Quesada, San Carlos
district in San Carlos canton, Alajuela province, Costa Rica
Quesada is a district of the San Carlos canton, in the Alajuela province of Costa Rica. It is the head city of the canton of San Carlos. Although Ciudad Quesada is the official name, it is commonly referred to by the area name of San Carlos. Ciudad Quesada is also the most populous city in the canton of San Carlos.
The city is the economic and political center of the region, especially for the agricultural and dairy industries. The Quesada district and its surrounding areas produce about 65% of all milk in Costa Rica.
Geography
Quesada has an area of 144 km2 and an elevation of 656 metres. It is located at the foot of the Cordillera Central (Central Mountain Range) on the southern edge of the San Carlos Plain, an expansive lowland that forms a major part of the Caribbean slope in northern Costa Rica. It is 79 km northwest of the provincial capital city of Alajuela and 90.9 km from the national capital city of San José.
History
The city was first called La Unión, which was later changed to Villa Quesada.
“Quesada, San Carlos” enters the record as district in San Carlos canton, Alajuela province, Costa Rica. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Quesada, Carlos and district can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Quesada, San Carlos” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Quesada, Carlos and district provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 20, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q787675. VIAF identifies the subject as 156094975. The Library of Congress control number is n79083021. Authority coordinates are 10.344, -84.420. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Quesada, San Carlos” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.