This is the 1968 Conquistador yearbook from Canal Zone College, located on the Pacific side of the isthmus of the old Panama Canal Zone in the town of La Boca, just under the foundation of the Bridge of the Americas. It is in new condition with only tiny blemishes from shelf storage. There is no writing inside except for a single name and Panama Canal Museum catalog number written on the inside of the first blank page. Otherwise, it is totally clean. This yearbook has everything that you would find in a typical yearbook from an American high school or college, plus more. The Canal Zone College was a two year institution and it served the function of a junior college for American [and Panamanian] students who planned to go to college and obtain their college degrees in the USA. Some of the students obtained apprenticeships and stayed in the Canal Zone. The Canal Zone College had sports teams that competed against the American high schools, Cristobal High School and Balboa high School. When I was a student at Cristobal High School, we occasionally went to the Canal Zone College for music programs, just to get away from the Atlantic side for a one day field trip. If you look at the photo below, you will see a large two page spread on the inside of both the front and rear covers. The photo depicts the Canal Zone College as I remembered it in the 1960s. I did not attend CZC, but a lot of my friends did and this yearbook was issued the same year that I graduated from Cristobal High School, so I knew a lot of the students that are in this yearbook. In addition to sections on faculty and students, you will find a lot of photos of sporting events and other activites in the Canal Zone. As with most Canal Zone yearbooks, there are cool adveretisements in the back: United Fruit Company, Squirt, Gulf Oil, Esso Oil and local businesses that you will remember if you lived on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal Zone in the 1960s.

This yearbook was part of the Panama Canal Museum archives. When the museum closed down, I gave the museum a large donation in exchange for some of their yearbooks. I already have a copy of this yearbook in my personal collection, so I am selling this copy to recover some of the money from my donation.

Many of the yearbooks from the Panama Canal Zone have been digitized and are available as free downloadable JPGs on the University of Florida's archival website, but you cannot search the text on graphics and reading jpegs on iBooks is not easy on your eyes.. You can also purchase xerox copies of yearbooks from Classmates.com for about $80, but it is much better to purchase an original copy of this yearbook to keep in your own collection.