The origin of the name 'Rio Cobre' remains a topic of debate among historians and researchers. While some suggest the Spanish word cobre, meaning 'copper', reflects the river’s often muddy hue, others argue the name may have evolved from 'cobra', implying 'Snake River'. Noted historian Frank Cundall leaned toward the latters, while authors Philip Wright and Paul F. White pointed out the absence of the name on Spanish maps, proposing that English settlers may have adopted the name based on local traditions of copper deposits

Published Thursday, June, 1974

Jamaica Places: The historic Rio Cobre

By Alex D. Hawkes

The Rio Cobre extends from headwaters above Ewarton to Hunt’s Bay, near Kingston. Along this lengthy course, it is variously a rushing, usually crystalline river near Bog Walk and the Flat Bridge, to a customarily muddy, shallow stream, as seen in this photograph.
At Spanish Town, and further downstream, the river is busy with washerwomen and, increasingly of late, nude bathers — especially males — who seem to cause some consternation among tourists and the local gendarmes.
The river empties into polluted, dying Hunt’s Bay near the site of Passage Fort, long an extremely important place in our history, but now essentially a non-entity. Below the Flat Bridge, which can be so treacherous, the river is usually a broad, handsome stream, with luxuriant tropical foliage on both banks, and, I’m told, some rather good fishing as well. Not far downstream is a considerable dam, while upstream from the bridge is an abandoned hydroelectric station, formerly harnessing the power of the rushing waters.
The Rio Cobre gorge, between the Flat Bridge and Bog Walk, is fascinating, with giant wild rubber trees clinging like some sort of octopus to the rocks, while orchids and bromeliads abound in the towering trees. On the sheer cliffs are perched, somehow clinging tenaciously to next to nothing, myriad skinny thatch palms, with here and there a handsome Cecropia topped with its great lobed, silvery leaves. The railroad goes through a series of tunnels here, and the views from the train were, to say the least, absolutely spectacular!
Interesting
The name of the river is an interesting one. In Spanish, cobre means 'copper', and it has been suggested that because of the often muddy appearance of the water, this is the derivation of the name. The late Frank Cundall, who did a great deal of research into the origins of Jamaican place names, suggested that the operative word was 'cobra', not cobre at all — hence 'Snake River'! Philip Wright and Paul F. White, in their Exploring Jamaica, point out that “the name Rio Cobre, copper river, is not used on Spanish maps,” and that “possibly a tradition that copper deposits had been found on its banks in Spanish time led to its adoption by the English”.
Just upstream from the modern, tall bridge across the river at the entry to Spanish Town is the handsome old cast-iron bridge, which, according to Clinton V. Black in his book Jamaica Guide, was imported from England and erected between 1801–2. It “has now been retired from heavy use and is the oldest bridge of its kind in the Western Hemisphere”.
A fascinating river, this Rio Cobre of ours—one of historic importance, and of more than passing contemporary interest as well!

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