Inagua is the southernmost district of

the Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...

, comprising the islands of Great Inagua and Little Inagua. The headquarters for the district council are in

Matthew Town Matthew Town is the chief and only settlement on Great Inagua Island of the Bahamas. It is located on the southwest corner of the island. It was named after Bahamian Governor George Matthew (1844–1849) and first settled during his tenure in offi ...

History

The original settlers were the

Lucayan people The Lucayan people ( ) were the original residents of the Bahamas before the European conquest of the Americas. They were a branch of the Taínos who inhabited most of the Caribbean islands at the time. The Lucayans were the first indigenous Am ...

, who arrived sometime between 500 and 800 CE, crossing in

dugout canoes A dugout canoe or simply dugout is a boat made from a hollowed tree. Other names for this type of boat are logboat and monoxylon. ''Monoxylon'' (''μονόξυλον'') (pl: ''monoxyla'') is Greek – ''mono-'' (single) + '' ξύλον xylon'' (t ...

from

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...

and/or

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

to the Bahamas. The name ''Heneagua'' was derived from a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

expression meaning 'water is to be found there'. Two names of apparent Lucayan origin, ''Inagua'' (meaning "Small Eastern Island") and ''Baneque'' (meaning "Big Water Island"), were used by the Spanish to refer to Great Inagua. Between the years of 1500 and 1825, many documented treasure laden ships were destroyed on Inaguan reefs. The two most valuable wrecks lost off the Inaguas were treasure-laden

galleon Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships first used as armed cargo carriers by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries during the age of sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as warships until the Anglo-Dutch ...

s: the ''Santa Rosa'' in 1599; and the ''Infanta'' in 1788. Other ships of considerable value that were wrecked there include the French ''Le Count De Paix'' in 1713, the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

HMS ''Lowestoffe'' in 1801, and the British HMS ''Statira'' in 1815. As early as the 1600s, salt was being produced and shipped to Spanish colonies, and its extraction was a going business by 1803.

Henri Christophe Henri Christophe (; 6 October 1767 – 8 October 1820) was a key leader in the Haitian Revolution and the only monarch of the Kingdom of Haiti. Christophe was of Bambara ethnicity in West Africa, and perhaps of Igbo descent. Beginning wit ...

, king of northern Haiti from 1811 to 1820, built a summer retreat at the Northeast Point of Great Inagua. Local legend has it that he also buried a cache of gold there. By 1918, after the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, lower salt prices and competition had driven the small producers on Great Inagua out of business, and the salt works were abandoned except for incidental local use. In 1935, the Erickson brothers from Massachusetts founded West India Chemicals Ltd., purchasing the abandoned salt works from the British government. They drilled test holes, set up offices, and began restoration of the buildings, but the locals felt threatened, fearing changes to the power structure ''status quo''. In August 1937, a riot broke out, an employee was killed, and the Ericksons were forced to flee. They soon returned, and full-scale development resumed. In the mid-1950s,

Morton Salt Morton Salt is an American food company producing salt for food, water conditioning, industrial, agricultural, and road/highway use. Based in Chicago, the business is North America's leading producer and marketer of salt. It is a subsidiary of h ...

bought the Great Inagua saltworks, which includes over 80 salt ponds, now the second largest such operation in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

. Morton is the major employer on the island.

Islands

Great Inagua

Great Inagua is the second largest island in the Bahamas at 596 sq mi (1544 km²) and lies about from the eastern tip of

. The island is about in extent and mostly flat with some sand hills, the highest points being East Hill at , Salt Pond Hill at , and James Hill at . It encloses several lakes, most notably the long Lake Windsor (also called Lake Rosa) which occupies nearly a quarter of the interior. The population of Great Inagua is 913 (2010 census). The island's capital and only harbour is Matthew Town, named after

George Matthew George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Preside ...

, a 19th-century

Governor of the Bahamas This is a list of governors of the Bahamas. The first English settlement in the Bahamas was on Eleuthera. In 1670, the king granted the Bahamas to the lords proprietors of the Province of Carolina, but the islands were left to themselves. The lo ...

. This town houses the

Morton Salt Company Morton Salt is an American food company producing salt for food, water conditioning, industrial, agricultural, and road/highway use. Based in Chicago, the business is North America's leading producer and marketer of salt. It is a subsidiary of ...

’s main facility, producing one million tonnes of

sea salt Sea salt is salt that is produced by the evaporation of seawater. It is used as a seasoning in foods, cooking, cosmetics and for preserving food. It is also called bay salt, solar salt, or simply salt. Like mined rock salt, production of sea sa ...

a year — the second largest solar saline operation in North America and Inagua's main industry. Great

Inagua Airport Inagua Airport (also known as Matthew Town Airport) is an airport in Matthew Town in Inagua in the Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indi ...

(

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tarif ...

: IGA,

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

: MYIG) is located nearby. A large bird sanctuary in the centre of the island has a population of more than 80,000 West Indian flamingoes and many other bird species, including the Bahama parrot,

Inagua woodstar The Inagua woodstar (''Nesophlox lyrura''), also called the lyre-tailed hummingbird, is a species of hummingbird in tribe Mellisugini of subfamily Trochilinae, the "bee hummingbirds". It is endemic to the two islands of the Inagua district of ...

, Bahama pintail,

brown pelican The brown pelican (''Pelecanus occidentalis'') is a bird of the pelican family, Pelecanidae, one of three species found in the Americas and one of two that feed by diving into water. It is found on the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to the mout ...

tricolored heron The tricolored heron (''Egretta tricolor''), formerly known as the Louisiana heron, is a small species of heron native to coastal parts of the Americas; in the Atlantic region, it ranges from the northeastern United States, south along the coast ...

snowy egret The snowy egret (''Egretta thula'') is a small white heron. The genus name comes from Provençal French for the little egret, , which is a diminutive of , 'heron'. The species name ''thula'' is the Araucano term for the black-necked swan, a ...

, reddish egret, stripe-headed tanager,

double-crested cormorant The double-crested cormorant (''Nannopterum auritum'') is a member of the cormorant family of water birds. It is found near rivers and lakes, and in coastal areas, and is widely distributed across North America, from the Aleutian Islands in A ...

Neotropic cormorant The neotropic cormorant or olivaceous cormorant (''Nannopterum brasilianum'') is a medium-sized cormorant found throughout the American tropics and subtropics, from the middle Rio Grande and the Gulf and Californian coasts of the United States so ...

roseate spoonbill The roseate spoonbill (''Platalea ajaja'') is a gregarious wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family, Threskiornithidae. It is a resident breeder in both South and North America. Taxonomy The roseate spoonbill is sometimes placed in its own ...

American kestrel The American kestrel (''Falco sparverius''), also called the sparrow hawk, is the smallest and most common falcon in North America. It has a roughly two-to-one range in size over subspecies and sex, varying in size from about the weight of ...

, and

burrowing owl The burrowing owl (''Athene cunicularia''), also called the shoco, is a small, long-legged owl found throughout open landscapes of North and South America. Burrowing owls can be found in grasslands, rangelands, agricultural areas, deserts, or an ...

. The Union Creek National Reserve is specially set aside for the study of

green sea turtle The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exten ...

s (''Chelonia mydas'').

Little Inagua

The neighbouring Little Inagua, to the northeast, is uninhabited and occupied by a large Land and Sea Park. It has an area of , with herds of

feral A feral () animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some ...

donkey The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as ...

s and

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

s (descendants of stock introduced by the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

). Various species of

endangered sea turtles Worldwide, hundreds of thousands of sea turtles a year are accidentally caught in shrimp trawl nets, on longline hooks and in fishing gill-nets. Sea turtles need to reach the surface to breathe, and therefore many drown once caught. Loggerhead a ...

breed on the island. Little Inagua has a large protective reef extending up to away from the island in all directions, which prevents boats from coming too close.

Gallery

File:MainHouseMatthewtown.jpg, Main Guest House in Matthew Town, Great Inagua File:Matthew Town, Great Inagua, Bahamas.jpg, Downtown Matthew Town, Great Inagua File:OldPrisonMatthewtown.jpg, Old disused prison, Matthew Town, Great Inagua File:PrisonWindowMatthewtown.jpg, Window in old prison, Matthew Town, Great Inagua File:PoliceStationMatthewtown.jpg, Modern police station, Matthew Town, Great Inagua File:GroceryStoreMatthewtown.jpg, Grocery store in Matthew Town, Great Inagua File:Morton Salt facilities, Great Inagua.jpg, Part of the Morton Salt facilities on the north shore of Great Inagua File:NorthShoreGreatInagua.jpg, Northern rocky shore of Great Inagua exposing

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

reef limestones File:Great Inagua and Little Inagua from ISS.jpg, Great Inagua and Little Inagua viewed from the International Space Station on 2022-12-09

Notes

External links

Great Inagua Photos
January 2006
The Nassau Guardian
{{Authority control Islands of the Bahamas Districts of the Bahamas