The Silver Townships- Paraiso, CZ Part II

As we’ve noted, one can trace the origins of many of the Silver Townships from their beginnings during the construction period and Paraiso and its environs is no exception. The Panama railroad crossed from the east to the west bank on a trestle at this point following the left bank of the Rio Grande for the next four miles, the line crossed that river’s principal tributaries – the Pedro Miguel, Caimitillo and Cardenas.

After the Valley of Paraiso there came the broad plain of Corrisal (today called Corozal) and the swamp of Correndeu (today Curundú) – where the peak of Mount Ancon can be seen in the distance and to the left the Cerro de Buccaneros. When the water was let into the “Cut,” (Culebra Cut) a pontoon bridge was used for the trains until the tracks were relocated on the east bank. The Dredging Division headquarters remained in Paraiso until the completion of the town of (new) Gamboa.

In 1904, when the US purchased the French Company’s rights and properties, the Americans arriving in Paraiso found many of the French Company’s buildings and machine shops still usable so they refurbished many of them. The French machine shops were used for light repairs to locomotives and excavators until 1908 when work shifted to Gorgona and Empire. In 1908, as Canal work was reorganized, Paraiso’s shops were abandoned and used mostly for storage, so Paraiso was used primarily as a residential community for employees working on the Pedro Miguel Locks and railroad workers based in Pedro Miguel. During these early days, American (white) locomotive engineers were considered Paraiso’s aristocracy.

Since Paraiso was at the edge of excavation works during this construction period (1904-1914) the area was occasionally subject to landslides. Despite this, however, the town had its own commissary, post office, hospital, church, lodge hall, a public market and even a bandstand.

Paraiso, in fact, played host to two US presidents during the period. President Theodore Roosevelt stopped in Paraiso by rail in 1906 to address the workers and inspect the progress of excavations. In 1910 President William H. Taft, paid the town a visit (one of five visits to the Isthmus) and addressed the workers in Paraiso.

In July 1913, the Dredging Division chose Paraiso as its headquarters, and the town’s machine shops were once again refurbished to repair dredges used to keep the Culebra Cut open. By 1918, the Dredging Division’s workforce was reduced as the danger of land slides had diminished somewhat. Paraiso’s white American work force was moved to the nearby town of Pedro Miguel and Paraiso (Par’iso as the West Indian residents called it) became a completely segregated, “Silver” town. Paraiso’s residential areas were divided into subdivisions named Jamaica Town, Hamilton Hill and Spanish Town.

Quite a few of the West Indian people lived in the surrounding “bush” where they squatted on land and built their own houses with the discarded lumber from crates and dynamite boxes from the construction sites. In fact, recycled tin cans and five gallon cans used for storing salad oil became good roofing and siding material for these new housing units. Many of these “bush” residents worked on the Canal Zone but maintained their homes in the bush. They had all the commissary, clubhouse, and hospital privileges but they maintained a separate lifestyle in their bush homes hunting and planting small truck farms. Deer and saina (wild pigs) were their favorite quarries and many owned packs of hunting dogs for this purpose. These dogs were often fed with the left overs from the military mess halls and were often used by their owners to guide military men who enlisted the West Indians for hunting parties.

In 1936, the Dredging Division was officially moved to the town of Gamboa and Paraiso was abandoned as a Canal Zone settlement. It was fully abandoned in 1938 and became a military post in November 1939. Camp Paraiso became home to troops of the Fifth Infantry, who built barracks, quarters, a post exchange and a movie theater. The post was tasked with defending the Canal, but by 1943 it was closed as a military camp.

This story will continue.