Time Travel and Victoria Pond on Exuma

by Larry Smith

GEORGE TOWN, EXUMA - Basil Minns was time-travelling again when I met him last week.

He always does when he visits the Peace and Plenty Hotel here. It's where he was born 81 years ago, and where he spent his childhood helping to run the family's general store on the ridge overlooking Elizabeth Harbour.

This historic waterfront inn was a sponge market before the Minns family took it over in the late 1800s. The cut limestone walls of the main building enclose the hotel's lobby and office today, and what was once the outdoor kitchen is now an atmospheric bar.

A number of prominent American loyalists received land grants on Exuma after the War of Independence, and developed large cotton plantations that eventually failed. The island was a backwater from the end of slavery until the Second World War, when the US Navy built a base and airstrip near George Town.

The planters attributed their failure to "the indiscriminate cutting down of trees" and "clearing and planting more land than they could properly attend." This led to erosion of the thin soil and the collapse of commercial agriculture. Former slaves were left to fend for themselves in scattered settlements that often took the name of their defunct plantations.

George Town itself was created by the Settlement Act of 1792, which subdivided 25 acres along the ridge facing Elizabeth Harbour going west from the public dock to where the derelict Pieces of Eight Hotel stands today, and partially encircling Victoria Pond - a large mangrove lake behind the ridge. A century or so later, land around the eastern half of the lake was laid out for an extension of the town.

A short navigable channel connects Victoria Pond to the harbour, and Basil Minns happily recalls fishing there as a boy. "Grunts by the thousands would come through the canal on the spring tides and we could easily catch our fill. There was plenty of other fish in the pond too - mullets, tarpon, young groupers and much more."

In the early 1950s Minns was a photographer for the Development Board (forerunner of the Ministry of Tourism) before setting up a small boatyard on Victoria Pond at around the time that his childhood home was being converted into a 32-room inn by American developers.

The 1957 opening of the Peace and Plenty (named after a Loyalist ship) marked the beginnings of tourism on Exuma. Today, Basil's daughter, Diane, runs Sandpiper Arts & Crafts opposite the hotel, selling upscale gifts, paintings and ceramics to the thousands of "yachties" and hundreds of second homers and retirees who visit or live in George Town.

Victoria Pond is a unique feature of the settlement. It is part of a natural wetland system that few Bahamians appreciate and that are often destroyed as a result. But some, like Basil Minns, know from experience that ecosystems like this are key to the survival of the natural environment that underpins our way of life.

Victoria Pond connects to nearby Chim Pond via a polluted channel colloquially known as Ugly Corner. And Chim Pond connects to the sea near February Point, an upscale housing development just outside of town that wants to replace the wetland with a marina.

Over the years, following a pattern replicated on many other islands, this natural wetland was severely degraded. Mangroves were destroyed, invasive plants took hold, portions were filled in for parking lots, causeways were built, septic tanks leaked toxic waste into the water, and the whole system became an unsightly dumping ground - right in the centre of town.

A proto regulatory framework exists at the national level that purports to deal with such issues. The National Wetlands Policy, for example, acknowledges that these ecosystems are "vital to the survival of a vast array of plants, animals, fish, birds, insects, reptiles and other flora and fauna. It is very difficult to place a measure on their economic value or loss."

The recently passed Planning and Subdivision Act provides for land use planning on every island, together with "the preservation of environmentally sensitive land, including wetlands." But rarely, if ever, do these well-intentioned policies filter down to the community level. The gradual deterioration of the George Town ponds is a prime example.

Dr Kathleen Sullivan Sealey is a frequent visitor to Exuma and a good friend of Basil Minns. She is also a top-flight marine scientist at the University of Miami, with decades of experience working on projects throughout the Bahamas and the region. She recently joined a government-sponsored expedition to the Cay Sal Bank to conduct an ecological assessment prior to any impact we might suffer from the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Sullivan Sealey is acutely aware of the problems involved in communicating science and promoting conservation at the local level. There is often a systematic denial of the validity of environmental concerns in the Bahamas, she says, and if people don't personally see the value of regulations, they simply ignore them.

Recognising that Victoria Pond and the channel connecting it to other embayments were clogged with trash and posed a public health threat with rats, mosquitoes, and the leaching of raw sewage that flowed with the tide (including floating solids) into the harbour, she put together a restoration plan for the wetlands last year with local government support.

"This pond is a microcosm of everything that is wrong with the entire country," she told me during an inspection tour last week. "In this project we are implementing national policy at the local level with the help of partners in business, education, the district council and the Ministry of Tourism. For once in my life I don't want to just write research papers, I want to do something concrete - and this is do-able."

The project aims to turn the pond system into a nature preserve, after cleaning it up, removing invasive plants, and restoring the natural drainage and tidal flow. Community outreach and environmental stewardship programmes are being developed to manage the preserve over the long term. Improvements in coastal water quality and near-shore fish habitat will also be documented.

Sullivan Sealey was involved with marine research in Elizabeth Harbour in the mid-1990s. "It showed me how precipitously the water quality was declining around George Town. And I saw that they were killing this pond system which connects to the harbour. People often don't realise how important the environment is to their life. Victoria Pond is a stinking, anorexic hotspot that degrades the whole economy of Exuma."

So last year she set about recruiting businesses, second homers, students, teachers and other volunteers to remove trash and weeds, create perimeter buffer zones, build rock revetments, plant mangroves and other native vegetation, open up the clogged channels, and map septic tank locations. Outreach meetings have been held with residents to explain what is going on and enlist their support.

Chris Kettel of the George Town-based Exuma Foundation will expand a summer environmental stewardship programme for the pond. Students will be hired to continue clean-up activities and restoration work, develop signage for the preserve, and help plan similar projects at public parks and wetlands on the island. A native plant nursery has also been set up at the Foundation to provide thousands of slips for the re-vegetating exercise.

And the Exuma Foundation, in conjunction with the National Wetlands Committee (headed by John Bowleg), has applied for a $1.1 million grant from UNESCO to complete the project and undertake long-term ecological and water-quality monitoring. District council chief Teddy Clarke is fully behind the project.

According to Sullivan Sealey, "Bahamians depend on the coast for their culture, economy and national identity. Rapid growth, along with dredge and fill development and increased use of septic tanks, has led to the destruction of coastal wetlands and loss of critical ecosystem services. Each major island should have a management plan to maintain a functional island landscape.

"Our vision for this project is to demonstrate that a highly altered coastal wetland can be restored to regain ecological function. This will show that people can live comfortably with, and benefit from, mangrove wetlands and their associated wildlife. Our goal is to improve fish habitat - how can anyone argue with that? Fish is what everyone wants."

Basil Minns is also in favour of restoring Victoria Pond, where he used to fish as a child. in fact, he was instrumental in the creation of the Moriah Cay National Park at the less developed eastern end of Elizabeth Harbour. One of the last acts of the first Ingraham administration in 2002 was to set aside this park, in the face of a proposed foreign development.

Minns was able to solict popular support for the park from residents of Rolletown and other nearby settlements, but was disappointed that the entire area he mapped was not included. The new president of the Bahamas National Trust, Neil McKinney, has been leading discussions with the government to expand the park lease to incorporate more of the original area.

"Victoria Pond needs to be fixed, but this end of the harbour is still relatively healthy and pristine," Minns told me last week on the bluff overlooking Moriah Cay. "We want to keep it that way."

It would be a great legacy for this Exuma time traveller.

Comments

[Rick Lowe]

Wonderful story Larry.
Thanks as usual for your historical perspective on these stories.

[Godfrey Lightbourne]

On August 31, 1956, a few of my chosen crew and I (Cavalier Construction) set off in Bahamas Airways’ twice monthly widgeon goose service to GEORGE TOWN.

We set up the upstairs of the Minns’ home as a dormitory to accommodate 12, and I claimed the annex, which must have been built after Lawrence Lewis purchased the property in 1954.

Mr. Lewis wanted to build an inn of 20 rooms and Lorne Minns (brother of Basil) had done a preliminary design from which I then completed details and structural designs, including retaining walls and two 100,000 gal. rainwater tanks, one under each new building.

The “Old Horse Eye” with Captain Percy Sweeting aboard arrived not too long afterward with our first order of lumber and essentials, both from Kelly’s Lumber Yard and Kelly’s Hardware. My very close friend Basil Kelly saw to all matters of getting “her” loaded. That was done in the back of J. P. Sands' grocery store, where the Sunley Building is now located. A half-ton Chevy pick-up and a rex ½ cu. yd concrete mixer comprised our heavy equipment.

Excavation of the rainwater tanks was the key to progress, and we set to work with rock axes, picks, shovels and dynamite! We proceeded with a few chosen hands who had arrived on ”Old Horse-Eye” and a keen work force conscripted from Georgetown, Mt Thompson. Rolletown. Forbes Hill and Moss Town. Later hirings reached as far as Rolleville, Barre Tarre and Richmond Hill.

Our work force gradually built up to 60 men, including electricians and plumbers. Our electrical contractor was K.S. Darling and Co, with super Sammy Brennen. And our plumber was W.C. Johnson (good name for a plumber) His son, Creswell, was on the job, and has never left Georgetown.

Of special mention was our time-keeper, Felix Bowe. He was the brother of Max Bowe of “The Forest” fame, and related to Nigel Bowe.

Felix had once represented Canada in the Olympics, and had serves as Out Island Commisioner in West End, Grand Bahama during Probition days. I dined at his residence and gained an education of our Bahamas which I would otherwise have missed. He was second to none.

As an engineer I had cut my teeth in Nassau supervising construction jobs for Audley Boyce - the first Prince George Wharf extension and what are now named Pioneer Dock and John Alfred Wharf, the Dolphin Hotel structurals, and the foundations at Nassau Beach Hotel, renovations for Harold Hoffer, and a toilet extension for Jack Bott.

I selected some key men from the forgoing, as well as Octavis Brennen who had just completed the Towne Hotel under Ralph Parks.

We worked late unloading “Old Horse Eye” when she arrived. I was even able to take 10 days off to go to Bermuda and get a third in the Snipe Western Hemispheres Championship, with Geofrey Johnstone as my crew.

Linton Rigg gave authority for the new Heron aircraft to land on the “then not handed over first airport”. Reason being, the scheduled Widgeon was not able to make it, and Mr. Rigg needed to catch the same BOAC plane as us to New York.

In addition to Mr. Rigg, I had the pleasure every morning at coffee time from the TWO TURTLES (Messrs Morton and Charles Turtle) who had recently retired and were living on Stocking Island.

Excavation and construction went ahead. No inspectors came from anywhere, but our concrete and construction was good.

Our cracked rock aggregate was broken along the roadsides by ladies who with hammers earned 2 shillings a bushel, which we collected in our Chevy truck. We did have some outside help - John Marshall, who trucked in water from the abandoned naval base, and Captain Sweeting when “Old Horse Eye” was in.

Construction began on September 1, 1956 and the Peace & Plenty was ready for a soft opening on April 7, 1957 for that year's Out Island Regatta.

The inn cost 60,000 pounds and took seven months to complete. I was never able to get future Cavalier jobs to best that, although Club Med first phase was the next closest.

I look forward to your columns, and admire your research.