Topolobampo Collection

Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library

Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego

9500 Gilman Drive

La Jolla 92093-0175

Business Number: 858-534-2533

Fax Number: 858-534-5950

spcoll@ucsd.edu

URL: http://libraries.ucsd.edu/collections/sca/index.html

Descriptive Summary

Contributing Institution: Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego

9500 Gilman Drive

La Jolla 92093-0175

Title: Topolobampo Collection

Creator: Owen, Albert Kimsey

Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0106

Physical Description: 2.3 Linear feet (4 archive boxes and 8 oversize folders)

Date (inclusive): 1872-1910

Abstract: The Topolobampo Collection contains Albert Kimsey Owen's business records and promotional materials related to the colony and railroad enterprise established on Topolobampo Bay, Sinaloa, Mexico between 1872 and 1910. Materials include business correspondence, writings by Owen, legal documents, descriptions of corporate entities, promotional materials, images of the colony, maps, and plans of Pacific City. Prominent correspondents include C.B. Hoffman, John W. Lovell, J.H. Rice, and Arthur E. Stilwell. Corporations represented in the collection include the Credit Foncier Company; the Texas, Topolobampo and Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company; the Mexican Western Railroad; and the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway Company. Materials that describe day-to-day life in the colony are not represented in the collection.

Languages: English .

Scope and Content of Collection

The Topolobampo Collection contains Albert K. Owen's business records related to the promotion and development of the land, railroad and community at the bay of Topolobampo, Sinaloa, Mexico, between 1872 and 1910. It provides a unique example of foreign capitalist development and colonization in late nineteenth-century Mexico. The collection contains correspondence, writings, legal documents, notes, published articles, maps, and plans that document the origins of Topolobampo, the ideas associated with the formation of the colony and highlight the ensuing legal and social problems that plagued the community. Materials that describe day-to-day life in the colony are not represented in the collection.

Arranged in four series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, 2) WRITINGS BY OWEN, 3) SUBJECT MATERIALS, and 4) MAPS AND PLANS.

Historical Background

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 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." Subsequently, he engaged Joseph Hampl as his agent in Topolobampo. 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. The colony was abandoned by the turn of the century.

Digital Content

A selection of material from this collection has been digitized.

Items available online

Publication Rights

Digital copies of this material are intended to support research, teaching, and private study. This work may be used without prior permission. The original manuscripts for this collection are held by Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library.

Preferred Citation

Topolobampo Collection, MSS 106. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library.

Acquisition Information

Acquired 1975.

Related Materials

Topolobampo Collection, 1836-1979. MSS-1002. Special Collections Research Center. Fresno State Library.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Railroads -- Mexico

Mexico -- History -- 1867-1910

Topolobampo (Mexico) -- History

Real estate development -- Mexico -- Topolobampo

Utopias -- Mexico -- Topolobampo

Utopias -- History -- 19th century

Utopian socialism

Railroads -- Mexico -- Maps

Texas, Topolobampo and Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company

Stilwell, Arthur Edward, 1861-1928 -- Correspondence

Rice, J. H. -- Correspondence

Mexican Western Railroad Company

Lowell, John W. -- Correspondence

Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway Company

Hoffman, C. B. (Christian Balzac), 1851-1915 -- Correspondence

Díaz, Porfirio, 1830-1915

Credit Foncier Company

Owen, Albert Kimsey -- Archives

CORRESPONDENCE

Scope and Content of Series

Series 1) CORRESPONDENCE: The series begins with a chronological list of correspondents in the collection. The series contains letters to and from Owen, as well as business letters between individuals who played prominent or peripheral roles in the development of Topolobampo. Significant correspondents include John W. Lovell, C. B. Hoffman, J. H. Rice, and Arthur E. Stilwell. Also included are five letters addressed to Mexican President Porfirio Diaz, and Diaz's response to the "intrigues" (legal disputes over land ownership) taking place in the colony (March 3, 1894).

The contents of Owen's letters range from his personal reasons for creating the colony (January 22, 1890) to allusions to the lawsuit and land disputes that took place in the 1890s. Early letters describe Topolobampo as a business and commercial venture. Later, more voluminous correspondence is preoccupied with the future of the community and the mundane problems of water, food supply and ownership disputes that ailed the community.

Box 1, Folder 1

Chronological list of correspondents

Chronological list of correspondents