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During the colonial era, the sea-salt mines fueled the economic development of the region due to the importance of the sea driven commerce. For this reason, the people from Altamira requested to the Gral. Antonio López de Santa Anna (then Mexico’s President) permission to establish a new city on the left margin of the Pánuco River. Thus, on April 12th, 1823 a group of pioneers founded the modern Tampico or Santa Anna de Tampico.
Since 1824, when Tampico was granted the classification of seaport, a new era was open for this city and Mexico, due to the great commercial activity that is generated with the maritime commerce and the inflow and outflow of merchandise. The first ships to arrive at Tampico were the sail ships Elisa and Francisca and a third one which name is unknown at present time. Since then, the port has received numerous merchandise and products mainly, silver and other minerals which were exported to New Orleans and England. Tampico was inhabited then by a cosmopolitan community, here you could find perfumes and all up to date products, silk, porcelain, etc., having the English and Spaniards the control of the commerce flow. Many important personalities from all over the world paid a visit to Tampico. There was also the constant visit from artist and writers like Bruno Traven that names our City in one of his books, “El Tesoro de la Sierra Madre”. On November 14th, 1840, it is incorporated the first Sociedad de Beneficencia Española de Mexico where support, orientation and help as well as medical attention was given to the Spanish residents within the region. In 1871, the Droguería y Farmacias El Fénix was founded by Don Felipe González García, and became the oldest pharmacy of Mexico. In 1891, the first power plant to generate electric energy was installed, it was a small steam powered plant that was used to service near 8,000 inhabitants as well as industries and commerce establishments recently incorporated by foreigners. In 1895, Tampico, with only 12,000 inhabitants was the commercial and industrial center of most importance in the State of Tamaulipas.
It is with Don Porfirio Díaz, then President of Mexico, when Tampico reaches its maximum growth. After the burning of the first building of the Aduana de Tampico (Maritime Custom Offices), Díaz decided to build a new one as well as port installations on the northern side of the Pánuco River. To work on this enterprise, numerous technicians from Europe came to Tampico and after several months of research, concluded on the best site to build the new port. As per several historians, the technicians determined that this port should be built on the southern side of the river, belonging to the State of Veracruz due to the sediments and other particles that the Pánuco River brought within its currents and that were being deposited on the northern side of the river. However, Mrs. Carmen Rubio, the second wife of Don Porfirio Díaz, who was born in Tamaulipas, convinced Don Porfírio to build the port on the Tampico’s side of the river. The construction started at the end of the XIX Century, beginning with the foundation on the river bed of enormous structures to sustain the landing installations, for this purpose, lifting equipment was purchased and later used for the loading and unloading of merchant ships. The entrance of the river from the Gulf of Mexico was also deepened to allow access for big tonnage ships. The new building for the Custom Offices was ordered by catalog from Europe by Don Porfírio Díaz himself and arrived by ship to Tampico. Its construction started in 1896 with an initial cost of $1,850,000.00 pesos in gold. In January of 1899, Don Porfirio Díaz inaugurated himself this building and the rest of the port installations. The technicians that built the port installations, also discovered several traces of oil in the land where all the research was conducted for the construction of the port, this was a key factor for considering the existence of oil fields in the region. In 1899, Edward Doheney and his partner, C.A. Canfield, both oil producers in California, made a visual inspection of the oil traces found around the railroad stations of Ébano and Chijol, in the neighboring State of San Luis Potosí. In May 1900, they incorporated the Mexican Petroleum Company of California, starting drilling wells in May 1901, however, without obtaining satisfactory results. At the end of 1903, they consulted with Ing. Ezequiel Ordóñez, a Mexican geologist of great prestige who recommended the drilling of a bigger well that was named La Paz No. 1. This well was completed on April 3, 1904 with a daily production of 1,500 barrels. With a depth of 50 meters, this was the first commercial oil well in Mexico. These success stories continued and attracted other companies. A British company, property of Sir Weetman Pearson arrived to the region and after several tries, it drilled on May 1908 the Well No. 2 at the Hacienda San Diego del Mar with a daily production of 2,500 barrels. With this, the discovery of oil rich fields zone known as Faja de Oro. The foreign companies continued operating and in 1910 arrived to Tampico the Standard Oil Company and the Royal Dutch Shell, the latter belonging to Dutch and British shareholders among others. In 1902, the Compañía de Ferrocarriles Eléctricos de Tampico, S.A. (a cable car company) was incorporated. This company generated electricity for its own cable cars from a Steam plant. The local industrial and homeowners closed a deal with a German company, the American & Foreign Power Company for the installation of a modern electric generator to improve the service for all inhabitants. From this German company the affiliated company Eléctrica de Tampico, S.A. was formed.
In 1917 is founded one of the educational institutes that has had a profound impact in our region, the American School of Tampico, it was incorporated as a non-profit organization for the co-education by a group of foreigners that worked for the petroleum industry; with the objective to offer their sons a school that conformed to the United States standards. This institute was kept open after the Mexican Oil Expropiation and has since then offered the option for a fully bilingual to the local community. With the oil refining and export of petroleum products, Tampico reached a great economic importance in Mexico, due to this the importance of good communication lines between Tampico and Mexico City was required. It is here, where in 1921 the first commercial flight in Mexico and all of North America takes place; when the pilot C.V. Pickup and his passenger Humberto Juárez aboard a Lincoln Standard plane flew from Mexico City to Tampico. Its cargo included a mailbag for this City and Tuxpam (First air mail in North America), as well as newspapers that were to be sold the same date of issue. In 1924, William L. Mallory got the franchise for the Mexico City-Tampico air route, the most sought after due to the oil boom in the region. The route Tuxpam-Tampico with only 158 Km distance, was fully loaded with gold coin bags with a fast and safe way. On August 20th, 1924, the Compania Mexicana de Aviacion (a.k.a. Mexicana) was founded by the American banker, George L. Rihl and five years later, Col. Charles A. Lindbergh visited Tampico with the purpose of incorporate the route from Mexico City to Brownsville, He was accompanied by the then American Ambassador to Mexico. During the 1920s, lots of new businesses started operating in Tampico and the architecture style of the new buildings made Tampico the surname of “The Mexican New Orleans”. Thanks to a great vision of Mr. H.H. Fleishman, son of Mr. Leo Fleishman, who in 1912 founded a soft drinks factory named “La Pureza”, in 1926 it was produced for the first time in Mexico, the first Coca Cola soft drink, becoming Tampico and the Fleishman family the pioneers of the soft drink industry in Mexico. Beginning 1925, Tampico was granted the domestic long distance telephone service and in 1927 it was expanded to United States and Canada. In 1928, Tampico was included among the six cities that were able to have trans-oceanic telephone communication being able to reach England, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Sweden and Denmark, and a few months later Spain was included in the list. During this time, Tampico had two electric power generating plants plus a third one that was used to power the cable cars. After all the economic growth, these sources were insufficient to meet the demand from the oil companies, thus, a the beginning of the 1930s, the State Government started a project for the construction of a new electric power plant on the skirts of the Andonegui hilltop. The construction of this plant was a key factor for the development of Tampico due to its higher capacity and its steam turbines. Its administration was given to the Compañía Eléctrica de Tampico, S.A. All three power plants were interconnected and a major part of the City could count on electricity to illuminate its streets, the oil industry benefited also from these improvements and continued its expansion. In 1937, the CFE (Government Utility Company) was incorporated and new projects were implemented at the beginning of the 1940s. The oil boom continued at an irrational form through all Mexico, these concluded with the nationalization of the Mexican oil, given birth to the state oil monopoly, Petróleos Mexicanos, that since its inception, created several geographic zones to manage its new assets with the help of Mexican technicians.
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Articles from our 14th Edition Tampico, victim of Pirates, Bucaneers, and Privateers
León Trotsky in Tampico
New Street Names
Tampico Wakeboard City
Tajín Summit
Convention Center
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