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Very early engraving of Gatun Station, Railroad days.
- Early Gamboa.
Gamboa Commissary.
Images: Top: Gatun Station around 1851
Middle: Early photo of Gamboa (circ. 1930)
Bottom: Gamboa Commissary as it stands today
even after the reversion of the Panama Canal.
Gatun is a small town on the Atlantic Side of the Panama Canal, located south of the city of Colon at the point in which Gatun Lake meets the channel to the Caribbean Sea. Best known as the site of the Panama Canal’s Gatun Locks and Gatun Dam, built by the United States between 1906-1914, it, as with many of the former Canal Zone towns had segregated facilities for the “Silver” or “local rate” employees. The same may be said of Silver Santa Cruz which was next to Gamboa.
The town of Gatun (El Gatún in Spanish) went through the usual periods of boom and calm as many of the other towns bordering on the canal sites but it was not until the U.S. construction era that significant changes came to the sleepy Spanish town. The original plan for Gatun, even during the French building days, was to dam the Chagres River at Bohío, 17 miles from Colón. However, Chief Engineer John F. Stevens advocated harnessing the Chagres and installing the Atlantic side locks at Gatún, and work began on both of these in 1906.
The new American town of Gatun started originally as a tent city. A plank road was installed and by June 1907, 97 buildings were built and work on a commissary was started. In April 1908, the old native village and its inhabitants were moved to an area called “New Town,” east of the present town of Gatun. It consisted of over 110 buildings, including a church and about 25 stores. A little later, Lt. Col. William L. Sibert established the headquarters of the Canal organization’s Atlantic Division in Gatun and built his house to the east of the town.
After the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914, the Canal Zone’s population was expected to decrease sharply. During the early 1920s, there was some talk of abandoning Gatun altogether, but in view of the fact that laborers would be needed for the vital maintenance of the locks and dam operations in 1928 new quarters were built for 164 “local-rate” families. In 1932, plans to replace most of Gatun’s old housing were approved and grading for the $1,250,000 project began on January 31, 1934. Buildings were demolished to make way for more permanent wood and masonry buildings.
During the war, the Gatun Locks were surrounded by solid 26-foot corrugated metal steel fences and barrage balloons were anchored overhead. The entire area was prepared and protected against any possibility of attack. By 1944, as the war receded to the Pacific, Gatun and the Canal Zone returned to its usual way of life.
Very little is documented about the Silver portion of Gatun except that, along with a “U.S.-rate” commissary and post office, a local-rate commissary and clubhouse was also built in the segregated portion of Gatun known as Chagres. Recalling that in such isolated, work camp type surroundings as existed in the Canal Zone of this period, clubhouses were very important as well as the commissaries which provided Silver families with a continuous and affordable supply of groceries and household goods.
Gamboa is the Spanish name of a fruit tree of the quince family. As for the “local-rate” section called Silver Santa Cruz from which it originated very little is documented except for the recollections of some of its former inhabitants. It was another base camp whose outstanding feature was a bridge across the Chagres River and the dredging division activity conducted there. We will re-post here a comment from one of our readers who was a resident of Silver Santa Cruz at one time. His impressions of this town, although brief, are poignant nevertheless:
“I lived in all of the Silver communities in existence during my growing years starting with Silver City which became Rainbow City (I look forward to your entry on this name change). It was, however, when we moved to the Silver Santa Cruz next to Gamboa that I saw segregation vs isolation. The commissary was split in two and a road divided white from black. Not being around whites until then, a friend grabbed me when he saw me staring at a white kid and scolded “never do that again! Anonymous.”
This story continues.
That is a good comment!
I will see if you answer my questions in the next one!
I have one question though.
Am I right or wrong?
The original towns seem to be built as homes for workers that build or work at different parts of the canal. Other words, This town, Gatun was built for a specific purpose. “The original plan for Gatun, even during the French building days, was to dam the Chagres River at Bohío”
So all the towns basically started out as just a place for workers to sleep and eat! Was there criteria to where they started the establishments?
Opps that is two questions?
Kyle
Your question is two pronged. Yes, these work sites were originally intended to be work camps or locations for workers and/or equipment, shops, etc. Most of them, however, especially places like Paraiso, Gamboa, Gatún,Colon, etc., were already established town sites from Spanish colonial times that were taken over by the Americans under the Bunau-Varilla Treaty 1903
Some of their original inhabitants as in the case of Gatun had their entire populations of (Spanish) people moved out of their ancestral homes.