On February 16, 1951, at the atomic energy pilot plant on Huemul Island, San Carlos de Bariloche, thermonuclear reactions were carried out under control conditions on a technical scale. This is how Gral. Peron announced, on March 24, 1951, the amazing result of what became known as the Huemul Project. In this article we review that story of misadventures that, despite its extravagant development and announced end, came to mean the beginning of Argentine nuclear development.