Panama Rocks Walking Tour
HUMAN HISTORY TRAIL SIGN

Panama Rocks was established as a privately operated park in 1885, the same year that the oldest State park in the United States was founded (Niagara Falls State Park). The formations at Panama Rocks are believed to have been sacred land to the Erielhonan (Eriez) people and, while the area was used by robbers and counterfeiters in the mid-1800's, Panama Rocks quickly became a popular tourist attraction when the park was established. The hotel at Panama Rocks, which operated until about World War II, hosted celebrity guests such as James Ward Packard (of Packard Automobiles) and Mrs. Mina Miller Edison, Thomas Edison's second wife.
 
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Many of the older pictures and post cards of Panama Rocks were taken by Fred L. Yeager (1872-1930). Mr. Yeager was a photographer who was well known for his real photo postcards of Panama Rocks. His work also includes photos taken in and around his hometown of Columbus, Pennsylvania.

The hand-colored post cards are circa 1908-1915 and published by Albert Wilson of Buffalo, NY. Wilson was a druggist who resided on Crescent Avenue near Delaware Park, and published postcards of Buffalo and Western New York communities. Wilson’s cards were manufactured in Germany, and usually featured original photographic views. Making hand tinted card was very labor intensive and unhealthy. Mostly women artists sat in rows while the postcards were passed down “assembly line” style. Each was responsible for a particular color, and workers would wet the tip of their brush, usually cotton covered, with their lips as they worked, slowly poisoning the artists. The arrival of color photography and the health issues associated with the hand tinted cards resulted in their demise in the 1930’s. WWI brought the supply of postcards from Germany to the United States to an end.