Town of Lock City and Gatun Labor Camp

Gatun (Spanish: Gatún) is a small town on the Atlantic Side of the Panama Canal, located south of the city of Colón at the point in which Gatun Lake meets the channel to the Caribbean Sea. The town is best known as the site of the Panama Canal’s Gatun Locks and Gatun Dam, built by the United States between 1906–1914.

The new, American Gatun started essentially as a tent city. A plank road was installed and by June 1907, 97 buildings had been erected and work on a commissary was started. In April 1908, the old native village and its inhabitants were moved to an area called “New Town,” east of the present town of Gatun.

By March 1913, the population of Gatun was 8,887. Nine months later, it had dropped to 5,943 as the Gatun Dam was completed, the Gatun Locks were operating and only clean-up work remained.