• Grand Bahama in 1858 from Thos. Chapman Harvey, Esq. Official Reports of the Out Islands of the Bahamas.
• Grand Bahama in 1887 from L. D. Powles The Land of the Pink Pearl or Recollections of Life in the Bahamas.
• Grand Bahama in 1891 from Stark's History and Guide to the Bahama Islands.
• Grand Bahama in 1917 from Amelia Defries In a Forgotten Colony
• Grand Bahama in 1924 from The Tribune Handbook
• Grand Bahama in 1926 from Mary Mosley The Bahamas Handbook.
• Grand Bahama in 1931 from Nassau and the Treasure Islands of the Bahamas
• Grand Bahama in 1934 from Maj. H. M. Bell Bahamas: Isles of June
• The Bahamas in 1964 from Benedict Thielen The Bahamas-Golden Archipelago
• Grand Bahama in 1967 Moral Panic, Gambling. and the Good Life
• Grand Bahama in 1970 Boom Town in the Bahamas
• Commissioner's Reports 1908-1965 Reports by the Colonial Commissioner
• Freeport in the Sixties : Maps and Images from Freeport's Beginnings
• An Informal History of the GBPA: Background of Freeport's corporate past
• Resorts of Yesteryear : Departed Hotels from Freeport's past
• Accommodations 1964/67 :
  Prices to be nostalgic about

Map of Grand Bahama - 1926

Map of the Bahamas - 1885

There is few places where history buffs can find less to occupy themselves with than in Grand Bahama. There are perhaps ample resources dealing with the original Lucayan inhabitants, but that is not history in the strict sense, but rather prehistory, and the proper domain of the archaeologist and anthropologist. What history there is has been ably covered by Peter Barratt in his Grand Bahama (Newton Abbott, Devon, 1972; second ed., London, 1982). But once Mr. Barratt's excellent work has been finished, there may be a lingering curiosity about some of the intriguing references that he cites. This page is intended to assuage that to some extent.

Searching for any Bahamian history on the Internet, let alone Grand Bahamian history, returns only brief and repetitive synopses which scarcely do justice to the subject. All of the wonderful work of Gail Saunders and Michael Craton has apparently made no impact on cyberspace.

A proper rejoinder might be that Grand Bahama is the perfect place for historians to get away from it all, and we should be grateful for a respite from documents and sources. Yet even in repose (as in Mr. McCutcheon's little cartoon in our header), the historically-minded find a bit of pleasure in the obscure reference, the odd footnote.

Since the sources for Bahamian history are not always easily found, I will be taking the liberty of putting a few things on-line that may interest the curious and serve as a stopgap for the historically-minded vacationer. Ms Defries' chapters are particularly interesting as she captures the innate piety and graciousness of the old Grand Bahamians very well. I have added backslashes (/) where there were page breaks in the original, and have broken the paragraphs up rather arbitrarily to make it easier to read long pages. Footnotes are in brackets in the text.

Jim Baker
(No longer at German Holiday Park #1
- we have sold our property, and plan to eventually turn all of this Grand Bahana material over to another website)
jabezcorner.com

(Since this page was composed, at least one other truly informative web site on Grand Bahama that does not simply reproduce the usual abbreviated information has been made available by M. Timothy O'Keefe)

As an update to the "Informal History of the GBPA", here is a link to a recent develoment in the company's progress by Peter Jensen , of World Business Journal.