Balsas Valley Navigation and Improvement Company. Documents
Mandeville Special Collections Library
Mandeville Special Collections Library
The UCSD Libraries
9500 Gilman Drive
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, California 92093-0175
Phone: (858) 534-2533
Fax: (858) 534-5950
URL: http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/
Copyright 2005
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Creator:
Balsas Valley Navigation and Improvement Company
Title: Balsas Valley Navigation and Improvement Company. Documents,
Date (inclusive): 1904 - 1932
Extent:
0.20 linear feet
(1 archives box)
Abstract: Documents related to the Balsas Valley Navigation and Improvement Company (Compania de Navegacio y Mejoras del Valle y Rio
Balsas Mexico) that operated a navigation concession on the Balsas River in the Mexican states of Michoacan and Guerrero from
1909 to 1921. The main partners in the company were Luis Terrazas, Jr. and Frank S. Kirkland. Materials include documents
and newspaper clippings related to the company and to other enterprises in northern Mexico. The collection contains some
personal correspondence and items belonging to the company's last proprietor, William C. Ammerman. Also included is a typescript
by N. Johnson entitled "A Study in Mexican Entrepreneurship by Two North Americans in the Early 20th Century: Rio Balsas Company
and Related Enterprises." The material is arranged in four series: 1) BALSAS COMPANY DOCUMENTS, 2) RELATED HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS,
3) MISCELLANEOUS, and 4) ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES.
Repository:
University of California, San Diego. Geisel Library. Mandeville Special Collections Library.
La Jolla, California 92093-0175
Collection number: MSS 0556
Language of Material:
Collection materials in English
Access
Collection is open for research.
Acquisition Information
Not Available
Preferred Citation
Balsas Valley Navigation and Improvement Company. Documents, MSS 0556. Mandeville Special Collections Library, UCSD.
Publication Rights
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Historical Background
The Balsas Valley Navigation and Improvement Company was founded as an outgrowth of a navigation concession granted by the
Mexican government on March 18, 1909. Confirmed by full Congress on April 8, 1909, the contract granted Luis Terrazas, Jr.
and Frank S. Kirkland the rights to navigate the full distance of the Rio Balsas through the states of Michoacan and Guerrero.
Terrazas, the son of the prominent governor of the state of Chihuahua, and Kirkland, an engineer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
formed a partnership that benefited from the political connections of the Mexican national and the technical skill of the
American engineer. Establishing offices in both Chihuahua and Mexico City, the company aimed to become a great trading monopoly
by creating a riverboat-railroad system that would allow the Balsas Valley's great resources of timber, ores, and agriculture
to be removed and transported from the region.
With initial surveys of the valley completed in 1911, the company set up temporary promotional offices in El Paso in order
to attract wealthy investors from the United States. As the primary developer of transportation facilities in the Balsas
Valley region, the company easily commanded the attention of U.S. capitalists eager to export timber from Michoacan. Other
American investors with interests in the region's natural resources were also drawn to the company. In December of 1911,
a group of potential investors embarked on a highly publicized five-month long inspection trip on the Balsas. Mindful of
the region's potential value but wary of immediately investing in a country beset by political and economic unrest, a corporation
headed by one of these investors intended to buy the entire company and acquire the original transportation concession once
peace had been established in the country. Assured by experts on the inspection trip that the river could be made navigable
with the blasting of a few rocks, members of the corporation made capital available that enabled the company to begin work
on clearing the channel. The investment also made it possible for the company to purchase its first steamboat, which was
christened the "Coyuca" after the town of the same name on the upper Balsas.
With the death of Frank S. Kirkland in October of 1912 and the unwelcomed effects of the Mexican Revolution on business in
the region, the company became relatively inactive during the next decade. In his will, Kirkland granted one-fourth of the
company to William C. Ammerman, an American mining engineer who had served as Kirkland's assistant since 1906. Ammerman attempted
to revive interest in the company after Kirkland's death but the country's political situation and the growing number of investors
interested in oil rather than ores frustrated his efforts to acquire the capital needed to continue Kirkland's work. The
company lost its concession through non-compliance and was dismantled in 1921.
Scope and Content of Collection
Documents related to the Balsas Valley Navigation and Improvement Company (Compania de Navegacio y Mejoras del Valle y Rio
Balsas Mexico) that operated a navigation concession on the Balsas River in the Mexican states of Michoacan and Guerrero after
1909. The main partners in the company were Luis Terrazas, Jr. and Frank S. Kirkland. Materials include documents and newspaper
clippings related to the company and documents realted to other enterprises in northern Mexico. The collection contains some
personal correspondence and items belonging to the company's last propietor, William C. Ammerman. Also included is a typescript
by N. Johnson entitled "A Study in Mexican Entrepreneurship by Two North Americans in the Early 20th Century: Rio Balsas Company
and Related Enterprises." The material is arranged in four series: 1) BALSAS COMPANY DOCUMENTS, 2) RELATED HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS,
3) MISCELLANEOUS, and 4) ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES. The material in each series is arranged chronologically.
SERIES 1: BALSAS COMPANY DOCUMENTS
The BALSAS COMPANY DOCUMENTS series provides evidence of the company's operations during its twelve-year history. The first
inspection report by Terrazas and Kirkland provides a description of the region and offers a preview of the company's plans.
A folder of materials related to the inspection trip by investors in 1911 includes newspaper clippings, correspondence, and
expense reports that detail the five-month long tour. A piece of company letterhead included in the collection contains an
illustration of the Coyuca, the first steamboat purchased by the Balsas Company. Correspondence within the series contains
discussions of financial matters with investors. Frank S. Kirkland's last will and testament offers a summary of the company's
finances in addition to granting one-fourth of the company to his assistant, William C. Ammerman. Ammerman's 1921 report
on the region serves as a comprehensive account of the geography of the region, the company's history, and Ammerman's own
experiences in the Balsas between 1906 and 1921.
SERIES 2: RELATED HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
The RELATED HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS series gathers material found in the collection that lacks evidence of a direct link to the
operations of the Balsas Company but retains a connection to the history of entrepreneurship in northern Mexico. Possibly
predating the formation of the Balsas Company, several documents detail timber, mining, and agricultural enterprises in northern
Mexico. Newspaper clippings spanning the period of the company's operation continue chronicling the exploitation of natural
resources in the country. After the Balsas Company's dissolution in 1921, William C. Ammerman took an interest in the harvesting
of candelilla wax in Texas and northern Mexico as a possible business endeavor. Included in the collection are two articles
on the processing and uses of the wax as well as Ammerman's proposal to potential investors.
SERIES 3: MISCELLANEOUS
The MISCELLANEOUS series contains a map of Mexico, an unidentified photograph from the Mexican Revolution, a subject file,
and a typescript related to the history of the Balsas Company. The subject file gathers personal correspondence and items
belonging to William C. Ammerman, the company's last director. A typescript of N. Johnson's study of the Balsas Company offers
a history of the company's operations based upon primary sources found in this collection, published secondary sources, and
an oral account by the author's grandfather, who counted himself as a friend of Kirkland and Ammerman.
SERIES 4: ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES
The ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES series contains brittle newspaper clippings that have been photocopied.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Ammerman, William C
Kirkland, Frank S
Terrazas, Luis
Balsas Valley Navigation and Improvement Company -- Archives
Americans -- Mexico.
Investments, American -- Mexico -- History
Mexico -- History -- 1910-1946
Michoacán de Ocampo (Mexico) -- History
Guerrero (Mexico : State) -- History
Contributors
Johnson, N. -- Study in Mexican entrepreneurship by two North Americans in the early 20th century
box 1, folder 1
Report on the Balsas River Valley in Mexico by Luis Terrazas, Jr. and Frank S. Kirkland
1909
box 1, folder 2
Trip on the Balsas River, from Balsas Station downstream
1911 - 1912
box 1, folder 3, oversize MC14906
Kirkland, Frank S. to attorney Harris Walthall
1911
Note
Letter, includes blueprints of two boat designs.
box 1, folder 4
Company letterhead
1912
Note
Contains image of the steamboat Coyuca.
box 1, folder 5
Evans, Frank H. to Frank S. Kirkland
1912
box 1, folder 6
Last will and testament of Frank S. Kirkland
1912
box 1, folder 7
Hampson, T.L. to William C. Ammerman
1920 - 1921
box 1, folder 8
Report of the Rio Balsas covered by the transportation concession of F.S. Kirkland and Luis Terrazas, Jr.
1921
Note
By William C. Ammerman.
RELATED HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
box 1, folder 9
Timber Lands owned by the Asunsulo Estate and Banco de Londres y Mexico
box 1, folder 11
Informe Relative a las Minas LA ZARABANDA, EL REFUGIO, LA ESCONDIDA Y AMPLICACION
box 1, folder 12
One Million, Sixty Five Thousand Acres of Land in State of Coahuila, Mexico
box 1, folder 12
Report on Stock Ranch in State of Coahuila, Mexico
box 1, folder 13
Miscellaneous newspaper articles
1910 - 1923
box 1, folder 14
Candelilla wax
1921 - 1925
box 1, folder 16, oversize MC14906
Map of Mexico
1904
Note
Published by Rand-McNally, includes railroads.
box 1, folder 17
Ammerman, William C.
1906 - 1932
box 1, folder 18, oversize MC14906
Photograph of Mexican revolutionary soliders loading horses into railroad car
box 1, folder 19
Johnson, N. "A Study in Mexican Entrepreneurship by Two North Americans in the Early 20th Century..."
1980
ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES
box 1, folder 20
Originals of Preservation Photocopies
