Flying

45 years ago, Lonoke farmers went on a wild ride, landing in Panama and changing the world

Former Georgia peanut farmer Jimmy Carter set the stage for a remarkable story by signing two treaties just seven months into his presidency. The archived papers put Panama in operating control of arguably the most crucial man-made waterway in the world — a 51-mile shortcut connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans — and opened it to vessels of all nations.

The Panama Canal had a big problem, though. A serious aquatic weed problem. Floating vegetation masses and submerged plants with strong, tangled roots were strangling the passage. The spread was so thick ships struggled to navigate.

Panama needed help. A real American solution. The help of Arkansas farmers. Some sharp Lonoke County country boys with a can-do attitude.

Leon Hill was one of the men with the will and acumen the canal needed in the spring of 1978, assisting in one of the more fascinating feats in Arkansas farm history. Forty-five years later the story seems impossible.

Lonoke, and Hill was a well-respected leader. Smart, humble and debt free like his dad taught him and Romans 13:8 admonishes. Hill employed 28, farmed 1,200 acres of row crops and had 1,000 acres of water, mostly for catfish.

Hill also raised White Amurs — an Asian vegetation-eating carp with a ferocious appetite.

Only In Arkansas

Panamanians had tried countless chemicals to clear the water, but the aggressive hydrilla plant with up to 8 whorls around its stem, tough leaves and tangled extensions, continued its choking charge. Its density not only weeded out boat usage but caused drownings and provided breeding sites for vectors of malaria.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Col. John J. Plunkett, assigned as the Panama Canal’s Director of Engineering, had learned of the Amurs in Arkansas. The Natural State was the first to legalize use of the silver scalawags as a biological tool to control aquatic vegetation. In the spring of 1977, Col. Plunkett showed up to purchase 125,000 fingerlings in Lonoke.

Hill and two other local fish farmers agreed to share the big bid. That was easy. Then, the uneventful task of hatching and raising the fish was put into motion.

U.S. president Jimmy Carter (waving) signed two treaties on Sept. 7, 1977 giving Panama operating control of the most crucial man-made waterway in the world. Locals tried chemicals to clear the Panama Canal of vegetation, but the aggressive hydrilla plant with up to 8 whorls around its stem, tough leaves and tangled extensions, continued its choking charge.

“It was quite a deal all the way through,” says the 90-year-old Hill with a laugh. “It wore me out.”

In the late 1970s, farmers were flourishing in

The contract required more, though, a lot of logistics and a lot of unknown. It stated the Amurs were to be 1.5 to 3 inches long and delivered in January of 1978. Delivered.

From Lonoke’s frigid winter waters to tropical Panama. Panama. Roughly 3,200 miles or twice as far as Lonoke to Los Angeles. And, of course, the fish would need