Panama Canal Museum

 

            Following a brief ride, we entered the Panama Canal Museum and were greeted by our host, Mr. Jerry Detore who is the curator of the museum. The Museum is located at 7985 113th St Suite 100 in Seminole next to the Seminole Mall. Mr. Detore explained that he was a “Zonian”, or resident of the Panama Canal Zone, as a child and has retained an interest in preserving the history of the construction of the canal. As “keeper of the goodies”, he stated that he receives related artifacts on a weekly basis from other people who too wish to keep the history alive. Our guided tour of this extremely informative and rather extensive collection of canal memorabilia included the history of the canal project, which began with Spain and the discovery of the Pacific Ocean, and a desire to find a quick connection between it and the Atlantic Ocean. The French started the project in 1880 but failed to complete the task after several years, over a billion Francs and almost 22,000 lives being lost to malaria and yellow fever. The project of building a canal was then attempted and completed by the United States in the early 1900s, with the canal opening in 1914 under the direction of Teddy Roosevelt. Roosevelt himself went to view the project on several occasions setting a precedence of being the first sitting American President to step out of the country. He had a lot of firsts in his career as President. By the time the canal was completed, a total of 27,500 workers are estimated to have died in the French and American efforts. Mr. Detore knew there was a Harley group coming and found photos of the Panama Canal police all on Harleys.  Approximately 14,000 vessels pass thru the canal annually. That is about 40 per day. There is no doubt that the idea of a canal was an exercise in “forward thinking” by several visionaries from the Spanish, French and Americans.  We concluded our tour of the PC Museum and headed out to the Tampa Cuban on East Bay for a lunch that was very ethnic and very delicious.  During lunch we all thought wouldn’t that be a great road trip?  Anyone game?

            The Panama Canal Museum has a very limited staff and is open Monday thru Thursday from 10 AM to 4 PM and by appointment by calling 727-394-9338.  The museum is not funded by City, State or Government, but by donations.