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Ignacio in the early 1900's was a tiny village in the
frontier of Western Belize. With no road, the only access
to San Ignacio was via steam boat (remember African
Queen)! They were commonly reffered to as "Cayo Boats"!
From Cayo (San Ignacio) to Belize would take about four
days but the return trip often took more than ten days.
The distance was less that 60 miles in a straight line
but over 170 by river! From Belize City came canned
and dried goods and returning, the boats would take
fresh bananas,citrus, and other fruits and vegetables,along
with livestock and wild game. |
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Some
of the Cayo Boats were over 50 feet long and were later
powered by very basic diesel engines. Many of the rapids
on the Belize Old River were very swift and shallow.
At the top of some rapids winches were placed to help
drag the boats up! |
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| Besides
the many boats that serviced San Ignacio, there were
boats that went North from Belize City to Orange Walk
and Corozal and South to Dangriga, Placencia, and Punta
Gorda! |
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From
the Boat Warf in San Ignacio, horses, mules, and oxen
were used to transport supplies through the jungle to
even smaller villages like Crysto Rey, San Antonio,
San Jose Succotz, and Benque Viejo Del Carmen. |
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Cattle trains were among the means used to
transport supplies to the outpost villages of
San Miguel, San Luis, Millionarios, San Jose Succotz,
Benque Viejo Del Carmen, and many more.
This photos shows down town San Ignacio
in the early 1900's.
All the construction was wood.
Notice the rain vat in the left of the photo.
It was made just like a wine barrel out of
Spanish Cedar (Cedrela odorata),
also known as "cigar-box cedar.
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However, the real job for the cattle trainswas hauling
logs from where they were cut in the jungle to
Baccadeers (a clearing were logs were gathered
during the dry season or logging season).
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Once the rains came in June, the logs would be slid
down a "chute" (right side of photo) in to the river.
There they would be chained into rafts and floated
down the Macal River into the Belize Old River.
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As the logs neared the Caribbean Sea,
the current of the river would slow.
According to the old lumber jacks,
the breeze would blow so hard up river in the day-time
that the rafts would drift back upstream
unless tied off to the trees on the river's banks.
Then, once the breeze died down at night,
they'd untie the rafts and continue floating
down stream to Burrel Boom.
Burrel Boom is a village still in existence today.
Named after the Burrel Family, there was a huge iron
chain strung across the river to catch the logs.
The logs would be removed from the river at that point
and sawn into lumber and flitches
to be shipped to England!
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