In early Sayulita, only six or seven little houses existed, built of palm and lit with oil hookahs that were manufactured with tin leaf. All the inhabitants of the community and the neighboring coconut palm ranches (Pátzcuaro, La Higuera, Los Caomiles, Pantoqui, San Francisco, Lo de Marcos, etc.) worked at the Jaltemba farm, owned by Ximena Plascencia Rojas, where coconut oil was extracted of spice oil Attalea Cohune. In this southern Nayarit region, coconut palm trees proliferated; the workers collected coconuts and split them in half with stones to extract oil from the nuts. During the coconut oil boom, many people died of lung diseases caused by the inhalation of the dust that coconuts give off when split.