The Old Ruins of Coamo, a Historical Tribute

I took off on a Saturday with a friend and we drove around Coamo, shooting a few ruins.  I’ve been wanting to do this since I got here.  Alex is featured in a couple shots.

As anyone who has read many of my posts knows, I love shooting the old ruins of Puerto Rico.

Coamo boasts being the 3rd oldest town in PR, dating to 1579 (after San Juan and San German)  so there are remnants of that past, still standing.  It’s hard to drive anywhere on the island and not see the sun bleached, red brick chimneys dotting the countryside.  They all stand several stories tall.  Most are square, a few are round.

Coamo has two and we see them every time we go check the mail.

These are typical of the period, square with walls about 2 feet thick.  They actually have very small fireboxes considering how big they are.  It’s also amazing that they show so little evidence of cracks and fissures considering the number of earthquakes they have endured.

I don’t have an exact date for the chimneys, but sugar, along with cattle, dairy farming, coffee and tobacco were started sometime after 1824.  Coffee eventually replaced cattle ranching until the handoff of PR to the US.

Coamo grew rapidly once the Central Road was finished in 1866.

Another common sight is the way stations or ‘Casas de Caminero’ that pepper the Puerto Rican countryside.  A few of these have been converted into homes, most sit abandoned.  These ‘rest stops’ served road crews who maintained the dirt roads between towns (before the advent of pavement and automobiles). Most traffic between towns was by foot, horse or wagon.

Train service primarily accommodated sugarcane production since passenger tickets were pretty expensive.  The average person could not afford it.  Historical data on these way stations is pretty sparse.  I would welcome any info anyone has on them.

In those early days, Coamo was the administrative district for the south eastern third of the island, as far north as Humacao.

San German managed the Western District and San Juan managed the Northern District.  These three Districts were eventually busted into smaller areas as new towns grew up.  Because of its port, Ponce would come to dominate trade on the south side.

One of Coamo’s claims to fame is its soothing, natural hot springs.  Used by the native population prior to Spain’s appearance in the New World, the springs were visited by Ponce de Leon in his quest for the ‘fountain of youth’. There has been a Hotel Los Baños under numerous management changes serving visitors to the hot springs since at least 1847.  A small portion of the original ruins still survives to this day.  I will be doing an updated post regarding the ‘Coamo Baths’ or Los Baños de Coamo in a future post since it was recently remodeled.

The steel bridge is one of three steel bridges built on concrete piers between 1876 and 1886.  They were originally forged in Paris, disassembled and shipped over by the Spanish.  These bridges predate the Spanish American War.  This one is just outside Coamo on Highway 14, heading out to Aibonito.

The Spanish American War, an Act of Conquest

The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend…

This little war was a turning point in the history of Puerto Rico as well as for Coamo.  The last battle of the war was fought just outside our fair and beautiful town.

It’s worth noting that the Spanish Crown sent 3 of its own Puerto Rican Battalions to protect Santiago, Cuba leaving PR poorly prepared for what was to follow.  The Spanish expected Puerto Rico would fall to the US.

They had been taxing the hell out of them for generations.

Many on the south side of the island had resorted to trade ‘off the books’.  So the local citizens hated Spanish rule and were outright overjoyed by the American presence.  Two prominent Puerto Ricans of the Cuban Revolutionary Party provided vital information about the Spanish presence in PR to the US War Department.

Though the US Navy first tried and failed to enter the Harbor of San Juan, they did succeed in establishing a blockade.

A contingent of US soldiers were taken around to Guanica on the south side of the island to make land fall.  The original plan was to make a landing near Fajardo, but it was deemed too risky.  They knew the Spanish were expecting that.  A small group did land at Fajardo, but that was not part of the main task force.

The initial landing on Guanica of 1,300 began July 25th, 1898 and was lead by Nelson A. Miles.

They met little resistance.  From there, they split up with a contingent heading off towards Mayaguez via San German and the balance of troops marching on to Ponce via Yauco where they faced some Spanish regulars and militia.  Ponce was taken without much resistance either.  The US Army contingent  split again with part heading due north towards Utuado and another heading off to Coamo via Juana Diaz. 

Another contingent of US troops moved on to where a group of Spanish Soldiers who were holed up at the ‘Coamo Baths’.  Subsequent landings took place in Arroyo, Fajardo and Ponce.  Most were met with little resistance.

During the battle for Coamo, the Spanish Army destroyed a bridge over Rio de la Mina to prevent the US Army advancement.  It was later rebuilt by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

That rebuilt bridge still stands today.

We drive over it every time we go into town to check our mail.  In my shots of it, the bridge looks ‘cracked’.  It’s not.  Those are termite tunnels created so they can get around without being eaten by other creatures.  A fairly common sight in PR.

On August 12th, 1898, the US Army attempted to engage the Spanish again, on the Main Road (Highway 14 today) to Aibonito, just outside Coamo.  This road would have taken them into San Juan.  That was known as ‘The Battle of Asomante’.  The next day, word was delivered regarding formal armistice.  They were the last to know of the Paris Treaty and of the Spanish relinquishing Puerto Rico to the United States.

No, not all Puerto Ricans were thrilled with Americans taking over the island but the harsh Spanish taxation of land, produce, income and commerce made the general populace ready for a change… and, no, the U.S. takeover did not resolve all of society’s issues.

I’m glossing over some of the details so if you want to read about the ‘nitty gritty’ parts, here’s a link to the Wikipedia summation.  I spent several hours culling old US newspapers from the days before and just after the formal armistice via the Library of Congress website.  The internet is such a powerful tool!  The papers were full of details about troop movements, what Puerto Rico was like back then and what great potential the island held for the US.

On the humorous side, me First Mate found a story regarding A war correspondent covering the events in and around Coamo.

Seems the reporter  William Harding Davis and a few of his colleagues jumped the gun and rode into Coamo ahead of the US Army troops.  He did not know the army had got hung-up at the bridge I spoke of earlier.  Upon entering town, Davis and his unarmed group were met by the Mayor of Coamo who ‘begged to surrender into his hands the town and the flag of Coamo’.  As the story goes, Davis declared himself  the Military Governor, Mayor and Chief of Police of Coamo, all before General Wilson rode into town 20 minutes later, taking the flag of Coamo from him.    I swear, I don’t make this stuff up!

There is a huge website entirely devoted to the Spanish American War of 1898.  I found it very useful in my research.

I try not to make a moral call and just present the facts.  Those were very different times.

16 larger images may be seen over on our FaceBook page, several of which did not make it into this post.

The Scurvy Dog, Arrg!