This recently-created department was the scene of a celebrated undertaking by the rubber tapper Fitzcarrald, whose discovery of a passage or "isthmus" linking the Ucayali , Urubamba and Madre de Dios rivers improved communications between these basins and within the vast, unexplored expanses of the Amazon region.

Yarinacocha lagoon - Ucayali River.

When the time for emancipation arrived, the people of Tumbes supported the cause championed by Jose de San Martin . On January 7, 1821 Tumbes (which was then a part of the department of Piura ) formally proclaimed independence.

On November 25, 1942 Tumbes was accorded departmental status by President Manuel Prado with the approval of the Peruvian Congress.