Latest update April 20th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 15, 2011 Letters
Dear Editor,
The once popular and well known 1897Wismar/ Rockstone railway symbolized Upper Demerara and served as a corner stone in its development before bauxite dominated. This railroad provided valuable and safe transportation of commuters and cargo to and from Essequibo to Demerara. It was Guyana’s first inland railroad.
Hugh Sprostons’s entry to British Guiana in 1840 saw the dire need for transportation across Guyana’s waterways and hinterlands. He established steam-powered vessels across Guyana and built Guyana’s dry dock where damaged vessels could be repaired and new ones constructed.
Sprostons had steam brigs or vessels plying the Georgetown route, to as far as Lucky Spot up the Demerara River, since the 1850s.There were also other privately run vessels of that time period.
Access up the mighty Essequibo was a deferent matter. Navigation was impossible because of the many rapids and waterfalls. The idea was born to construction this railway from Wismar to Rockstone.
The calm and navigable Demerara River would provide access from Georgetown to this railway at Wismar with transportation continuing from Rockstone via launches to Tumatumari.
John Dagleish Paterson’s Christianburg lands and Sawmill business was bought by the then British Government in 1892 to set up this Railroad.
Sprostons Company Limited then constructed The Wismar to Rockstone Railway in the years 1895 to 1897. A loan of $200,000 was given to Sprostons by the British Government, to be repaid in twenty years without interest.
This light railway line as it was referred to, was 18¾ miles long and ran westward from the Wismar Terminus to the Rockstone Terminus. It provided access through Guyana primeval forest to upper Essequibo and Potaro gold fields.
The steamer left Georgetown daily at 8am except on Sunday for Wismar. The train left daily from Wismar to Rockstone after the steamer arrived from Georgetown and not before 5.30pm. On Sunday the train did not run.
At the Rockstone terminus, one or more launches with passengers and cargo provided a daily service at 6.30am to Tumatumari, with Sunday also being the day of rest. At Tumatumari, a launch provided daily transportation to Potaro Landing, taking passengers and cargo.
The turn of the 19th century saw this spanking new railroad linking the two rivers, moving people, equipment, timber, cargo and most of all hope for a brighter future. Bauxite would later take over as new king. The Demerara Bauxite Company would soon be established with the 1912 land purchased by George Bain Mackenzie.
1917 saw the first mining
of bauxite at Akyma and the building of the Bauxite plant and housing areas.
The sad ruins of the Wismar Steamer stelling today, the tragic fire of April 12, 2011 of the Paterson house or Magistrate court, tells a tale of history lost. The last steamer to run the Linden- Georgetown route, the R.H Carr {named after Ralph Hamilton Carr} decays at Skull Point on the Cuyuni River.
That hurts deep down, for all who can still remember. The faint essence of the rich historical past of Linden may still be remembered by the lonely Waterwheel at Christianburg.
Some of the railway lines of the Sprostons Wismar/Rockstone railways are still buried deep under the now Burnham Drive and the memories of this precious treasure of Linden and Guyana are gone forever with the wind. Understanding and respecting the past are the keys to the future.
Dmitri Allicock
Where is the BETTER MANAGEMENT/RENEGOTIATION OF THE OIL CONTRACTS you promised Jagdeo?
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