Historical Background

The popular version of how Lanuza got its name was that in times past when people walked the distance from Cantilan to Lanuza with mere banana leaves to protect their heads from the scorching sun, by the time they reached Lanuza, the banana leaves become "Lanos na" meaning "already withered". In due time, Lanos na was corrupted to become Lanuza.

However, in one of the three sketches of old Cantilan area, known as the Capanas Sketch of 1802, Lanuza was marked as Lanuyo. Lanuyo encompassed a mountainous area to her west and southwest with a big river and some tributaries or creeks and brooks to her east and northeast. This sketch seemed to appear a continuation to that of Cantilan's though in a separate sheet. These was "when a principalia of a certain sitio called Lanuyo requested that their place be made into a full pledged barrio "Independence De Su Matriz Cantilan" Schreur's noted in 1802.

In Sitio Lanuyo, there were settlements marked then that still inhabited today. Clearly identified are Dangiog (Danyog), Bobon, Cabacuan (Cabachawan), Capadian (Capajian), Ganga and Libiug or Sibyog as it was not legibly written. Libiug as indicated in the sketch was the sentro from Cantilan going south. Understandably these were the places asked by Lanuyo mere Sitio of Cantilan in 1802 as termed by Schreur's notation.

The crude cartography of Capanas showed Lanuyo as a well developed place among the riverine settlements or village of Cantilan in 1802. Lanuyo had its own embarcadero and the sitio had five streets parallel to the shoreline. Lanuyo's embarcadero certainly implied on thing: it was a landing place by either local seamen or distant trader at the turn of the 1700's. Lanuyo for any reason, could be trading post of the early southern places like Tandag, Marieta (Marihatag), or by the people of Bislig, Hinatuan (San Juan), Lianga and Lingig which was noted to have been transferred to Sitio Cagnito only in 1860's. The Lanuyo embarcadero could have also pointed the way to Boholano immigrants of the 19th century, when they disembarked and formed the first 20 cabecerias in Lanuza recorded by the Jesuits of Cantilan in the 1880's.

The Christianization of the Mamanwas who settled in Danyog beyond Carmen and Sibahay southward beyond Lanuza were practically the efforts of the Jesuits from the time of Father Salvador Ferrer and Juan Sansa. After their stay in Cantilan, they were replaced by Father Miguel Alaix who was formerly of Bunawan, a Jesuit Mission in Agusan. In Danyog, upon his assignment to Cantilan, he baptized sixty four Mamanwas in Sibahay. These Mamanwas were deemed the original inhabitants of Lanuza when it was not yet a barrio.

Earlier, the founding of Lanuza was reported by Father Ferrer who said that there were merely twenty cabecerias which grew rapidly because of the arrival of the Boholanos and Leyteno's. Father Ferrer and Sansa founded Lanuza within the time of their arrival in Cantilan on October 19,1879.

During the ebbing years of the Spanish regime in the Philippines, Cantilan's barrios of Lanuza and Carrascal were already ripe for townhood, thus their conversions by the Spanish authorities and the subsequent appointments of the town officials.

The barrios detached were Lanuza and Carrascal. Lanuza with a bigger population than Carrascal that time had Cantilan Andres Orcullo, with Donato Uriarte, Juez de Pa; Guillermo Azarcon, Maestro de Ninos; Vicenta Orillaneda, Maestra de Ninas; and Padre Manuel Villes, Cura Misionero.

^{Source: Lanuza, Surigao del Sur}