The Juragua Iron Company was the first American company to become interested in mining iron ore in Cuba. Originally the company’s capital stock was controlled by the Bethlehem Iron Company, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Steel Company of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The company’s business office was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a manufacturing plant was located in Titusville, Pennsylvania. In Cuba, the company’s mines were all located in the Province of Santiago de Cuba, the most healthful section of the island of Cuba with excellent access to the sea coast. Although the climate is hot, there are no areas of tropical fevers or malaria. The mines were located at altitudes of 200 to 1,500 feet above sea level. In the early 1880s the company began building a mine complex including a railroad from the iron mines in the Sierra Maestre Mountains in southeast Cuba to the harbor at Santiago, approximately 15 miles apart. In 1884 the company began shipping high grade hematite iron ore from its Firmeza mine in Cuba to the Bethlehem Iron Company. The company had a total of 17 mines in Cuba. Juragua was the most productive of the three American iron mining companies operating in Cuba. The mining operation was quarry open pit style. Around 1894, Juragua Iron Company became a subsidiary of the Bethlehem Steel Company. Juragua continued mining operations during the Spanish-American War. During the war the company buildings in the village of Siboney were burned by U.S. army officers on the pretext of combating yellow fever. As a result of this destruction of its property, Juragua sued the United States in 1909 to recover damages. A. W. Gaumer, for whom this presentation copy was prepared, graduated from Lehigh University in 1906 in with a degree in civil engineering. He began working for the Juragua Iron Company in 1907 as an assistant engineer in charge of construction and design. He married Sara M. Stadon in 1909 who accompanied him to Cuba. From 1910 to 1918 he advanced to the position of chief engineer and general superintendent of mines. Other Lehigh alumni involved with the Juragua Iron Company were Charles Austin Buck (1887) as president and Archibald Johnston (1889) (see SC M0137) as second vice president. References:Industrial Cuba, by Robert P. Porter, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1899, p. 319 – 325, reprinted by Arno Press, New York Times Company, 1976. “Interests near Santiago,” editorial, New York Times, July 18, 1898, p. 6. Iron Ores, by Edwin C. Eckel, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1914, p. 292-293. Who’s Who in Engineering, 1922-23, Volume 1, by John William Leonard, editor; John W. Leonard Corporation, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1922, p. 484.