1975 What's a Gallinipper? скачать в хорошем качестве

1975 What's a Gallinipper?

Liner Notes So, what is a Gallinipper? As mentioned in the story, Gatun Lake is a freshwater bridge over the Continental Divide. The lake is 55 feet above sea level; and while that doesn’t sound like much, it kept the US from having to dig a sea level canal. The French had already tried that and failed before the US took over the effort to build the canal at the beginning of the twentieth century. Ironically, it was a small crew of French engineers who came up with damming the Chagres and creating a lake with locks… but they never did it. When the US took over, a few of our engineers remembered that plan and put it into place. A sea level canal would have been very bad ecologically anyway. The tide on the Pacific is 12 to 15 feet. The tide on the Atlantic is 3 feet. The waters would have been rushing from one ocean to the other so fast through and incessantly through that big ditch that they could never have kept the canal clear of erosion, much less navigational turbulence. When my dad and I were out fishing that first time, he was able to see dozens of little clearings with bohios, docks, and swimming areas. Being an adventurer and builder all his life, I’m sure it instantly became an idea his mind to create one of his own. I know this because that’s exactly what he did within the very next year. Many of the photos you will see of Gatun Lake at that time show people swimming without a care in the world. That’s because all of us carried rifles and shot every croc we saw. Tug boat crews did the same thing. If one particular croc seemed to continually evade being killed, we reported it and a PCC (Panama Canal Company) team would go out and trap it. Big crocs and Caymen were not permitted to live anywhere near the areas where people swam and had swings etcetera. But bear in mind that Lake Gatun was huge and quite sprawling. There were back water areas that were miles from civilization. We didn’t go up there often so the critters were allowed to live. Once in a while, though, a monster croc would find its way into our part of the lake and that was always a scary time, as explained in other stories that will be told. In any event, the word “Gallinipper” was created by my dad, Curt Darden. He was a man of few words, for the most part; but he was a prolific thinker and writer. To him, a gallinipper was any kind of critter that could do you harm. Usually, they had teeth and could sneak up on you… or so he led us kids to believe. And just in case I never listed the friends who accompanied me up to the lake and to Ken’s Island, here they are: Ted Snyder, Bill Boatwright, Fred Bales, Bob Whitehead, and Steve Nellis. My sister, Beth, also went with me and usually brought a girlfriend with her… to my delight. At least three of these great old friends are gone now, sadly. Taj Mahal; Fishin’ Blues Creative Commons/ Youtube    • Taj Mahal - Fishin' Blues   (c) 2025 Darden Family Museum Story and video by Mark Fielding Darden