Photo of the Week

Okay...this week we are going to pick up on Camp Gaillard which you could see below the Airship Los Angeles two weeks ago. Here is a better and closer aerial view of Camp Gaillard taken on May 29, 1923. This camp is the remains of the canal construction town of Culebra which was the headquarters of the Isthmian Canal Commission (I.C.C) and home of Col. Goethals. The building that I have a yellow arrow pointing at is the old I.C.C. Administration Building which was left in place for use by the military. Many other buildings where also left in place and not demolished or moved to a new permanent town site like Balboa, where the Governor's House and Balboa Clubhouse (YMCA) were moved. Camp Gaillard would be short lived as you can see the edge of the slide line not far from the road and buildings. In October 1927, following the completion of the permanent military installations at the terminals of the canal, Camp Gaillard was inactivated. The remaining buildings were either moved or demolished, and the land was part of the area converted to an artillery practice range, called Empire Range.

At one time we traveled many of the old roads of Culebra/Camp Gaillard in jeeps and trucks looking for old bottle dumps. The vault of the old administration building was still standing. I posted a photo of the old vault and administration building back in November 2009 (click here) with a follow up photo the following week that Bill Fall took in 2009 during a transit (click here). Below is a zoom in of the old administration building from the same photo above.

You can see Camp Empire off in the distance and I will post photos of Camp Empire next week.

Happy Easter to everyone.