The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut
"The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut" is a 2001 Disney comics story by Don Rosa. Rosa intended it as an "in-between" story to accompany his anthology The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, happening chronologically between chapter 10: "The Invader of Fort Duckburg" and chapter 11: "The Empire-Builder from Calisota". The story is set in 1906.
| "The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut" | |
|---|---|
| Story code | F PM 01201 |
| Story | Don Rosa |
| Ink | Don Rosa |
| Hero | Scrooge McDuck |
| Pages | 26 |
| Layout | 4 rows per page |
| Appearances | Scrooge McDuck Hortense McDuck Matilda McDuck Theodore Roosevelt (historical) Chief Parita (historical) Donald Duck Huey, Dewey, and Louie |
| First publication | 2001 |
The story was first published in the French Uncle Picsou #349; the first American publication was in Uncle Scrooge #332, in August 2004.
Plot
Scrooge McDuck, along with his sisters Hortense McDuck and Matilda McDuck, are mining for gold in Panama, which has just recently separated from Colombia and become independent. At the same time, the construction of the Panama Canal is underway as a joint operation between Panama and the United States, and President Theodore Roosevelt has personally come to inspect the construction of the Culebra Cut. Scrooge has legal claim to a mountain which stands in the way of the canal, so Roosevelt wants to come into agreement with him so that he can give the mountain to the United States and the construction of the canal can proceed.
Roosevelt makes a secret personal deal with Scrooge: he will help Scrooge mine gold faster, so that when his mining has been completed, he can give the mountain away to the United States. To this end, Roosevelt and Scrooge steal an excavator, with which Scrooge can mine a lot faster than with his old pickaxe. The excavator goes out of control, so Roosevelt and Scrooge end up in the lands of the Guyami Indians. Chief Parita, the leader of the Guyami, doesn't trust Scrooge, so Roosevelt makes an agreement with him instead. The Guyami chief is instantly impressed by a visit from "the Chief of the United States", and entrusts Roosevelt with the location of "Gold Hill". Roosevelt and Scrooge start mining gold with the excavator, but the mountain collapses from the strain, revealing an ancient pre-Columbian giant jaguar sculpture full of magnificent riches.
Scrooge wants to claim all this to himself, while Roosevelt wants to preserve the riches in a museum. They start a fight, but this is cut short when the sculpture becomes loose and falls off the mountain. In Roosevelt's absence, distrust has broken out between the United States and Panama, and a war is about to start. However, the sculpture arrives right into the scene and a war is avoided. As thanks for avoiding a war with Panama, Roosevelt agrees to give Scrooge whatever he wants. Unfortunately, Scrooge passes out from accidentally drinking chicha instead of brandy, so Hortense and Matilda choose for him instead: a teddy bear, which they had seen earlier and thought was cute, and see as an appropriate snub to their brother's worsening greed.
Decades after, in the present day, Scrooge rues his possession of the teddy bear as a memento of "the worst deal I ever made", but when his three grandnephews tell him that Roosevelt's teddy bear is the first of its kind in the world, Scrooge jumps at the chance at putting it in a museum and earning huge profits from entrance fees.
Notes
This is one of Rosa's most historically accurate stories.
- Theodore Roosevelt and Chief Parita of the Guyami are real historical people. Another historical person appearing in the story is General Esteban Huertas, but Rosa needed him to be a villain rather than a hero, so he chose to use his character as a different person, just named "General Esteban".
- The teddy bear was indeed named for Roosevelt, and the first of its kind was sent to him in response to a 1902 political cartoon lampooning his refusal to shoot an American black bear that had already been captured and tied up before he arrived. A toymaker created a stuffed animal and sold it under the name "Teddy's bear", after receiving Roosevelt's permission to use his name.