Colon harbors a substantial Garifuna population and has pristine beaches and rain forested national parks. The Fort of Santa Barbara, built by the Spaniards in the colonial era, was the site of the execution of US filibuster William Walker in Trujillo, and his remains are, buried in the city's graveyard.
The department covers a total surface area of 8,875 km² and, in 2007, had an estimated population of 284,900 people.
Balfate is a municipality in the Honduran department of Colón. Balfate itself is a town of about 2500 but the municipality includes the towns of Lucinda (600) Lis Lis (1200) and several others. In January 2003, a new hospital was opened in Balfate bringing much needed medical care to this area. The main paved highway from La Ceiba (250,000) to Trujillo bypasses Balfate.
Completion of the road to Trujillo would be challenging because in this geographical area of the Honduras the mountains extend all the way to the ocean. When completed, travel on this road would save about 40 km when traveling from La Ceiba to Trujillo.
It would also open up this coastline to more development. Balfate was the first port in Honduras from which banana shipments left to the United States, however the rail lines were dismantled in the mid-1950s and the pier demolished. The possibility exists for the new highway to use the old right of way left by the railroad.
Limón is a municipality in the department of Colón in Honduras. According to official census of 2001, has a population of 8,627 inhabitants. Its territory of 643.4 square kilometers (248.4 sq mi) is divided into an aldea (village) and 23 caseríos (hamlets). Limón is bordered to the north by the Caribbean Sea, to the south and east by the municipality of Iriona, and to the west by the municipalities of Trujillo and Santa Rosa de Aguan.
Sonaguera is a municipality in the Department of Colón, Honduras, and Central America, located approximately one hour south of La Ceiba. Sonaguera has a population of 242,414 inhabitants.
The area surrounding Sonaguera is principally agricultural, with the major crop being oranges. Both Valencia and Pina oranges are grown in the region. The Association of Citricultores, Sonaguera, and Colon (ACISON) represents the orange growers of the region.
Tocoa, Colón is a municipality and a city in the northern Honduran department of Colón in the valley of Aguán on the right side of the river, and is inland. The average elevation is 38 meters.
It is situated between Garcia and La Abiscinia hills, 61 km from Trujillo, 30 km from Sabá, 70 km from Olanchito, 100 km from La Ceiba, and 303 km from San Pedro Sula.
Tocoa's territory is watered by the rivers Río Tocoa, Río Taujíca, Río San Pedro, and Río Salamá. Its climate is hot and tropical with an average temperature of 29° C; the rainy season is June to January, with an average of 1000 mm of rain per year.
Trujillo is a city and a municipality on the northern Caribbean coast of the Honduran department of Colón, of which the city is the capital. The municipality has a population of about 30,000 (2003). The city is located on a bluff overlooking the Bay of Trujillo. Behind the city rise two prominent mountains, Mount Capiro and Mount Calentura. Three Garifuna fishing villages—Santa Fe, San Antonio, and Guadelupe—are located along the beach.
Christopher Columbus landed in Trujillo on August 14, 1502, during his fourth and final voyage to the Americas. Columbus named the place "Punta de Caxinas". It was the first time he touched the Central American mainland. He noticed that the water in this part of the Caribbean was very deep and therefore called the area Golfo de Honduras, i.e., The Gulf of the Depths.
The history of the modern town begins in 1524, shortly after the conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortés. Cortés sent Cristóbal de Olid to find a Spanish outpost in the region, and he established a town named Triunfo de la Cruz in the vicinity.
When Olid began using the town as his base for establishing his own realm in Central America, Cortés sent Francisco de las Casas to remove him. Las Casas lost most of his fleet in a storm, but he was nevertheless able to defeat Olid and restore the region to Cortés.
Upon assuming control, Las Casas decided to relocate the town to its present location, because the natural harbor was larger. At the same time, Triunfo de la Cruz was renamed Trujillo. His deputy, Juan Lopez de Aguirre was charged with establishing the new town, but he sailed off, leaving another deputy, named Medina, to found the town.
Cortés himself visited the town shortly after, during a campaign to suppress the internecine fighting between his followers. He sent ships to established Spanish colonies in Jamaica and Cuba for saplings, seed, and domesticated animals that could be raised there.
In the coming years, however, Trujillo became more important as a shipment point for gold and silver mined in the interior of the country. Because of its sparse population, the city also became a frequent target of pirates.
Under Spanish rule, Trujillo became the capital of Honduras, but because of its vulnerability, the capital was changed to the inland town of Comayagua. The fortress, Fortaleza de Santa Bárbara (El Castillo), which sits on the bluff overlooking the bay, was built by the Spanish around 1550.
Nevertheless, it was inadequate to really defend Trujillo from pirates—the largest gathering of pirates in history took place in the vicinity in 1683--or rival colonial powers: the Dutch, French, and English. The town was destroyed several times between 1633 and 1797, and during the eighteenth century, the Spanish all but abandoned Trujillo because it was deemed indefensible.
When Honduras obtained its independence in 1821, Trujillo lost its status of capital city permanently first to Comayagua, which lost it to Tegucigalpa in 1880. From this same period onwards, Trujillo also began to prosper again.
In 1860, the mercenary William Walker, who had seized control of neighboring Nicaragua, was finally caught and executed in Trujillo. His tomb is a local tourist attraction. American author O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) spent about a year living in Honduras, primarily in Trujillo.
He later wrote a number of short stories that took place in "Coralio" in the fictional Central American country of "Anchuria", based on the real town of Trujillo. Most of these stories appear in his book Of Cabbages and Kings.