Hi, I’m Joel Griffett, I’m a writer, historian and speaker born and raised on the north coast of Cornwall. This is my new website to showcase all my research into Richard Trevithick in Latin America.
Since September 2022 I have been going back and forth to Latin America, primarily in search of Richard Trevithick’s lost years, an eleven-year adventure across two continents. To date I have visited Chile, Bolivia, Peru (twice), Colombia, Costa Rica (twice), the USA, Spain and Guatemala in search of archives and adventure.
My first book, ‘Long Road to Nowhere: The Lost Years of Richard Trevithick’ a travelogue detailing my adventures through Chile and Bolivia on the hunt for Trevithick (sort of) and other Cornish miners, was published in June 2024. Unfortunately no more physical copies of this book are available, but you can purchase an eBook version here.
My next book A Torrent of Silver: Richard Trevithick in Peru is wildly different from the first. It is a work of history not travelogue, drawing heavily from Peruvian archival sources now dispersed across the institutions of Peru, Spain and the USA. It will be published in late 2025.
In 2025 I found Trevithick’s lost gold mine in Costa Rica, 200 years after he made the claim to it. A short film about that expedition, made by my friend Ben Sumpter, can be found here.
THE THIRD BOOK
To write the third and final book in this trilogy, I plan on returning to Latin America next year to finish my research and adventures.
First, I will go in search of another lost mine, Trevithick’s lost silver-copper mine somewhere in the province of Cajatambo, Peru.
Second, I will follow his expedition home through Costa Rica and Nicaragua, rafting down the rivers Sarapiqui and San Juan, to the Caribbean coast at San Juan del Norte.
Finally, I will look for his lost diving bell, a contraption he built to salvage treasure from the Pacific and also to fish for pearls from Peru to Panama and in Costa Rica too.
If you would like to book me for a talk or presentation please email me: joelgriffett@gmail.com.