Camp Chagres was the camp for Canal Zone Council, and later Panama Canal Council. These councils, finally consolidated into Direct Service in 1987, had lots of Scouts over the years but they traveled through as most were family members of either stationed military or foreign service. It was never a very big council so the opportunity for finding information about the camp does not often come up.

But, recently I traded some e-mails with a former Scout of the council. Here’s some information he passed on:

Hello Roy-

  There is a national park where the scout camp was in Panama, Parque Nacional Chagres. I think this was once a US military training area. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute used to send biologists there to find snakes and birds.  There were lots of limestone cave formations and it rained quite a bit.

    The population of Americans in Panama had always been fairly transient, what with military families rotating in and out regularly, and other employees on short term assignment. After the 1979 treaties went into effect, the population of Americans living in Panama for longer term declined fairly substantially. If your job were eliminated, your family was not eligible for Canal Zone Government housing, so the friends and neighbors started leaving as the treaties were implemented.

    There was a strong sense of community among the people who had lived there for years and years which has been maintained with the Panama Canal Society. You may be able to follow up on your questions by starting at http://www.pancanalsociety.org and looking for contacts there.

-Doug

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