Faces of Costa Rica

Railroads, Bananas and Minor Keith

New Yorker Minor Cooper Keith arrived in Costa Rica in 1873, joining his three brothers who had a contract with the government to build a railroad between Puerto Limon and San José. The 103 mile railroad would cut through the swampy lowlands of the Caribbean coast and over the central plateau.

What did not at first seem to be a difficult project took 19 years to build and only succeeded because of Keith's perseverence. Four thousand workers, including Keith's brothers, died constructing just 25 miles of tracks. Disease, heavy rains and a lack of labor slowed down the process.

Costa Rica defaulted on the promised loans, and granted Keith ownership of the tracks and 80,000 acres of adjacent land for the renegotiation of loans with British bankers.

Keith turned to cultivating bananas on the land given to him by the Costa Rica and gave the fruit an important place in Costa Rican history. An 1899 merger with the Boston Fruit Company and Keith's companies formed the United Fruit Company. The company controlled 75 percent of banana sales in the United States.

110 thousand bunches of bananas were exported in 1883. Seven years later, exports reached 1.035 million. 1900 saw the number rise to 3.4 million, and 1907 more than ten million.