Historical review of Linden…The “mining town” celebrates one hundred years

Feb 18, 2013 News

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By Enid Joaquin

Noitgdacht, Spieghtland, Wismar, Determa, Mora, Greenheart, Potaro, Crabwood, Purpleheart, Pine, Wallaba,Yuraballi, Cedar and Silverballi are exotic sounding names of communities and streets in Linden, which is a town of equally exotic and colorful history.
The aforementioned names reflect of course, the Dutch and German influence, and our beautiful and enduring woods, that contributed significantly to the early economic ventures of the community, through the logging industry.
This year, the community that we love to call the “mining town” celebrates its hundredth year of existence- not as a town, but for want of better terminology, a mining community.
Linden as we know it today, is a far cry from its humble beginnings, with its genesis at Christianburg.
The establishment of this community dates back to the days of Dutch occupancy.
But the Dutch did not initially settle at Christiansburg, but lower down the river, about one mile away, at a settlement they named Arague. Christian Finnette, who was at the time the Governor, however lived with his wife at Christianburg, which was then known as Stabroek.
It was Finnette who later changed the name of the community from Stabroek to Christianburg, a combination of his and his wife’s name (Burg).
The main occupations of these early settlers were sugar cane farming and rubber ‘bleeding’.
Later in the year 1803, a Scottish Engineer by the name of John Patterson, came to Guyana at the invitation of the English, to establish living quarters for Government officials.

Patterson would engage slaves, Dutch settlers and Amerindians to work at his logging operations, which he established to provide the lumber for the buildings.
This potpourri of laborers, with romantic sounding names like Couchman, De Clou, D’Anjou, Allicock and Adams, became the backbone of permanent settlers, in the community.
As could be expected, harvesting and transporting logs in those early days involved the most primitive methods.
The logs were tied together to form rafts and then tied to a punt, in which Patterson and his wife then lived. In this fashion, the logs were transported to Georgetown, using slaves with paddles and oars to man the rafts.
These river trips sometimes lasted more than a week, and quite a few of the slaves succumbed to a watery grave.
Patterson would later establish a sawmill at Christianburg.
The sawmill was powered by a water wheel which was established in the year 1855, and harnessed power from the Katapulli creek.
Apart from powering the sawmill, the waterwheel also provided electricity for the nearby cabins of the workers, who lived in close proximity, for security purposes.
Patterson in the meantime had built a huge house (mansion) nearby, close to the river.
That house, which became an important landmark, would later serve as the Christianburg Magistrate’s Court. However, unfortunately, this noteworthy part of our history was destroyed by fire over a year ago. But the waterwheel still stands to this day, and remains a prominent landmark.
But Christianburg before all of that, was originally a sugar plantation, and was reportedly one of the largest in the region.

WISMAR
The area we now know as Wismar was formerly known as Shingles landing, because of the shingles that were manufactured there. There are reports that this area had also earlier been a sugar plantation.

Wismar later became the headquarters for Sprostons Limited, which operated the steamer service from Georgetown, and was also involved in logging. Thus it was that the community naturally became the official gateway to the interior, as prospectors from Georgetown and the coastland would journey to the area by boat, then continued overland to Rockstone and Essequibo, in search of the much touted gold and diamond fields.
A railway was established from Wismar to Rockstone in 1986 and this operated until about the year 1918. The trains of course made the arduous journey much easier.
After the railway was scrapped, many of the porknockers, who had suffered their fair share of hard knocks in the gold fields and with not much to show for their travails, decided to settle at Wismar.
Christianburg and Wismar therefore became the forerunner communities, but later the area would be given a much needed economic boost with the commencement of bauxite mining, that would see the establishment of another community on the opposite side of the river.
This was realized with the intervention of Mr. George Bain Mackenzie, who entered the scheme of things in the year 1913, with his eyes set on the Bauxite sector.
Mackenzie, who had been commissioned to purchase bauxite lands, would be responsible for establishing another settlement on the other side of the Demerara River, which became known as Mackenzie. But the name “Mackenzie”, would soon be used to refer to the entire communities of Christianburg, Wismar and Mackenzie.
The determining factor in choosing the particular location (Mackenzie) was to facilitate easy access for ocean going vessels.
Another determinant was the readily available labor force that was already living at Wismar and Christianburg.
But before bauxite was discovered, it was Christianburg that was considered the seat of Government, as the district emissary, dispenser and police headquarters could all be found there.
The advent of bauxite in the area saw an influx of persons flocking the community.
With more employment available, persons journeyed from areas on the coast and other communities, to work at the newly established bauxite company, which became known as the Demerara Bauxite Company (DEMBA)
Migrants also came from islands such as Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, St Vincent and St Lucia and settled here, adding to the diverse cultures of people who had already settled in the area.
Many of these islanders formed relationships with the locals and even had children and got married.
This saw the population increasing, with Mackenzie’s population growing to 2,840 by 1946 while Wismar and Christianburg together totaled 1,666.
But there were other communities which had sprung up elsewhere, like Coomacka, Three Friends Mines and Maria Elizabeth.
The latter communities sat almost in the midst of where all the bauxite mining was taking place. So it wasn’t surprising when people would simply refer to them as the “mines”.
However, the first mine to be actually established was Akyma, which was across the river at Hope about sixteen miles up the Demerara River. Those early days saw men with pick axes shovels and wheel barrows, laboriously digging for the precious ore, which was loaded unto pontoons and transported down river, to Mackenzie.
It was this mine that necessitated the building of the first bridge to span the Demerara River. The bridge, which was known as the Hope Bridge, was fitted with railway tracks, to accommodate the locomotives and ore cars that would transport the bauxite across the river, and down to the wharf at Mackenzie for shipment overseas.
The Hope Bridge was years later dismantled after mining operations ceased at Akyma, and parts of it used in the erection of the present day Mackenzie/ Wismar bridge.
It is interesting to note, that the latter bridge was also built to transport bauxite to the bauxite plant at Mackenzie from the West Bank, among other things.
After mining ceased at Akyma, mining activities began at Maria Elizabeth, Three Friends, Montgomery and Yararibo, not necessarily in that order.
Three friends of course, which has presently retrogressed to an almost obscure place, got its name from three friends that were the first to settle there.
People also settled at the other locations such as Maria Elizabeth and Yararibo.
The largest of the settlements was however at Coomacka, which sat on the periphery of the Montgomery Mines. Residents of these communities became known to the general populace at Mackenzie as “Mines people”. This term was quite often used derogatorily.
But it was the mining of bauxite, at the aforementioned locations, and others that would be established later, including Arrowcane, Dorabecee, Kara Kara and Lucky Spot, that would place the area, well known as Mackenzie on the threshold of prosperity, which would continue for years to come.
( To be continued next week)

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