1910<\/strong><\/p>\n As part of the effort to build the Panama Canal, the Chagres River was dammed.<\/p>\n The flooding of the Chagres Valley resulted in the formation of Lake Gatun. Barro Colorado Island was formed when the top of a big hill was isolated by the rising waters of the lake.<\/p>\n 1923<\/strong><\/p>\n James Zetek, entomologist working for the Panama Canal Company and Thomas Barbour, Chairman of the Institute for Research in Tropical America seek an area for a reserve.<\/p>\n With William Morton Wheeler and Richard Strong from Harvard they persuade Canal Zone Governor J.J. Morrow to declare Barro Colorado Island a “Natural Park” and to ban all hunting.<\/p>\n