s best administrators and teachers were fervent boosters and promoters: Worcester, Wright, Forbes, Pack, Barrows, Eckman and others who together with Filipinos committed to make the place a virtual heaven on earth. It was set up as both a mining town and a recreational facility. The mountains surrounding Kennon were mined with camps erected from the base to the plateau that Baguio sits on. In 1903, Camp John Hay was developed for the rest and recreation of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Baguio City was designed by premier American architect and urban planner Daniel H. Burnham, who also master-planned Chicago’s One Magnificent Mile and Manila’s Roxas Boulevard. American missionaries came and “Christianized” the natives and English became the lingua franca.
Japanese Occupation. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor the war in the Pacific broke out and the Philippines, being the only colony of the United States, became a prime target. The Japanese bombed Baguio on December 8, 1941 and occupied it on December 27 of the same year, setting up their headquarters at Camp John Hay. However, the war eventually changed course and on September 3, 1945, General Yamashita formally surrendered to the Americans at the US Ambassador’s residence in Camp John Hay, after which, Baguio immediately set to the task of rehabilitation.
Philippine Independence. When the Philippines was granted independence in 1946, Baguio City resumed its role as the Summer Capital of the Philippines, with Camp John Hay being retained by the Americans under the RP-US Bases Agreement
During summers, the whole of the Philippine Government conducted its business in the City of Pines, a tradition that is continued today only by the Philippine Supreme Court. This partly accounts for the ownership of a lot of beautiful vacation homes by the country’s oldest families in areas like Leonard Wood Road, Park Drive and South Drive. Most of the prime property in Baguio City is owned by the national government: Cabinet Hill, Engineer’s Hill, Supreme Court Compound, Court of Appeals Compund, Comelec Compound.
Baguio was the Philippines’ top tourist destination from 1946 until July 16, 1990, when a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit the city, after which it rebuilt quickly and all traces of the devastation removed.
Camp John Hay was turned over to the Philippine Government on July 1, 1991 simultaneously with the turnover of all U.S. Bases in the Philippines, and was, in turn, awarded to a private developer in 1997 on a long-term lease contract.
Today, the city is the seat of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), composed of the provinces of Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Apayao and Mountain Province, and kept the monicker “Summer Capital of the Philippines.”
Vagabond Igorot 
Beautiful photo of a wonderful place! I have never seen an aerial photo of Baguio at night. Dad used to live there before the war and loved it. Unhappily I still have to go there.
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