Santa Cruz de Cana
Santa Cruz de Cana, popularly called Cana today, is the site of a former gold mine, and fort and village, founded by Spaniards, located in Darién Province, Panama. Now located within Darién National Park, the site is best known today for bird-watching.
Santa Cruz de Cana | |
|---|---|
Former populated place/gold mine | |
 1785 map excerpt of Darién Province includes location of "Sa. Cruz de Cana" | |
| Country |  Panama |
| Province | Darién |
| Time zone | UTC−5 (EST) |
| Climate | Am |
History
The Spaniards were engaged in very active mining activity at Cana (the mine being called "Espíritu Santo de Cana") during the mid-17th century--with reports that mining began in 1665--and it was the most important gold mine in Panama. The mine was subject to raids by English pirates a number of times in the early 1700s. Nathaniel Davis wrote that at the time of the 1702 raid, the town had around 900 houses and a church. The mine was abandoned after a shaft collapse that killed two miners in 1727, in addition to attacks from pirate and Indigenous peoples.[1] The site became uninhabited by the mid-19th century[2]
Attempts to resume mining returned in the late 1800s. In the early 1900s, a single-gage railway ran from the mines to the town of Boca de Cupe, where the Tuira River was navigable, to support renewed mining activity.[3] It ceased operating in 1911. The rail course is now a "mine trail" between the two locations.[4][5]
Today
Now located within Darién National Park, it is known for bird-watching, despite its very remote location.[6]
References
- Redwood, Stewart D. The history of mining and mineral exploration in Panama: From Pre-Columbian gold mining to modern copper mining, Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana, vol. 72, no. 3, 00012, 202 (2020)
- Extracts from a Paper on the Isthmus of Darien (May 12, 1856)
- Karsten, Matthew (17 September 2019). The Day I Was Kicked Out of a Panamanian Village, Expert Vagabond
- (25 December 1926). Gold Areas of the Province of Panama, in Engineering and Mining Journal, p. 1027
- Woakes, Ernest R. Modern Gold-Mining in the Darien. Notes on the Re-Opening of the Espiritu Santo Mine at Cana (1899)
- Fairchild, Graham B. and Charles O. Handley Jr. Gazetteer of Collecting Localities in Panama (1966), p. 17 ("Cana (=Santa Cruz de Cana, 7 47'N-77 42'W (near Rio Setegani-46), 1800-3500 feet")(This source merely provides the coordinates of the site)
