Origin of village name in Chamorro

Chalan Pago is a Chamorro word that means “Pago Road.” Chalan Pago referred to the area traveled through to get from Hagåtña to Pago, which may lend to the naming of the area, which is covered with Pago trees (hibiscus tiliaceus). Pago was one of the reduccion villages established by Father Diego Luís de San Vitores, who established the Catholic mission in the Marianas in the 1670s. Chamorros from throughout the Mariana Islands archipelago were resettled and concentrated into villages on Guam to enhance missionaries’ efforts.

Ordot village seems to have originated in the nineteenth century. The village name is derived from the Chamorro word otdot, which means “ant.” Some residents believe that the name was given to the area because the type of soil there is attractive to certain types of ants.

Population

According to the U.S. Census in 2000, there were 5,923 residents in Chalan Pago-Ordot.

Village officials

The mayor of Chalan Pago-Ordot is Pedro I. Borja who began his term in 2005.

Village description

The municipality of Chalan Pago-Ordot stretches across the narrow “waist” of the island of Guam. Housing areas are built mostly along Route 4. These villages are on the dividing line between the mostly volcanic southern half of the island and the mostly limestone northern half of the island. The result is a diverse and rugged topography characterized by low hills, small valleys, wetland areas and streams that seem to disappear into the ground. The area is covered with lush green vegetation and homes are built on flat areas of land at times next to small valleys. Some residences have also been built at the foothills of nearby mountains.

The area had long been a center of ranching for people from Hagåtña but since World War II, it has become home to two tight knit village communities as well as several new housing subdivisions.

Chalan Pago also leads to Pago Bay where homeowners have a view of the ocean on Guam’s eastern coast. A few people have also taken advantage of mountain properties building residences overlooking the bay.

Ordot is also the site of the island’s landfill. In March 2008, U.S. District Court of Guam Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood placed the dump under federal receivership after the local government failed to close it and build a sanitary landfill in another location as ordered by a federal mandate. An off-island solid waste management consulting firm has been given full authority to take over the closure of the dump.

Over the years village residents held protests for the dump’s closure as several living in Chalan Pago-Ordot endured decades of hardship living in close proximity to the landfill; families have been forced to evacuate their homes for periods of time when subterranean fires surfaced; after particularly heavy rains, the stench emanating from the mountainous pile of trash (the dump was originally built in a valley) would magnify; the nearby Lonfit River – which used to be a favorite swimming spot – has been heavily contaminated by run-off from the landfill; and large flies populate in the area, proving to be a particular nuisance to village residents as well as a sanitary concern for nearby schools.

Village history

Pago is an ancient settlement in Pago Bay along the southeastern coast of Guam. In the 1670s, Pago was resettled as a Catholic village, established with Chamorros forced to leave their homes throughout the Mariana Islands. In the 1700s, Jesuit missionaries established an agricultural station at Tachogna which encompassed much of the present-day village of Ordot.

Other ancient settlements in the area included Fagtu, Tagun, Pumud, Tinaka, Pohund and Aguan. A typhoon and an epidemic came to the island in the 1850s which caused massive population loss as well as the abandonment of the village of Pago. Survivors were absorbed into other villages. The area remained a popular ranching area, however, because of its fertile soil and proximity to peoples’ homes in Hagåtña. Corn was the most popular crop although some rice, taro and yams were grown in the wetlands. Gaddo’ and dago (types of yams) were also plentiful in the region. It was not until after World War II that people again began to build permanent houses for use as their primary residences. Initially, the villages were considered suburbs of Sinajana but in 1956 Ordot and Chalan Pago combined to become it’s own municipality.

By Michael R. Clement, M.A.

Points of interest

Institutions

Churches
Ordot – Chalan Pago has several religious organization including the Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey Catholic Church in Chalan Pago and the San Juan Bautista Church in Ordot. There is also the Baha’i Assembly and Island Praise Fellowship.

Schools
Ordot – Chalan Pago also has several schools including Ordot-Chalan Pago Elementary School and Agueda Iglesias Johnston Middle School, both Guam Public School System schools. There is also Temple Christian School and Evangelical Christian Academy, both private schools located in the municipality.

Village mayors/commissioners

Mayors/Commissioners

  • Pedro I. Borja, Mayor, 2005-Present
  • Vicente I. Aguon, Mayor, 2001-2005
  • Roseanna San Miguel, Mayor, 1997-2001
  • Vicente S. San Nicolas, Commissioner/Mayor, 1975-1997
  • Francisco C. Carbullido, Commissioner, 1969-1975
  • Thomas B. Anderson, Commissioner, 1964-1969
  • Francisco L.G. Valenzuela, Commissioner, 1956-1964

Assistant Commissioner

  • Francisco L.G. Valenzuela, Assistant Commissioner (under Sinajaña), 1952-1956
EDITOR’S NOTE: The preceding list was provided by Konsehelon Mahot Guåhan/the Mayor’s Council of Guam.

For further reading

Beaty, Janice J. Discovering Guam: A Guide to its Towns, Trails and Tenants. Tokyo: Tokyo News Service, 1967.

Freycinet, Louis Claude de Saulses de. An Account of the Corvette L’Uraine’s Sojourn at the Mariana Islands, 1819. Translated by Glynn Barratt. Saipan, CNMI: Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Division of Historic Preservation and the University of Guam Richard F. Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center, 2003.

Hunter-Anderson, Rosalind and Moore, Darlene. A Study of Eight Post-World War II Resettlement Villages on Guam. Micronesian Archeological Research Services, 2006.

Konsehelon Mahot Guåhan/Mayors Council of Guam. “Ordot-Chalan Pago” (accessed April 08, 2008).

Onedera, Peter R. Nå’an Lugåt Siha gi ya Guåhan: Guam Place Names. Hagåtña: Chamorro Language Commission, c.1989.

Rogers, Robert. Destiny’s Landfall: A History of Guam. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1995.

San Juan Bautista Church. 25th Silver Aniversary; June 25, 1969-June 25, 1994. Ordot, GU: 1994.

Know my island- Know my history

The Legend of the Giant Fish

The narrowness of central Guam is part of local folklore. Legend has it that a giant fish once tried to eat the island of Guam and began chomping the land away at Pago Bay and Hagåtña Bay. To stop the fish, mermaids used their long hair to weave a magical net to catch the fish.

Village fiestas

Ordot celebrates San Juan Bautista’s feast day on June 24. Chalan Pago celebrates two fiestas: Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey takes place on the third week of January while the Sacred Heart of Mary takes place on the second Friday of June.

Regions and traditional place names

  • Ordot: Tachogna
  • Chalan Pago: Chilenko, Maimai, Pago, Santa Cruz, Asinan