Whats in a Name?

But the city had its more respectable occasions. On February 29, 1852, the railroad company laid the cornerstone of a new passenger station and office building, the first brick structure the island. The ceremony brought railroad officials, members of consular staffs, local businessmen, and others. Among the dignitories were George Law, John L. Stephens - Vice-President of the Panama Railroad, Minor C. Story -a large railroad construction contractor - and a local resident whose name is listed in the record only as R. Webb of Manzanillo Island. During the attendant celebration the town was given a formal name.

Dr. Victoriano de Diego Paredes, a Colombian official recently designated Minister to the United States, made the principal address. The diplomat praised the spirit of Anglo-Latin friendship that was supposedly prevailing in the town and lauded the energy and technical ability of the officials of the railroad company. He prophesied that the town on Manzanillo would become "the commercial emporium of the Americas and perhaps the whole world." Then he proposed that "we call this town 'Aspinwall,' as a slight homage to so respectable a person."

R. Webb accepted the name on behalf of the local citizens, the one recorded event of his life. John L. Stephens, in a brief speech, said, "No name could have been selected more proper, or which would give more general satisfaction." It is not unreasonable to suspect that Stephens had prompted the Colombian diplomat to suggest Aspinwall's name for the town.

Dr. Paredes placed in the cornerstone a copper box containing a document describing the ceremony, a copy of the New York Herald of February 9, 1852, and a coin from each of the following countries: the United States, France, Great Britain and New Granada. The railroad company directors immediately sent out notices to the world that the town on Manzanillo was now formally named Aspinwall. Postal guides were amended; charts were changed by writing in that name, and the matter seemed settled. Then the central government of the Colombian Confederation at Bogota objected. Bogota repudiated Paredes' name suggestion and issued an order naming the town for the original discoverer of Manzanillo, Christopher Columbus. The name of the town was not Aspinwall, said Bogota; the true name of the town was Colón.

The Panama Railroad directors refused to change the name, The company had built the town, they said, and should have the privilege of naming it. Not so, said Bogota. Manzanillo and all of Panama was still under the sovereignty of Colombia. The name of the town was Colón! Latin pride and Yankee stubbornness met head on. "You may call the city what you please," the directors wrote to Bogota, "but we are going to call it Aspinwall and that name will appear on all city buildings, including the railroad station."

Confusion resulted. For years mail came addressed to "Aspinwall," "Colón," "Aspinwall-Colón" or Colón-Aspinwall." The town's name varied widely on maps and charts. The confusion existed until 1890 when the government at Bogota ordered its post office department to return all mail to sender addressed with the name "Aspinwall" on the envelope. Rather than interrupt the flow of the mail, the railroad bowed to the Bogota government and grudgingly accepted the name Colón. Thus it remains to this day.

With the completion of the Pacific railroads in the United States the prosperity of Colón for a time waned. There was still business for the railroad, but the great rush was ended. The eager men hurrying to be early at the place where gold was to be found, and the men who had "made their pile" hastening home to spend it, took the road across the plains. Colón settled down to a period of lethargy for which its people were constitutionally well fitted. Once in a while they were stirred up by reports of the projected Canal, and the annual revolutions - President Roosevelt in a message to Congress noted 53 in 57 years - prevented life from becoming wholly monotonous. But there was no sign of a renewal of the flush times of the gold rush until late in the 70's the French engineers arrived to begin the surveys for the Canal.

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