The History of Panama's Canopy Tower The Canopy Tower was built in 1965 by the United States Air Force to house a powerful radar used in the defense of the Panama Canal. By 1969, the site was jointly used by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to control air traffic in the area, and by the Panama Canal Commission (PCC) as a communications tower. The FAA permit terminated on its own terms in June of 1979 and its function was deactivated, but the PCC continued to use a small area of the tower until 1995. In September of 1988, the radar tower received an important new assignment when it was reactivated as Site One in the Caribbean Basin Radar Network (CBRN). This network of radars was used by the United States government to detect airplanes suspected of carrying drugs from South America. The tower played this role until June of 1995 when it was closed and left vacant waiting for better days. In November of 1996, the radar tower and the Semaphore Hill site, consisting of approximately 35 acres of rainforest within Soberanía National Park, was transferred to Panama in compliance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties. The government of Panama, in turn, signed a long term concession contract with Divertimento Ecológico, S. A., a panamanian corporation, to transform the site into a center for the observation of the neotropical rainforest. A fitting use for Panama, a peace loving country with no armed forces. In the picture to the left, the radar tower is now The Canopy Tower, an exclusive ecolodge offering its guests an extraordinary opportunity to appreciate the rich and diverse fauna and flora of Soberanía National Park. The Isthmian published a long article on the history of the Canopy Tower and a shorter follow-up in 1997. For more of the story -- and plenty of photographs -- read the construction progress reports for the months of February, March, April and May, 1998, and a summary of early visitors. Recently, Stuart from Texas, who used to work with the USAF as a radar tech, sent us this gem: A Letter & Photo from the Past.

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