Albert Kimsey Owen was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, on May 17, 1847. In 1863, Owen moved to Fort Craig, New Mexico, and by 1870 he was working as a surveyor in Chester. In the spring of 1872, he was hired by William S. Rosecrans and William J. Palmer to survey the west coast of Mexico for an extension of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad; it was then that he first reconnoitered the bay of Topolobampo, Sinaloa, Mexico.
Owen immediately realized Topolobampo's commercial potential as a port for the mining regions of northern Mexico, as an outlet for trade with Asia, and as the terminus of a railroad that would connect the eastern seaboard with a southern point on the Pacific coast.
After Palmer and Rosecrans failed to obtain a railroad concession, Owen surveyed and planned a town at Topolobampo harbor and, in 1880, organized a corporation with a group of New England investors called the Texas, Topolobampo and Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company. In 1881, with the help of Porfirio Diaz, he obtained a concession to build the first section of track, to establish a colony and to build a city surrounding the harbor.
Owen's vision for the colony reflected his notion of utopian socialism, which he called "Integral Co-operation," and as chairman of the Credit Foncier Company, the corporate owner of colony lands, he was able to determine much of the character of the community.
Colonists were required to subscribe in writing to the tenets of the company, which espoused eliminating private wealth and the use of money in favor of a system of credits for labor. Eight hours of sleep, eight hours of work and eight hours of culture and entertainment were among the guidelines that attracted colonists.
Moreover, colonists were assured that they would build, operate and own the railroad, telegraphs, banks, water supply, and that they would share equal stakes in all aspects of running the town. All members were seen as equals and had to share equally in working the land and building the colony.
The first twenty-seven colonists arrived on November 10, 1886. Disorganized and without sufficient funding, the colony soon moved thirty miles inland, to the Los Mochis area, to farm more productive land; later, they also rented agricultural lands at La Logia.
The inability to secure a reliable source of water for agriculture and human consumption plagued colonists, and in 1891 colonists began "Los Tastes Ditch" to divert water from the Fuerte River toward Topolobampo Bay. Eventually, silting and low river flows made the canal unreliable. Colonists were also aided by Christian B. Hoffman, who created the Kansas-Sinaloa Investment Company to raise capital.
In the early 1890s, many colonists favored individual land ownership rather than corporate ownership. This dispute divided the community and eventually caused Owen, a supporter of corporate ownership, to leave the colony and abandon his faith in the ideals of "Integral Co-operation." The colony was abandoned by the turn of the century. The land was eventually cultivated by the Sinaloa Sugar Company, owned by Benjamin Johnston. He built a sugar refinery around which the city of Los Mochis has developed.
In 1900, Owen convinced Arthur E. Stilwell and a group of Kansas City bankers to form the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway Company. Work began in 1903, and the line to Topolobampo was in operation by 1909.
Had it not been for mosquitoes, Topolobampo might have become a busy port city. The broad waterfront and land for miles around remained almost uninhabited until the malaria-bearing mosquito was eradicated completely.
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