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East Caicos history - learn what once happend
Before World War II, hunting parties went to East Caicos to shoot wild cattle. These animals were relics of a herd of over 1,500 developed by the late J.N. Reynolds, owner of the Breezy Point Estate, who used to supply all the meat required at Grand Turk. The meat from the cattle reared at Jacksonville was very lean and had a particular sweet taste, which was said to be occasioned by the salty diet on which the animals fed at East Caicos. Hides were also exported to Haiti. These animals have now been virtually exterminated by the local hunters. Mr. Reynolds was born in Dublin, Ireland, and settled in Turks and Caicos Islands about 1856, where he became the leading salt business magnate of his time. In partnership with an American, he organized a schooner service to the port of New York, until the foreign steamship companies took over this operation. He controlled all of East Caicos and developed the export of guano manure from the port of Jacksonville, which he dredged to accommodate ships with a draft of up to sixteen feet. Here was ultimately a 100-yard long quay, fed by 14 miles of railroad lines along which the trolleys were drawn by mules, after being loaded with sisal in the interior plantations. In the last century a fast schooner would leave Grand Turk at daybreak and be off Drum Point in East Caicos by early afternoon. Goodes Hill can be seen as soon as Grand Turk sinks below the horizon. On reaching Drum Point the scene changes. As far as the eye can see, there stretches a line of foaming reefs on the right hand and a limitless expanse of white sandy beach studded with thatch palms on the left. East Caicos also experienced an unsuccessful attempt at colonization in March 19940, when a party of 19 Americans arrived at the island on the yacht Spindrift from Miami, led by Mr. Lake, an in-law of the Reynolds family. These people had been recruited executive of the Standard Oil Company. Unfortunately, the scheme to build a new settlement was badly planned and these pioneers were soon reduced to privation and even to the eating of wild donkeys. They were repatriated shortly afterwards during the war years, partly at Government expense. In 1968, there was another attempt to open up East Caicos when the Government to Mr. John Houseman and his associates. This English journalist took up residence on the island and one of the old Reynolds plantation buildings was refurbished. Mr. Houseman and his family lived like "Robinson Crusoe" and received their supplies by airdrop from the local airline, as there was no road communication. Unfortunately, the development plans failed to materialize and the island was once again abandoned a few months thereafter.
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East Caicos Vacations site
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