Linden – a potpourri of people, bauxite and blue lakes

Nov 28, 2016 News

---

By Enid Joaquin

Come to Linden and you will find people with roots in Berbice, Essequibo, Pomeroon, Buxton, St Lucia and Barbados.
Ask them, if they would return to live in those places of their birth and the answer would most likely be a resounding no!
Ask Eugenie Cobena, who hails from the island of St Lucia or Former IMC Chairman and Bauxite Executive Orrin Gordon, who hails from Buxton, and they will tell you the same thing!
Interesting, that after all these years which saw the boom and subsequent decline in bauxite mining, those that responded to the industry’s call to a better life, even today with fluctuating markets and global prices, are still determined to stay.
For them home is indeed where the heart is. Eugenie Cobena accompanied her late husband here. He was employed by the bauxite industry.
Orrin Gordon proudly declares, “I’ve grown on this place, or this place has grown on me – however you want to put it, but simply put, I’ve developed roots here, and so this is home.”
Gordon came to Linden in nineteen eighty one. He was in his early twenties and had been a Public Service Ministry Scholarship awardee. He began his stint with the bauxite industry as a project analyst.
Reflecting, Gordon said that he spent the first year as a resident of the Mackenzie hotel.
“In those days whenever management employees came to the company to work, if there was no available housing you were put up at the hotel which was managed by the company. You stayed there until the company could get you into a more permanent place, such as the bachelor units they had at Fairs Rust, Noightdact or Richmond Hill.”
One had to be in a senior managerial position to access housing in these areas.
For the other folk there were the ‘range houses’ at Mackenzie.
Those units consisted of two and four apartments.
Only bauxite employees were eligible to occupy these houses.
A few of these are still around today. Some are in their original state, while others have been modified and attractively painted.

Bauxite mining ‘swelled’ population
President David Granger in his feature address, at the recent unveiling of the 100th year centenary arch, noted that the social impact of the industry has contributed to enriching Guyana’s cultural life and that its contributions to Guyanese society are impossible to calculate.
He told the story of how the population of the community which was later amalgamated as Linden ‘swelled’ as mining intensified.

“Persons came from all over the coastland, from the islands of the Caribbean, Barbados, Grenada, St Vincent, St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago in search of regular employment and higher wages offered by the bauxite industry.
The President spoke of the thousands of jobs that were created for both Guyanese and West Indians and said that it was noteworthy that by 1960, only 38 percent of the population of the community comprised persons that were actually born here – the rest were migrants from the “coast” and the Caribbean.

Sustained for 100 years
During the May 23rd launch of the centennial commemoration, chairman of the Committee, Horace James, noted that the bauxite industry has been sustained in Guyana for a hundred years.
James said that there are opportunities and scope for further development of the industry and hopes that in the next 100 years there will be other products coming from bauxite.
“It is believed that Guyana is capable of producing some 350 million tonnes of bauxite. But, generating sufficient electricity and diversifying production are the biggest challenges facing the industry,” James said.
He pointed out that there is an average of 100 more years left in bauxite reserves in Region Ten.
According to James, a survey discovered that there is 200 million tonnes of bauxite at block 37, 18 million tonnes at Bamia, 40 million tonnes at East Montgomery and an unproven amount at Tiger Jump.
Bauxite mining commenced in Linden at the time known as Mackenzie, in October 1916.
The company was at the time managed by DEMBA (Demerara Bauxite Company, a subsidiary of the Canada based ALCAN.
All the senior executives in those days were expatriates, who were brought in to manage the Company. That later changed after the industry was nationalized in 1971. There were also several name changes.

Landscape change
Bauxite mining was not just instrumental in increasing the mining town’s population, it also changed the landscape forever.
Linden has over the years become famous for its beautiful, majestic and multicolored ‘hills’ and tranquil “Blue Lakes”, all of which owe their existence to excavation works carried out the by the bauxite industry. These features have given the town its unique beauty, and provide a treasure throve for adventurous hikers and photographers.
The recently installed centennial Arch on Casaurina Drive now adds to the unique and picturesque charm of this beautiful place we call Linden – our Town, our Home!

---

---