The earliest known settlers of Grand Bahama Island, the Siboney Indians, were a people who lived off conch and fishing, and the shells and jewelry they left behind form the majority of what we know about them. Their remains suggest that they were here as early as 7,000 years ago, but disappeared after they were superceded by another Caribbean group, the Lucayans.
The Lucayans (also called Arawaks) were a broad group of tribes who worked their way up the Caribbean from South America's Amazon between 5 and 7,000 years ago. When Christopher Columbus sighted San Salvador on his first crossing in 1492, there were an estimated 40,000 of them living in The Islands of The Bahamas, with a population of about 4,000 on Grand Bahama Island. Surprisingly little is known about the Lucayans, a fact that comes from their rapid extermination by the Spanish shortly after the arrival of Columbus. It is believed, however, that they had an advanced political and social structure, and lived in well-organized cities. Skulls and artifacts have been found in the caves at Lucayan National Park, and a significant new archeological site recently discovered near Deadman's Reef has uncovered hearths, animal bones, pottery pieces, and shell beads.
After the Spanish claimed the island in 1492, the Lucayans were enslaved and transported to work the gold and silver mines of Hispanola and Cuba, and the pearl fisheries of Margarita, near Trinidad. The conquerors gave the island the name "Gran Bajamar" - great shallows - a term that eventually became the basis for The Islands of The Bahamas.
After they stole away its inhabitants, however, the Spanish seemed to have completely ignored Grand Bahama Island. Once in great while, a ship would drop anchor, perhaps scavenge a few provisions, then sail off toward Europe or South America. More often than not, Grand Bahama Island was viewed as a perilous landfall, due to the treacherous shallow reefs surrounding it. So many ships would collide with the reefs that "wrecking" became a major livelihood of what few inhabitants there were, most of who lived at West End. In hard times it wasn't unheard of for the townspeople to actually try and lure ships onto the reef with a well-placed lantern at night.
Great Britain claimed The Islands of The Bahamas in 1670, after British colonists left Bermuda for the island of Eleuthera where they sought religious independence. More followed, and other ports and colonies gradually developed, as well as an army of pirates and privateers. Grand Bahama was probably well known to famous pirates like Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, and Henry Morgan, as its reefs would have been perfect for running aground vessels, a common pirate tactic. By 1720, the crown had successfully established control over the pirates, and the island probably saw a lot less visitors than it had during "The Golden Age of Piracy." The sleepy colony lay largely undisturbed for another 200 years.
Up until the mid-nineteenth century, Grand Bahama Island had largely been left alone by the outside world. There were plenty of sails on the horizon as ships came and went through the Caribbean, but more often than not they passed by. Records from 1836 show that the population of West End numbered only about 370, many of who abandoned the island for the greater opportunities in Nassau. In 1861, however, the flow of people reversed direction and population of the town virtually doubled overnight. The reason was the American Civil War.
At the outbreak of the war, The Confederacy of Southern States immediately fell under a strict Union blockade and embargo. Getting goods such as sugar, cotton, and weapons in and out of the Confederacy was essential to the war effort and exporters operating out of West End were able to command hefty prices from the South.
As soon as the war ended, however, so did the boom, but the short burst of prosperity set an important precedent: from then on, the history of Grand Bahama Island was intimately tied to that of the United States.
The next boom came from a much different (and much more sought after) banned good in the U.S.: alcohol. Prohibition brought warehouses, distilleries, bars, supply stores, and inns to West End. The ship captains had the system down to a science. They'd sail off at night, with ropes dragging huge cylinders of liquor behind them. If the American Coast Guard pursued, they would simply cut the ropes, wait for the patrol to leave, then recover them. Just as it was during the Civil War, however, as soon the U.S. ended its conflict, the economy dove and people started fishing again. It was only with the rise of tourism that the up and down economy would finally change for good.
In 1955, the second most populated city of The Bahamas was little more than a pine forest. Grand Bahama was one of least developed of The Islands of The Bahamas, a place where a few hundred people made their living off the sea. No one could have imagined then that the island would become the quintessential tropical Caribbean playground that it is today.
No one, perhaps, except a man named Wallace Groves. Groves was an American financier from the state of Virginia who had been on the island since the mid-1940s. He owned a lumber company at Pineridge, and was keen to the possibilities of the island as a tourist destination. Less than a hundred miles away was the United States and its thriving post-war economy.
American vacationers were already streaming into Cuba by the tens of thousands, and beautiful Grand Bahama, thought Groves, could be an alternative to the overcrowded beaches and casinos of Havana. And so, in 1955 he approached the Bahamian government with his idea to build a town that catered to both industry and tourists. Shortly after, a famous document known as the Hawksbill Creek Agreement was signed, and Freeport was born.
The Agreement granted 50,000 acres of land to Groves' company, The Grand Bahama Port Authority Ltd., with an option of adding an additional 50,000. To encourage investment, it also freed the Port Authority from paying taxes on income, capital gains, real estate and private property until 1985 - a provision that has since been extended to the year 2054. Soon after the Agreement was signed, Groves began to enact his vision. He convinced the shipping tycoon D.K. Ludwig to construct a harbor, and in 1962 he brought in Canadian Louis Chesler to develop the tourist center of Lucaya.
Over 30 years later, the result is a community completely tailored to the getaway tourist, a paradise offering almost every kind of vacation activity imaginable.
Grand Bahama Island is located 52 miles due east of Palm Beach, Florida or about 1/2 hour by plane. The island is 96 miles long and 17 miles across its widest point and is the fourth largest island in the Bahama chain of 700 islands.