Rio Chagres Maritime Landscape Study
PANAMA
Dr. Jim Delgado, INA President and CEO; Frederick Hanselmann, INA Research Associate; Dominique Rissolo, Executive Director, Waitt Institute for Discovery
The Waitt Institute and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology conducted a site survey at the mouth of Panama's Río Chagres in January 2008. The Chagres was the most significant river in the Americas as a major route for Spanish trade from the 16th through the 18th centuries, and later it remained an important river as part of a shortcut on the "Panama Route" to the California gold fields in 1848-1855. Submerged cultural resources spanning the river's 500 years were found in various locations at the mouth of the river and in the waters below the Castillo de San Lorenzo, a World Heritage Site, including guns and walls blasted in the sea by a British naval force in 1740, and more modern half-submerged remains of American fortifications that guarded this back door to the Panama Canal through World War II. A number of possible shipwreck sites were located, as well as a wide range of items lost in the river during centuries of activity.
Additional Resources
WAITT Institute (Rio Chagres and the Pearl Islands, Panama)
Mouth of the Rio Chagres. Photograph by James P. Delgado,
Detail from the Tallis map of Panamá (1851), showing the location of the Pearl Islands. James Delgado Collection.