by Larry Smith
PORT NELSON, Rum Cay — The prime minister and other top officials were here recently for an event that could change Rum Cay forever.
A space was cleared at Cottonfield Point for Montana Holding's long-awaited groundbreaking ceremony. It marked the start of a $90 million residential/resort development, that could expand to a $700 million investment at full build-out.
Soon, a barge will arrive to house scores of construction workers, a 100-foot channel will be cut through the reef for a marina at Bay Pond, equipment and materials will pour in, and homes, condos and hotels will begin popping up all along Munroe Beach.
Of course, the 80 or so bored citizens of Port Nelson, the island’s last remaining settlement, have seen it all before over the past few decades. But many say the recent groundbreaking was a watershed.
Instead of an out-of-the-way refuge for a few well-off folks who live on the edge of a sleepy little village where nothing much ever happens, Rum Cay may soon become a playground for hordes of the very rich – pursuing their champagne and sportfishing dreams.
You could say it all began 60 years ago when a New York lawyer named John Carl Heyser became the island’s first “white settler” since American loyalists set up plantations here in the late 1700s.
Heyser had settled an estate in the US that involved Bahamians, and part of his fee was a big chunk of land on Rum Cay near Cottonfield Point – a mile or so west of Port Nelson.
“After the Second World War he began visiting the island and fixed up one of the old plantation ruins as a camp for family and friends,” recalled longtime resident David Melville, whose father had been a close friend of Heyser’s.
“They would come by mailboat or seaplane to rough it on Rum Cay, which had no infrastructure back then. Over the years Carl accumulated more land – over a thousand acres in all - and when he got too old he offered it to me.”
At the time, Melville was making real estate deals on timberland in New England, but he had also spent 15 years with the family shoe business, which back then traded as Thom McCan; America’s top-selling brand.
In 1977 Melville agreed to buy over 800 acres behind Munroe Beach from Heyser. He went on to set up the Rum Cay Dive Club, and it is this property that the Montana Group acquired a few years ago and is now about to develop.
Seven or eight years before Melville arrived, Heyser had sold 300 acres along the coast nearer the settlement to another American named J. R. ‘Buddy’ Edgerton. And it was Edgerton who created the island’s original resort – the Rum Cay Club & Villas – as a way to sell land for second homes.
In many ways Edgerton was ahead of his time and by most accounts, he was “something of a rogue”, and eventually committed suicide. Although his small development was never more than marginal, he became part of the island’s folklore and is buried on Rum Cay.
Edgerton began his love affair with the island in the mid-1960s, envisioning a unique fly-in community along the beach where wealthy visitors could taxi their own planes from a private airstrip directly to their vacation homes.
And before buying from Heyser, Edgerton’s Rum Cay Development Company had been seeking to acquire land from a Florida attorney of Bahamian descent named Effie Knowles, whose ancestors had received some of the earliest crown grants on Rum Cay and Long Island.
Although she has been dead for more than 20 years, Effie remains a celebrity in Bahamian real estate and legal circles. Her story begins in the dark days of slavery – a tale of lawyers, land sharks, genealogy and outright greed that still swirls around the tiny hardscrabble community of Port Nelson.
When Edgerton’s company went bust after selling only half a dozen or so $10,000 lots to foreigners in the so-called Whitelands, west of the settlement. David Melville converted the club to a dive resort that opened in 1981, bringing full employment to the island for the first time in memory. But after eight years, it too closed without making a dime.
“A local diver named Clement Strachan came up with the idea and we tried everything we could to make it work,” Melville said. “We flew guests in from Florida and offered gourmet meals, but we could never break even. Even with just 14 rooms our average occupancy was only about a third.”
In the meantime, Bob Little Sr – one of Heyser’s American employees - had acquired 80 acres on Sumner Point just east of the settlement and began developing a marina for sport fishermen in the 1980s. Today, his son, Bobby Little Jr, operates the business, which is currently the only resort accommodation on the island.
But Little is in the process of selling Sumner Point to a Florida developer named Turchin who wants to turn it into something called Bora Bora Bahamas. And Montana – a group of British investors – bought the old Heyser property from Melville in the late 1990s to create a huge residential resort community.
In addition to the little grass airstrip once used by bushwhacking pilots, Rum Cay now has a $3 million 5,000-foot government-issue runway, a reliable electricity supply, and a new black-top road that runs from the township to the new airport.
Like many other islands in the Bahamas, Rum Cay stands on the brink of a major transformation.
Looking Back
At the turn of the 20th century more than 500 people lived here in six settlements scattered around the 30-square-mile island.
Most were former slaves growing cash crops like sisal and pineapple. But salt production was the biggest business. Almost every family raked the salinas just outside of town to produce “the best salt in the Bahamas”, which was exported to North America on four-masted schooners.
Only a couple of dozen miles from San Salvador, Rum Cay was the second island Columbus visited on his famous 1492 voyage. And it was deserted until the arrival of American loyalists in the late 1700s.
They were given Bahamian land in return for their loyalty to Britain during the American War of Independence. As well as Rum Cay, they settled in Cat Island, Exuma and San Salvador, bringing thousands of enslaved Africans with them. They carved cotton plantations out of the stunted bush, and on Rum Cay they also developed a profitable salt industry.
When the British abolished slavery in the 1830s, “the masters went back to where they came from, the slave bosses took over, and the land was divided up,” according to one elderly resident interviewed in the 1970s by researchers from the Bahamian Field Station on San Salvador.
After two major hurricanes in the early 20th century destroyed farms and damaged the salt pans, the island slipped into obscurity and decline. People left to find work in Miami or Nassau, and most of the settlements died out. By the late 1940s, none of the original white families (with names like Dorsett and Forsythe) were left.
As one researcher observed in the 1970s, “the older generation fears that with their deaths, there will eventually be no-one left on the island.” Tourism was seen then as the only viable option, but until today even that has failed to take off:
“A combination of resignation, continued emigration and a lack of capital will probably mean that (foreign) developers rather than people born on Rum Cay will determine the island’s future.”
And that is exactly what is happening.
Besides the Montana project, and the redevelopment of the Sumner Point Marina, at least three rival groups are vying for the opportunity to carve up Rum Cay, in a feeding frenzy that is slowly ruffling the calm waters of Wellington Bay.
“They come here to take the land and work it and don’t ask no questions of nobody,”said 90-year-old Advilda Scavella, a sharp-minded former seamstress who is Rum Cay’s oldest resident.
Chief among the rivals is Newport Harbour's Billy Wayne Davis, a bankrupt preacher/politician who has been in financial trouble with the law in several US states. He has blocked the public road along the coast and is busy bulldozing a patchwork of roads and clearings through old plantations west of the Montana property. He also claims ownership of 32 lots within Port Nelson itself.
Island Aquisitions, headed by George Diaz, a relative of Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz, claims over a thousand acres around the ruined settlements of Carmichael and Black Rock on the western end of the island, where Sir Milo Butler was born. But the Butler family recently took out an injunction to stop land clearing and real estate sales until title disputes are resolved.
A third group is led by Mike Fothergill, a convicted American felon whose Rum Cay Ventures is also developing home sites on disputed land. Although they are said to despise each other, Fothergill (who is still on Federal probation for money laundering and bank fraud) and Davis recently decided to end their squabbling over contested land and set up an uneasy truce to divide the spoils.
These groups are, of course, all represented by powerful, politically-connected Nassau lawyers like Philip ‘Brave’ Davis (the island’s MP) and Carl Bethel (a former attorney-general). And the title chains they base their claims on go back to the earliest land grants in the Bahamas via one central figure – a long-dead woman named Effie Knowles.
As one observer predicted more than 30 years ago: “Like a dead animal in the forest, Rum Cay will be fought over and picked clean, most likely before anyone realises what has happened.”
And while the locals whittle away the time at Kaye’s Bar or the Last Chance general store waiting patiently for Cat Island Air to show up, feuding foreigners on a mission flit in and out on their private planes and luxury yachts, interacting with each other like characters from Peyton Place.
This weekend’s official activities offer an ideal opportunity for Prime Minister Perry Christie to clarify the country’s development policy. Do we need a more rigid land policy? How about a land reform commission? And are there alternatives to the so-called “anchor project” model of development?
My younger brother who is a firefighter in Key Largo sent me your article in an e-mail.
I was thrilled to read this bit of history about an island that I spent many summers on from the time I was 13 until after I graduated from Miami Palmetto High School in 1972.
My Dad was an extraordinary man. His accomplishments were insurmountable. Some family members thought that may have been the reason for his suicide. He'd done it all and then his dream and love for Rum Cay melted in front of him. He had been to the top, there just wasn't much more for him.
Anyway, thank you for the good story, it brought tears to my eyes. Of course there is much, much more to Dad's story, but you got closer to the truth than even National Geographic did about 20 some years ago on an article about Rum Cay. Don't get me wrong, I've been a National Geographic reader for almost 30 years. But you hit some good spots.
Posted by: Jacqueline Edgerton Olson | August 29, 2006 at 05:42 PM
It's amazing how somebody can throw so many words in row in one sentence to deliberately tear apart a person's character. Billy Davis is not bankrupt. In fact, he has proven to be a successful and credible entrepreneur. He was never a preacher, although he did work as a DEACON in a church in the early eighties for a short time. He was a politician in the early eighties who was elected TWICE by the people, so they must have liked him. You think? Billy Davis never blocked ANY public roads in Rum Cay. In fact, he helped the locals on the island gain government support to finally get their roads paved. He does not simply CLAIM to own properties, he DOES own them and it is factual because the Bahamian Government recognizes the deeds as legal and factual. Also, the Miami Supreme Court agrees. Learn your facts. I'm sure you'll post this for everyone to see since it is the truth. Right?
Posted by: Jason | August 21, 2007 at 04:03 PM
Davis is a disgraced Arizona politician and bankrupt who was convicted and imprisoned for bank fraud in the US during the 1990s.
I did not convict him.
I saw the roads that he blocked.
His - and almost every other - claim to property on Rum Cay is in dispute.
Of course, he may not be bankrupt now.
Posted by: larry smith | August 21, 2007 at 05:03 PM
Before the arrival of Billy Davis on Rum Cay, there were no roads to block. The only roads he may have blocked were the ones that he himself built on HIS property which the Bahamian Government recognizes. Prove to me that a public road was blocked. Prove to me. And if you can't then you owe your readers an appology for your spoken falsehoods. The dispute is over. The Davis deeds are legit. The gavel has been pounded.
I would like for you to explain to me how YOUR word is higher than that of the Bahamian government.
I do know that bank fraud was not the conviction, and I also know that there was no money involved in the charge.
A disgraced politician? I have yet to find research to suggest that he would be disgraced. I suppose it would be one's own definition. By typical standards, I haven't seen a politician that hasn't made a mistake.
Walt Disney went bankrupt 3 times. Albert Einstein failed out of high school. Many people have had their ups and downs financially. I'm sure your readers would agree with me that you should not cut somebody down because they were broke at one time in their life.
You seem to make your judgements and accusations based upon your own feelings and opinions and just like most of the media, you spit out your words before doing your research. That, my fellow human being, is a disgrace.
Mr. Davis has given more blood, sweat, and help to that island and many other islands in The Bahamas than anybody else. Stop your slander. You speak harshly of people you do not know.
I would have to base my feelings and opinions about you on the simple notion that you have a lifelong hatred for good people because of your own jealousies.
These other people you speak of may be what you say and they may still be disputing with each other, but there is no more dispute in the courts.
Explain to me what his disgrace is. I've found that he gives money to charities. He has been married to the same woman for over 40 years. He has given computers and other technologies to the schools of the islands. He has flown the sick to good hospitals in Nassau and Florida. He has paid for and given medical supplies to the people including an ambulance. He has been a leader in civil rights movements throughout the world. He is still a member of the Republican committee. There is so much more. The people of Rum Cay appreciate Mr. Davis and all that he brings to them.
What have YOU done for the world, Mr. Smith?
Posted by: Jason | August 22, 2007 at 04:38 PM
You state about Montana - "..... It marked the start of a $90 million residential/resort development, that could expand to a $700 million investment at full build-out."
Must be big condos for $700 million and jus 200 of them. I read that the other 100's of millions that Montana said past the $90 million was what the utilities on Rum Cay would be worth to them through the Government in their Heads of Agreement.
The Tribune said early on that they were involved with some kind of company in England or Europe called Sath (not sure of spelling), and that the electrie or phone would be controlled by Sath. Is this true? What does BEC say about dem getting that controll? Is that not a lot of money for utilites?
Posted by: Angee | August 22, 2007 at 05:58 PM
Perhaps Jason could enlighten us on the specific court decisions he so confidently refers to.
Posted by: larry smith | August 23, 2007 at 07:25 AM
I can't answer Angee's question directly. But I do know that the provision of utilities in small isolated settlements is not cost-effective. That's one of the reasons successive governments have tried to enlist foreign developers. Morton Salt on Inagaua, for example, is trying to offload its power plant to BEC right now. And BEC can barely keep up with demand on New Providence. It must spend $80 million to build a new power plant within the next two years.
Posted by: larry smith | August 23, 2007 at 08:42 AM
Is there any word on the Eastern portion of the island...the Rum Cay Ventures portion? Did the ruling come back in their favor thus determining clear chain of title?
Also, I have heard they are going to be extending power to that side of the island...is there any truth in it?
Posted by: Bill Peterson | August 29, 2007 at 10:50 PM
The conviction was in simplest terms: Giving false records to the credit bureau.
From what I gathered, these actions were made by his accountant, but he (Davis) said " . . . that as CEO, I have take full responsibilty for the company's actions."
I'm quoting this because I read the the court transcripts.
I also must apologize, Mr. Smith for speaking to you in a derogatory manner. I strongly uphold my opinions and beliefs, but I should be civil and polite when speaking about them.
Posted by: Jason | September 02, 2007 at 03:13 AM
Davis was sentenced by the Northern District Court of Alabama in 1994 to a fine of $5,000 and two-months imprisonment followed by a three-year probation (which he subsequently violated).
The charge (to which he pleaded guilty) was that in November 1989 he made false claims to America's First Credit Union in Birmingham, Alabama to influence the approval of a $200,000 loan.
The indictment included the following passage: "At various times in 1986 Davis attempted to negotiate the purchase of Raymond and Merrill McDonald's interest in the Effie Knowles estate, which consisted primarily of Knowles' claim to ownership in thousands of acres of Bahamian real estate. The McDonald's were residual beneficiaries to Knowles' will. Davis also signed an agreement with a Fort Lauderdale attorney, Robert Paige, to purchase the rights to the title to these same properties following the probate of Effie Knowles' will in Florida. Davis paid a total of $15,000 toward the $60,000 contract price before Paige voided the agreement due to Davis' nonpayment under the contract. At no time did Davis ever pay the McDonalds, Paige or anyone else, individually or collectively, $1 million at cost for the Effie Knowles estate."
But let me rephrase my earlier question: what are the specific court rulings you rely on to state that "the dispute is over - the Davis deeds are legit."
Posted by: lar | September 03, 2007 at 01:05 PM
My ex husband and I bought property on the Island of Rum Cay in August 29, 2002 in the name of James G Papagno - Lot #20 of a 80 acre tract with Rum Cay Ventures. I am trying to find information if this was sold or any title or deed information since this property is 50% of my ownership.
Could any one help direct me to get this information?
Posted by: Cynthia | August 05, 2008 at 07:28 PM
Davis wrote a contract for acreage on Rum Cay that was surveyed by Leonard Cheatow it was for one parcel @ $180.000 the contract was written by Gloria Miller @ Quality Title. Gloria was a Personal Rep on the will of Effie Knowles along with Paige. The contract was between the MacDonalds and Davis. Davis paid in bad checks. I worked with Gloria I was there
Posted by: PAULA SHEIRR | August 08, 2008 at 04:05 PM
Having visited Rum Cay a few times in the past, I fell in love with the island. However, I fear development will destroy the very thing that makes Rum Cay such a wonderful place, away from the hands of greedy developers and politicians. I know one cannot stop progress but this type develoment is not progress but rather devastation. I am glad that I will carry the memories of predeveloped Rum Cay with me forever.
Posted by: Donald Attilio | June 23, 2009 at 12:27 PM
WAS WONDERING, ANY HELP??????
Posted by: lar | September 03, 2007 at 01:05 PM
My ex husband and I bought property on the Island of Rum Cay in August 29, 2002 in the name of James G Papagno - Lot #20 of a 80 acre tract with Rum Cay Ventures. I am trying to find information if this was sold or any title or deed information since this property is 50% of my ownership.
Could any one help direct me to get this information?
Posted by: Shell | August 19, 2009 at 08:46 PM