Local history Thread

[d spike]

Carlsen Field was actually the major airfield, not Wallers. This airfield is also supposed to be the largest (at least up until the 80's) in the world. Wallerfield was named after an aircraft (seaplane, I think) captain who kept his crippled plane airborne allowing his crew to bail out. He couldn't bail out in time, went down with his plane.

The chaps who oversaw the "Berlin Airlift" were specifically chosen from fellows who worked in Carlsen Field, due to their juggling the greatest amount of air-traffic in the war.

CF was the only base that had 3 air corps active at the same time: RAF, USAF and US Navy planes.

[d spike]

According to the book "Spanish Trinidad" (history text in the 50's), 4 priests and a friar were killed in Arena by the amerindians. The actual details of the "massacre" are given! After the slaying of the Governor and his men, the folks sat down to decide what to do, as they were quite aware of the Spaniards' habits regarding retaliation. The older heads wanted to go south to escape to the Main, while the younger ones wanted to go north and hide in the amerindian settlements on the North coast. (They knew of the escaped Spaniard who hotfooted back to St. Joseph. This soldier didn't get away clean - he died of an arrow wound afterwards.)

As the text goes, the indians split up. The Spanish soldiers trailed the larger group which were heading south. They caught up with them and slaughtered the lot - a few escaped during the exacting of revenge. This place was called "Big Blood". The Spanish chased the survivors and you can guess the meaning of the site "Little Blood". The Spaniards then took off behind the north-going gang. They cornered them on the cliffs of Galera. Old folks spoke of women flinging their babies and then following them over the edge. You all know the rest.

[d spike]

The American camp in Wallerfield, Fort Read (not Reid), had gateposts at its entrances - they still stand today. Between the two posts at Santa Rosa was a pine tree, which was felled about 10-15 years ago. That pine tree caused a few problems for the GIs who had to patrol the road around Christmas time. (Trinis loved having a real pine xmas tree!)
My grandmother's brothers solved the problem by putting up the car bonnet and peering around under the hood, while 2 brothers were up in the tree, clipping decent sized branches. One xmas, a patrol got suspicious, attempted to start the car (what do you know, it started) and sent the reluctant group on their way - leaving two boys aloft...

[d spike]

Conrad:"The name of many place in the south land were used as posts for trading slaves. For example in Moruga there is 1st Company and 3rd Company. "

This isn't correct.
During the American war for Independence, black slaves were encouraged by the British to fight for the Crown in return for their freedom. When the Brits lost, these free slaves (and now, ex-soldiers) had to be settled somewhere. Where better than the Colonies, and in particular, Trinidad, which though British, had few Britishers? However, they couldn't be settled within macco range of the estates with their slaves - the slaves might get ideas about free black people... So they and their families were shipped and then settled by their companies (hence the names of these villages) quite to hell in the bush. These villages were known for their cleanliness and organization - even though they were positioned far (and in some cases, completely cut off) from previously settled areas. These people were Southern Baptist, and referred to themselves as "Mericans". Two companies didn't make
it - their ship sank. One company's land allotment was so hard to carve out of the jungle, they called it Hard Bargain. Another company REFUSED to settle where they were sent after they saw it, and they returned to PoS. The authorities were very concerned about this (free black people walking around town, what will the local negroes say - or worse - think?) and the ex-soldiers were given a New Grant of land where they then settled.

[Conrad]

Correction noted. Source?

[d spike]

Any good local history book NOT WRITTEN for use in our gov't secondary schools. M. Anthony, G. Besson, the museum, et al

[d spike]

Slaves were sold where they disembarked in PoS

[SmokeyGTi]

[SmokeyGTi]

[SmokeyGTi]

[SmokeyGTi]

Carnival - Late 60's
somehow this guy reminds me of an oompa loompa

[SmokeyGTi]

from an old postcard, caption on the back sates:

"The Usine Ste Madeline, Trinidad, is the largest sugar factory in the British West Indies. In the yard are seen trucks loaded with cane brought in on the estate's own railway system. The Factory makes about 250 tons of sugar a day."




hold this beautiful shot:


pitch lake:

[Greypatch]

Project 1234 ...
A sceret project to increase capacity of the P-a-P Refinery.

[SmokeyGTi]

Postcards - Cocoa Production:
"In the past Cacao was propagated only by seed. During recent years progress has been made by the Trinidad Department of Agriculture in the selection of heavy bearing trees and their propagation by budding. The view shows a four-year-old budded tree on an estate in Trinidad, which has the largest number of budded Cacao trees on any private estate in the world."





"After being picked the Cacao pods are put into heaps in the field where the beans are extracted. They are then sent to the fermentation houses and are subsequently dried."




"After being fermented for about six days the Cacao beans are dried in the sun on large platforms with movable roofs so that they can be protected at night and during rain."




"This view shows the Manager's house on a Cacao Estate adjacent to it the Cacao drying houses, store rooms and cattle pens. The surroundings are often very picturesque especially on Cacao estates in the hills."

[Greypatch]

thanks smokey

[SmokeyGTi]

Red House - Thing looking like new



hol dat patch:
[imghttp:644:1024]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2447/3836291131_a21fb99ce2_b.jpg[/img]



Indo Trini Town!! St. James!!



Village Scene - Notice the houses have a Carat roof!



Custom House - A Steamer!:



Does this road still exist? what does it look like now?

[SmokeyGTi]

Boeing 727-78
New York - John F. Kennedy International (Idlewild) (JFK / KJFK)
USA - New York, December 1965

[SmokeyGTi]

1938:



Charlotte Street, 1956



High Street



Presentation College, San'do

[SmokeyGTi]

Indian arival day 1945: Y de Lima was actually around then




Canning:



Circa 1912

[Greypatch]

somebess photos dey bhai

[.:PROZAC:..]

stop.. cannings.. are they still around?

[cinco]

wow nice pics it is amazing how many "largest this and that in the BWI" were in trinidad.

[nareshseep]

so last year i was working t&tec...and we had a job to do deep in the bush by arena dam.

so we stop by this guy house to ask for directions. So i came out...and saw this blonde haired, blue eyed white man approaching me. d man looking like sting! I fix up my self..and straighten out my english. "good day sir, i'm from t&tec, i just need some directions please" he said "aye whappenin padna...come inside nah"
ah local white..so i find out where i had to go..and i inquired about the area.

well i didnt know arena road was riiiccchh in amerindian history. being a history buff...i spoke at length with him.

So the man said.....his father was a british who owned a cocoa plantation in arena. and when he was a little boy (around 1940-50) there were few houses in the area. the occupants were either white, spanish, or amerindian, or mix up. but they were direct descendants.

so as a little boy, he and his friends used to venture deep into the forest and play..and hunt...until one day they stumbled upon..a amerindian settlement. It was a perfectly preserved settlement with huts, and temples,and artifacts,and tools and alot of stuff. but most amazingly...the place was littered with spanish gold! large thick gold coins, gold crucifixes inlaid with gems, gold chains and rings decorated the place and hung from the huts.

Later he found out that that was a large carib village...and when the spanish explorers came, they attacked the caribs. the caribs greatly outnumbered the spanish, so the caribs killed out most of the spanish..and took all thier possessions. They took all the gold and didnt know the value of it..except that it was shiny..so they decorated their huts and temples with it. Not long after....they all died out..after contracting some strange spanish virus.

So back to boyhood days...one of his friends..told his parents about the gold..and soon a team of parents trekked through the bush..and raided the settlement. they took everything....down to the last fragment of gold in the ground. they dug up around the settlement to see if anything was buried..and soon they destroyed the area.

well this story wowed me...but i still was skeptical..
until he took me to a room...and showed me his glass case.. what i saw had me thinking OH MY FCUKIN GAWD!....

yes...i saw spanish bouillon ....i saw a gem necklace..i saw a large crucifix with the whole thing encrusted with rubies and some green and blue stones. ..i saw thick gold chains..and amerindian pottery and tools. and spears and bows and arrows and bones. look up the arena massacare (1699) in wikipedia. the amerindians. murdered a set of catholic priests.

soo..this has seriously wowed me to the extreme..and...this got me studying the history of trinidad under spanish rule.

did you know...that a spanish ship...carrying spanish treasure...looted from other colonies..sank off the coast of trinidad?
this is what i heard from a spanish guy in arima...his great great great grandfather was returning to spain on that boat..when it sank. spanish officers came and informed his family.
this is part of my personal research right now..and when i'm finished i will publish the report.

boi yuh gone and get this man killed, you should have said said historic artefacts, please edit accordingly.

[silent_riot]

I wish my History classes were like this in secondary school. I would have actually paid attention.
Great thread!

[evo_chic]

f'realzz

[xtech]

they dont teach local history...............we learn about Caribbean history then some spanish, french and english.

The most i learned about local history was in a English Lit... class book

A Brighter Sun

[trinigamer]

1

High Street

You mean Hart Street?

[equipped2ripp]

what about the bucket line from Mayo to Claxton Bay... anybody have pics of that?

[SmokeyGTi]

trinigamer,
oh yeah, Hart street

[InDeForest]

Waaaays, man , this thread is actually depressing me, and I still wonder, how the ASS the british ever handed the keys over to williams.