Times of the Islands Fall 2021

astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
Columbus also recorded in his diary that when he
made landfall, he encountered Indians on the island. Over
the years, an argument arose as to whether or not there
is evidence to substantiate that there were Indians in the
Turks & Caicos Islands at the time.
In short, the following details tend to suggest that
there is strong evidence of Taíno/Lucayan presence in
the Islands. It commenced with Theodore De Booy (1912)
when he obtained exquisite examples of Taíno art. Later
on, archaeologist Dr. Shaun Sullivan devoted two years of
dedicated work to surveys and excavations in the Caicos
Islands in an effort to track the Taíno colonization. He
re-discovered forty Taíno sites; all but five were on Middle
Caicos.
In 1989, while attending a conference at which
Robert Power and Josiah Marvel presented their case for
Grand Turk as the first landfall of Columbus, Dr. Donald
Keith found two Taíno sites on Grand Turk. This was the
beginning of the Taíno story on that island as an article in
the Summer 1995 issue of Times of the Islands, “History
begins on Grand Turk,” suggests. Further evidence also
revealed that within a half century of the European colonization
efforts through conquest, degradation and
extermination, this group of people were decimated
through the imposition of the Spanish Encomienda
System (their forced labour policy), inhumane treatment
and the ingress of diseases by the Europeans which the
Taíno people were not immune to.
Following the demise of the Taíno population, the
next main settlement attempt in Grand Turk was by the
Bermudians in 1678. The Bermudians first came to the
Islands on a temporary basis to harvest salt. While they
waited on the process to take place, they used their time
to salvage wrecked ships and fish for turtles. In time,
salt became a very lucrative business which encouraged
them to establish a permanent settlement on the
island. Remnants of the old salt ponds on Grand Turk
tell this story. The island still retains aspects of the old
colonial British-Bermudian heritage through its buildings,
street designs and family names—in particular Astwood,
Butterfield, Dean, Durham, Frith, Seymour and Taylor.
Salt made Grand Turk a vitally important artery
linking this small island (whether directly or indirectly)
with several global partners including the USA, Canada,
England and neighboring Caribbean countries, in particular
Jamaica and Barbados. It was the salt from Grand Turk
that was shipped to Newfoundland in Canada to make
“salt cod” that was then sold to the slave plantation owners
in these Caribbean countries as the main food for
their slaves. As the salt trade expanded, it resulted in
Grand Turk being declared the first port of entry in the
Turks & Caicos, with custom officials present to collect
the revenue that was being generated from its sales.
By 1681, salt was not only a thriving business but
because of demand, it acquired the popular name “White
Gold.” This flourishing business also saw the Bermudians
establish Cockburn Town in Grand Turk as the capital
of the island. It was named after Sir Francis Cockburn,
the then-governor of the Bahamas. Cockburn Town was a
small Bermudian coastal settlement on the western side
of Grand Turk, now the oldest permanent settlement on
the island. Its boundaries extended from Duke Street on
the southern end heading north along Front Street to
where Duke Street merges into Queen Street overlooking
These iconic images of the Grand Turk salt industry feature the windmills that pumped sea water through the vast salinas and the laborers
who toiled to rake the salt that dried in the hot sun.
TED PHILIPPONA–TURKS AND CAICOS NATIONAL MUSEUM COLLECTION
Times of the Islands Fall 2021 71