With its obscure, backwater, mosquito-infested swamp beginnings, like the state of Florida in America and Singapore Island in Southeast Asia, Grand Bahama Island in the old days was seen as a wellspring of bright future promise, as far as American investor Wallace Groves' ambitious vision was concerned. Florida and Singapore's lasting success stories tell of transformations that are legendary to this day, making the two addresses world-famous. Not very long ago, Grand Bahama Island was on track to a similar rise, but the engine was suddenly slowed by a barrage of tropical storms since 2004. However, it's under those conditions that the greatest opportunities present themselves to courageous and shrewd visionaries of action, to produce an island city more modern than ever imagined.
Even though the island's capital city was founded in its West End settlement, anyone who has lived on Grand Bahama between the sixties and the nineties can remember the thrill of hearing somebody say "I'm going to Freeport" or simply "I'm going downtown". In fact, once upon a time, Freeport was called "The Magic City". Downtown, Freeport, during her forty years of splendor was a magnetic place, where people from all around the world shopped, held meetings and carved some historic business deals. But as she approached the twenty-first century, a number of factors changed the game.
In this special report, we examine those diminishing forces, recent efforts to rehabilitate Grand Bahama island, her amazing history, and what benefits come from buying real estate or setting up shop to doing business here.
In late January of 1848, pure gold was accidentally discovered at a construction site in the small town of Coloma, California. From that moment on, what followed was the westward rush of Americans, including immigrants from far away nations, seeking gold wealth. The Gold Rush-boom period lasted until 1858, and forever changed California as a state. "Go west" was the common advice to young men at the time. The preceding is only a summary. Between the fifties and sixties, the Bahamian ambition nationwide and internationally was to reach Grand Bahama island, particularly Freeport City, where substantial developments were underway. In a sense, that was our "gold rush" era.
As a result of the massive economic growth brought on by the fifties and sixties expansions on Grand Bahama, from East End to Freeport, and from West End to Freeport, a number of overnight boom settlements sprang from the bushes which have since disappeared with an end of the activity and reclaimed by the bushes. A key effect of the expansion was a sudden population increase, as Bahamians from other islands and foreigners from around the world came to stake their claims for future security, as was the case during America's Gold Rush period.