Minor Cooper Keith (1848-1929) was an American railroad and banana entrepreneur. He built a railroad from the Costa Rican Atlantic coast into the interior and developed bananas as one of the country's cash crops.

Minor Cooper Keith was one of the extraordinary men of both Costa Rican and railroading history. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Jan. 19, 1848, soon after his twentieth birthday he was living in Costa Rica, where he spent the next 30 years building railroads and laying the foundations for what eventually became the United Fruit Company, one of America's great overseas private enterprises.

Building a Railroad

Though only 5 feet 5 inches tall and 140 pounds, Keith made up in energy and courage what he lacked in size. Before going to Costa Rica, he single-handedly started the cattle industry on Padre Island, on the Texas coastline. Simultaneously, his older brother Henry had won a contract to build a railway...