Costa Rica Railroad: EXTRA FUN IMAGES to good not to share.

Scale model of the Engine that ran on the Pacific line.
On exhibition at the Cartago Cultural Center which was the old station.

La estación del ferrocarril en Puntarenas
captada por el fotógrafo Manuel Gómez Miralles.

View of San José. In the center is the Teatro National completed in 1897.

Overlooking a banana plantation.

Banana workers at a train depot.

Henry Mieggs

Half of a stereo photo. Oxen are still popular today. ca. 1950

The beef market in Heredia waiting to ship out. ca. 1950

On the docks at Limón. ca. 1940

The engine (No. 82) that serviced Golfito. ca. 1950

Loading more bananas. ca. 1950

A view of early Cartago.

Promotional piece for fleet operated by United Fruit.

What collector wouldn't want to own this lighter!

A post card promoting United Fruit.
IN 1899 ships were painted white to reflect tropical sun and maintain optimum temperature for bananas. The ships were referred to as The Great White Fleet.

Showing conveyer belt used to unload bananas without damage.

Tin sign for outdoor display at grocery stores.

As of Nov. 2008 ten colones is worth 1.8 U.S. Cents.
Current value of this uncirculated note ??... whatever a collector will pay.

A nice pen and ink drawing of banana workers.

A still from a short promotional film.

If you remember this song your age is showing.

A popular style of engine in 19th century Central America

Reventazón River. ca. 1914

An onboard menu from the days of steamships.

A package of photo postcards.

C.R. issue postage stamp honoring Tomás Guardia.

Somewhere near Limón.

A striking photo of a banana worker.

Can you date this interesting photo?

A nice drawing but not included in chronology because of redundancy.

A vaudeville song that poked fun at immigrant syntax.

This is not a railway car but a Tram that was the personal car of El Presidente Bernardo Soto Alfaro. The photo is from the Brill collection in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Although this car ran on rails it's route ran on Avenida Central from the Atlantic Railroad station to the hipodrome in what is now La Sabana; then known as Parque Principal. Tram operation began in 1889.

Five engines just arrived from San Jose. ca. 1920

The following photos are taken from a book published in 1905tinting has been added for enhancement

Yes, this is the bridge seen in the YouTube video.

click on images to enlarge

Number 82 in rusty retirement

Another photo of No. 82

I received this 1890 photo from a Canadian lady who informed me that it is part of a family photo album.
In the photo is her grand-father, Dr. Pirie.
He is the gentleman seated on the right wearing a bowler hat.
In the back middle is Minor Keith and the woman to his side I believe is his wife.

The others I have not been able to identify.

My correspondent thinks one of the men may be her grand-fathers brother.

I hope some of our blog readers can identify these individuals.
I also wonder about the occasion.
They certainly aren’t dressed for work.
And why are they wearing their Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes?
So many questions.

Can you Help?

Status of Coffee - 1893

COFFEE IN AMERICA.
SPECIAL BULLETIN. OCT. 1893.
A 1893 U.S. report on the production of Coffee in the Central and South American States. The section on Costa Rica is quoted.

The coffee plant was introduced into Costa Rica in 1796, and its
cultivation there has been continuous since that time, the production gradually and constantly increasing under the Spanish occupation and since the independence of the country, reaching 5000 tons in 1861 and 18,000 in 1884. The exports of coffee in 1891 amounted to nearly $6,140,000. Costa Rica coffee is of a superior quality and commands the highest price in the market. It is largely used in England.

The census of 1890 showed the existence of 8130 coffee plantations, with 26,558,251 trees. These plantations were situated at various altitudes, from 2500 to 5000 feet above sea level, but the best results are obtained at 4000 feet.

The method of raising the young plants in nurseries, the distance at which they are planted, the preparation of the virgin lands for the plantations, and the subsequent cultivation of the trees, are the same as in the other coffee districts of the Western Continent.

The seed beds are sown in May, and in the same month of the
following year are set in the plantations. At the end of two years a few berries will be produced, the first regular crop being harvested the following season. The cultivation of other crops between the rows while the trees are young is practiced to some extent, as elsewhere; the banana, or a quick-growing tree called " poro bianco," being used to shade the young plants. The average annual cost per acre of working a coffee plantation after it comes into bearing is estimated at about $6, and the annual yield is put at an average of 2500 pounds per acre; but 2000 pounds is a safer estimate.

The quincunx order of planting the trees in the plantations of
Costa Rica is not so common as in the other coffee producing countries, notwithstanding its obvious and considerable advantages.

The gathering, which goes on from December to March, is done largely by women and children, who pick the berries in baskets holding from eighteen to twenty quarts. The gatherers are paid about 12 cents per basket, and active workers can fill eight to ten baskets per day.

The provinces of San Jose, Alajuela, Cartago and Heredia and
those in which the cultivation of coffee is most extensively pursued, and in all these, except Cartago, the greater part of the available lands are already occupied by plantations. A vast extent of excellent coffee lands is found on the Atlantic side of the country between Cartago and Reventazon, and are said to be even better than those of Heredia and San Jose.

The Costa Rican Government encourages the settlement of foreigners in the country to engage in agricultural pursuits, and offers lands at very low prices, considering the great productiveness of their soil.
Public lands may be acquired by pre-emption, in tracts of not less than 120 acres, by merely fencing them and giving notice to the authorities of the intention of the occupant to put them under cultivation ; and if the cultivation be carried on for two years, a patent of ownership will be issued to the holder, and he may inclose and claim in the same manner another 120 acres, and so on.

Lands may also be purchased, in areas not to exceed 600 hectares for each person, at public auction, at prices varying from 80 cents to $2 per acre, according to locality, quality, irrigation and nature of growth on them. If the lands at these prices are situated more than fifteen miles from a town of 3000 inhabitants, or from a railroad, these prices will be reduced one-half; if from thirty to sixty miles, they will be sold at one-fourth, and if more than sixty miles, at one-eighth the prices named. These lands may be paid for in cash or in ten annual installments, at 6 per cent interest. If at any time the purchaser shows that the improvements he has made are worth double the interest due, he is excused from payment of such interest ; and if the improvements be worth twice as much as the price to be paid, by the terms of the sale, he is exempted from payment of all interest due.

Meanwhile Back in New Orleans (2)

Cuyamel Fruit Company was one of the smaller firms of banana importers that attempted unsuccessfully to compete with the all-powerful United Fruit. Founded in 1902, purchased by Samuel Zemurray in 1910, Cuyamel fought United Fruit for its corner of the market until 1929, when the two firms finally merged--and Sam Zemurray came out on top as United's largest stockholder and eventually its president. By 1947, United Fruit's net worth was in excess of $250 million, and the company controlled nearly a half-mile of dock space in the Port of New Orleans for loading and unloading of its passengers, bananas and general freight.
In 1917, when Club Men of Louisiana in Charicature was published, Cuyamel Fruit was prospering. The company's Secretary -Treasurer, Ernest Schultz (about whom almost nothing is known today) is having a "very busy day," filling orders for Sam the Banana Man.
[William Keevil Patrick and Associates. Club Men of Louisiana in Charicature. (East Aurora, N.Y., 1917)]

What the United Fruit Company has done in the way of developing banana-growing and other industries in Middle America has been of inestimable value to New Orleans, for during the past half-century it has opened up trade channels not only for its own products, but has supplied the facilities such as transportation, both water and rail, for others to develop industries and trade. Moreover, acting as a goodwill agent, it has brought about a better understanding between North Americans and Latin Americans, who, speaking a different language and living according to different customs, were strangers in business and in their social life, although they did not live far apart. Thus, the United Fruit Company is essentially a part of the history of the City of New Orleans.
[Edwin Adams Davis. The Story of Louisiana,
Vol. II (New Orleans, 1960]

Bibliography

Dunlop, Robert. Travels in Central America, Being a Journal of Nearly Three Years Residence in the Country. Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans. 1847.
Fernández Guardia, Ricardo [translator] Costa Rica en el Siglo XIX. San José. Anthology of journals and travel accounts of Costa Rica in the 19th century.
Francisco Kurtze, C.E. - The Interoceanic Railroad Route through the Republic of Costa Rica. NY, John Fray & Green. 1866
Newspaper - La Estrella de Panamá (Panama City, Panamá 1871, 1873. Spanish language section of the Panamá Star and Herald.
Newspaper - La Gaceta [Diario Oficial] Costa Rica 1877-1873. Official gazette of government decrees and legislation.
Newspaper - Panamá Star and Herald. January 3, 1871- January 31, 1892. A rich source. Hundreds of on the scene articles.
Newspaper - The [New York] World. June 30, 1873. Interview with Henry Keith.
Newspaper - The New York Sun. January 4, 1872. Article about the the signing of the contract between Meiggs and Costa Rica
Newspaper - The[London] Times. Source about British loans to the Costa Rica Railway Company.
Soto, Don Bernardo - Discurso Pronunciado por el Benemérito General Presidente de la República Don Bernardo Soto, en el Acto de Inaugurar los Trabajos del Ferrocarril del Norte de la Ciudad de Cartago, el 20 de Agosto de 1886.
U.S. State Dept, of, Diplomatic Dispatches,C.R. San José. Natl. Archives, Vol 3-74, July 7, 1866-Dec. 31, 1906.
U.S. State, Dept. of, Notes from Central America. natl. Archives. Vol. 4, July 6, 1871-Sept. 9, 1872
U.S. State, Dept. of, Consular Dispatches, C.R. San José. Natl. Archives, Vol 3-6, Jan 20, 1870-June 30-1904

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: Hi Pedro

Interesting

Robin57!; November 16, 2008 at 2:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Nicely Done!

- Bucephalus; November 17, 2008 at 3:16 PM
karlwalterjan said...: I´m enthusiastic about so many informations I got from your pages.Did you read so many books, or from where did you get all this datas?
kindest regards
Karl from Germany; February 19, 2009 at 2:44 AM