The records of the Nicaragua Canal Construction Company span the years 1887-1913, with the bulk of the material dated 1887-1888. The company, a commercial, non-governmental enterprise, was formed in 1886 with the intention of constructing a trans-Isthmian canal across Central America. Hydrographic and topographic survey teams were organized and dispatched to Nicaragua, where they investigated the routes of waterways, charted depths, and measured tidal influences. These records consist primarily of survey notes taken during these expeditions. The notebooks detail the teams’ findings concerning the rivers Brito, Colorado, Deseado, Indio, Las Lajas, San Carlos, San Francisco, San Juanillo, and Tauro. Soundings were also taken at Greytown and the Tamborcito basin.

Geographic place names have changed since the 1880s and several of the place names used by the survey teams to label their notebooks are no longer used. This finding aid lists the place names as used by the survey teams, not their modern equivalents. Greytown is now San Juan del Norte. The Tamborcito basin is now the Isla de la California. The rivers, or rios, Deseado, San Juanillo and San Francisco are now called creeks, or caños; the Deseado is now El Deseado. The Rio Tauro listed by the survey teams may refer to the modern Rio de la Tawa (also called Tagua); the river or area labeled “Ochoa” is unknown. *

These records also include issues of the Canal Record , a newspaper published by the American administration of the Panama Canal Zone, for 1911-1913. There appears to be no connection between the Canal Record and the proposed Nicaragua canal or Nicaragua Canal Construction Company.

*Information concerning place names is taken from the findings of the United States Board on Geographic Names as published in the Gazetteer of Nicaragua (Washington: Defense Mapping Agency, 1985).