From the later half of the 1500's to 1919, the land area of the town of Cantilan was roughly 130,000 hectares which is over one fourth of the present area of the province of Surigao del Sur. This was the whole of Cantilan, which is now known, with the acronym of CARCANMADCARLAN, which is derived from the first three letter syllables of the towns of Carrascal, Cantilan, Madrid, Carmen and Lanuza

The original acronym of the whole area was CARCANLAN, which comprised of Carrascal, Cantilan and Lanuza. On December 10, 1918, Executive Order No. 52 of American Governor General Francis Burton Harrison that was signed by Charles Yeater, divided Cantilan into three parts. On Febuary 2, 1953, it became CARCANMADLAN when Madrid was created as a municipal and detached from the mother town by virtue of Executive Order by President Elpidio Quirino. When barangay Carmen of Lanuza was created as a town by Republic Act No. 6367, on August 16, 1971, the indigenous naming of the whole area that was once Cantilan finally became CARCANMADCARLAN.

Known in the past for its vast timberlands and, for the present, with its over six thousand hectares of government-irrigated lands, it has seawaters in the east, mountains in the west, north and south. The plains have navigable rivers known as Carac-an, Union, Cantilan, Consuelo, Benoni, Bun-ot, Adlayan, Lancogue and some smaller ones. The extent of creeks and wetlands or lowlands and swamps were main landmarks and features of its old topography. The conversions and developments of the lowlands into rice paddies began in 18th century when the friars were stationed therein. Those rivers and creeks that were developed fishponds did not begin earlier than the first of the 20th century.