Driven one stormy day by the swift current of Surigao strait long before the Spanish regime in the Philippines, some Visayan fishermen riding in a banca from Cebu were said to have drifted across the sea between the Visayan Islands and Northern Mindanao. They reached a point in the rough open sea where they could perceive the outlet of Surigao River and wearily managed with all their might to deviate southerly from the direction of the stern current towards the east, and sought refuge inland.
Upon entering the mouth of the river and coming ashore, they found the grassnut shelter of a Negrito Chieftain named Solibao, described as a short kinky-haired aborigine. While the newcomers busied themselves in making a better shelter than the dribbling hut of Mr. Solibao, their banca was carried away by the rising flood leaving them with no other means of transportation.
Forced to stay in the place of Mr. Solibao, the fishermen tried to help themselves to whatever means of sustenance they could obtain from nearby wilderness. In wandering, they discovered plains suitable for agriculture where they worked on for livelihood. Fortunately later, they saw a boat sailing casually along the coast. They signaled the crew to come ashore and found out they were Visayan traders who kindly offered to take them back home. Some of them left while others preferred to stay and await harvest for the crops they planted. Those who left, came back later on with their families and settled definitely in Solibao's place whom they found to be hospitable rather than harmful.
Regular travels were made by the new inhabitants from their newly-found place to their former places of origin in Cebu, Leyte and Bohol, thus naming their place as Solibao, after its original dweller, the Negrito Chieftain. In 1538, one of the galleons of the Spaniards happened to drop anchor in the harbor of what was then the settlement of Solibao and his Visayan guests. The journey-worn Spanish historian who was with the group probably misheard the name of the place given by the inhabitants as Surigao instead of Solibao. Since then, Solibao was called Surigao. Such is the legend told by some ancient dwellers.