The earliest known historical document about Cervantes was that it started as a small Igorot Village known as “Mantamang”, an Igorot word meaning “to look over”. Igorot traders and Chinese merchants who always had to pass the village frequently used trails connecting the lowland and upland neighboring localities. On March 4, 1879, the residents of Mantamang petitioned that the village be recognized as a Christian town under the district of Lepanto-Amburayan. The town was given the name Cervantes and that remained the name of the town up to the present. Maximo Lilio de Garcia has written that Cervantes was formerly a barrio when it was founded by the Spanish colonizers. It started with only thirty houses made of light building materials like bamboo and cogon. In spite of the fertile lands that abound the place, the natives used to cultivate only small patches of rice fields, which limited the development of the barrio. Lilio further stated that Cervantes has a distance of 24 kilometers from Lepanto. The system of communication was maintained on a weekly basis due to the poor road network that traversed the mountains - zigzagging upward the hills back of Cayus where the storage house was located and down to the lowlands reaching the Malaya River, which sometimes overflows during the rainy season, making the trail slippery. During the Spanish Era, a portion of the land along the banks of the Abra River was used as a penal colony by Spanish soldiers who brought with them the Ilocanos from the lowlands. In 1883, a malaria epidemic affected the colony, prompting Spanish officials to move to the uplands, which is now the present location of the town proper. The delivery of 5,000 grams of quinine ended the epidemic. At that time, the barrio was founded between Abra and Malaya Rivers, the inhabitants were distributed among the three rancherias. The first settlement was established on an elevated healthful well-ventilated place, where a small house for the children of the neighboring barrios, a storage building for tobacco and barracks were constructed. Springs were the source of potable clean and abundant water supply. The natives cultivated and produced vegetables and fruits suitable to the climate. Coffee was produced on the land annexed to the commendancia. The next group of settlement founded a rancheria less than a half-kilometer distance from the first settlement. This time better types of houses were built with an estimated population of 819 residents migrating from other rancherias and barrios of Mailac Cambaguio and Magucmay. Then another small community was developed with both sections of Cervantes where a spacious administrative building, other ruinous edifices and barracks built of wood for the civil guards, were located. Gradually, the original Igorot settlers were displaced and forced to move to the hills and mountains. This explains why at present, Igorot are mostly settled in far-flung barrios, while the Ilocanos, mestizos and those who intermarried with Chinese, Spaniards, Americans and other foreigners populate the central area of the municipality. The constantly growing of trade in the area made it necessary that it should have a good outlet to the coast. A road was built from Cervantes going west over the Malaya Range exiting at the town of
Tagudin, Ilocos Sur. This road was later improved and widened and became passable all the way to
Bontoc. During American rule, the Philippine Commission passed Act No. 410 and Sec. 1 of said act consolidated the Commandancias of Lepanto, Bontoc and Amburayan, together with territory lying between the boundaries of Abra, Cagayan and Bontoc into the Province of Lepanto-Bontoc. This province as divided into three sub-provinces corresponding to the territory of the former comandancias. Cervantes was made the seat of government of Amburayan sub-province. Its military governor was William Dinwiddie. Later on, Cervantes became a pueblo by virtue of Act No. 441 of the Philippine Commission, which established local civil government in the townships and settlements of Lepanto-Bontoc. And in 1907, Cervantes was transferred to the Province of Ilocos Sur by virtue of the provisions of Act No. 1646, passed by the Philippines Commission on May 15, 1907, providing for the transfer of all sub-provinces of Amburayan and large sections of Lepanto and Benguet to Ilocos Sur and La Union. In June 1945 the USAFIP NL spearheaded by the 121st Infantry, defeated the Japanese Imperial Forces at
Bessang Pass, part of Malaya, Cervantes. During the Japanese occupation it was at Cervantes, particularly at the pass, that the Japanese forces made their last stand in the operations in northern Luzon against Allied forces. These events hastened the surrender of General
Tomoyuki Yamashita, the “Tiger of Malaya”. In 1945, Cervantes was burned and destroyed. The brick municipal building, the Conchar Hotel, and the sturdy and beautiful houses of the town were burned and reduced to ashes. The main bridge linking Cervantes to Bontoc was bombed. A monument was unveiled in 1954 at Bessang Pass in honor of the 1,395
United States Armed Forces in the Philippines - Northern Luzon (USAFIP-NL) members killed in this historical place. After the war the town recovered. Cervantes was energized on March 21, 1991. The power supply came from Mt. Province Electric Cooperative (MOPRECO) through a memorandum of agreement with the Ilocos Sur Electric Cooperative (ISECO). Cervantes was declared the Summer Capital of the Province of Ilocos Sur by Resolution No. 88 on March 23, 1993. On July 5, 1995, an interim Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) was organized and on April 23, 2000, President
Joseph Estrada signed Proclamation No. 284 declaring the Bessang Pass National Shrine as Protected Areas (included to NIPAS Act of 1992 or RA 7560) under Natural Monument/Landmark Category. On June 11, 1996, the Municipal Government passed Resolution No. 025 declaring June 14 as special non-working holiday for the town. ==Geography==