Port Kaituma

History

Although Indigenous settlements existed along the Kaituma River for some time, it was only after the discovery of manganese at nearby Matthews Ridge It was officially declared a Port on July 2nd 1960 under the authority of the Governor of then British Guiana. At the time of the manganese mining, Port Kaituma had three separate areas. The mine managers' house and the guest house were in a large clearing separated by a short road through the forest from the main rail-head and manganese loading facility. A longer road led in the opposite direction to the area known as 'Bottom Floor' where the workers lived. The manganese was transported from Matthews Ridge via a railway and then shipped from Port Kaituma to Chaguaramas Bay in Trinidad, from where it was distributed for industrial use with a large proportion going to Stavanger in Norway. The project was operated by subsidiaries of Union Carbide. Two Trinidadian oil tankers, the Ambrosio and the Inverrosa, were converted into manganese carriers as part of this project. They made the trip from Port Kaituma to Chaguaramas on a regular four-day cycle for much of the 1960s. With a displacement of just under 3,000 tonnes, they were originally built in the mid 1920s with a shallow draft to ship oil across shallow sand-bars at the mouth of Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. The ability to slip over sand bars in very shallow water was essential to their being able to get across Waini Bar at the mouth of the Kaituma River. Port Kaituma's significance grew further following the proclamation from the then-President of Guyana, Forbes Burnham, that Guyana should become more self-sufficient by populating the interior of the country. Matthews Ridge was highlighted as a potential new capital city, and within Port Kaituma a large secondary…

Most-observed species

• White-throated Toucan

  Ramphastos tucanus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  12
• Palm Tanager

  Thraupis palmarum (Wied-Neuwied, 1821) · Aves
  12
• Great Kiskadee

  Pitangus sulphuratus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  11
• Silver-beaked Tanager

  Ramphocelus carbo (Pallas, 1764) · Aves
  10
• Red-rumped Cacique

  Cacicus haemorrhous (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  10
• Southern House Wren

  Troglodytes musculus J.F.Naumann, 1823 · Aves
  10
• Blue-gray Tanager

  Thraupis episcopus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  9
• Tropical Kingbird

  Tyrannus melancholicus Vieillot, 1819 · Aves
  9