idea, like that of the foreman when he tells the farmer the place chosen to establish his farm, "there at Ponta Grossa". Or even that the name had seen later when the owner ceded the lands for settlement. Ponta Grossa was founded on the farm of Miguel da Rocha Ferreira Carvalhaes who chose it as favorable agricultural land. The farm still exists towards Castro. In 1871 the city came to be called Pitangui, but the following year it resumed its original name. Sometimes it is the target of malicious humor due to what its name can send like in Portuguese. One way or another describes the characteristics of the vegetation and the regional topography. History According to the historian Paulo Eduardo Dias de Mello the earliest account of European activity in this area is of the tropeiros who travelled with their wares towards the fair of Sorocaba. Ponta Grossa served as a resting point since 1703 of the long voyages that left Rio Grande do Sul. Along the way was commercialized the charque, where the meat was preserved only with salt. Unlike other settlements, Ponta Grossa was not inhabited, indigenous groups occupied places to the north, with expansion, conflicts later came with European settlers, such as that of the city of Reserva, but outside the urban space of the city in question. Another version, but not necessarily contradictory, states that the farmers of the area would launch a couple of pigeons and where these birds would land would mark the beginning of the Freguesia with the construction of the chapel Mrs. Saint Anne. Colonial Expeditions Ponta Grossa had its territory traversed from the 16th century, when the Campos Gerais were crossed by Spanish expeditions that demanded of the Santa Catarina coast until Asunción, in Paraguay. Later it was successively moved on account of the seiscentistas bandeirantes, notably for capture of the natives. Portuguese bandeirantes like Aleixo Garcia passed in 1525, five years later Peró Lobo and Francisco Chaves. In 1541 passed the Spaniard Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca who had some conflicts of tribes not too distant. Also, it is reported the passage of a non-Iberian: Ulrich Schmidel, a German mercenary in Spanish service, that during the course of his travels in the region brought 20 Paraguayan natives and four other mercenary German soldiers in Spanish service from the current paulista coast. Tropeiros, people who used mules and donkeys to