<--PREV Doc #1926  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1928 Document #1927; July 25, 1956 To Frederick Andrew Seaton Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVII - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part X: Cracks in the Alliance; May 1956 to September 1956 Chapter 20: Confronting "great risks"   Memorandum for the Secretary of the Interior: While in Panama, it was reported to me that there has been discovered and partially restored an old Spanish Fort within the limits of the Canal Zone.1 The name of the site is Fort Lorenzo. I believe its exact location is at the mouth of the Chagres River on the North Coast.2 General Harrison said that to date the Army has done all of the work in refurbishing the Fort and that thousands of American travellers visit the location annually.3 Harrison further said that maintenance was getting to be quite a problem and wondered whether the Park Service could not take over a small acreage designating it as a National Park. This note is to discharge my promise to Harrison that I would bring the matter to your attention.4 1 On Eisenhower's Panama trip see no. 1925. 2 Fort San Lorenzo, which was built by the Spanish to defend the harbor at Portobelo, had been destroyed by the pirate Henry Morgan in 1668. For a description of the ruins of the fort see A. Hyatt Verrill, Panama: Past and Present (New York, 1921), pp. 94-99. 3 For background on Lieutenant General William K. Harrison, Jr., see Chandler, War Years, no. 263. Harrison had been the Army's Commander in Chief, Caribbean, since 1954. 4 In September Seaton would report back to the President that the National Park Service had scheduled studies to determine the advisability of including the fort in the National Park system. No action would be taken during Eisenhower's first Administration (see WHCF/OF 4-Q). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Frederick Andrew Seaton, 25 July 1956. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1927. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/1927.cfm <--PREV Doc #1926  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1928

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