Blue Lagoon Island

Blue Lagoon Island is a private island located three miles away from Nassau, Bahamas. It is home to eighteen Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins and six California Sea Lions at Dolphin Encounters. Prior to 1979, this island was frequented by royalty and many other public figures.

History

The Beginning

In 1875, Charles King-Harmon, a Brit who was later knighted and became Governor of Cyprus, bought the island from the British Crown for only 35 Pounds. He owned it for 11 years, until he sold it to a Bahamian, Sir Augustus John Adderley, for 105 British Pounds. Adderley kept it for six years. Two Americans who wanted to cultivate corn and vegetables offered him 145 Pounds. The farming effort failed miserably and in 1902 they sold it to Abraham Van Winkle for a 10 Pounds loss (135 British Pounds).

Van Winkle hired hundreds of laborers to dredge out the salt marsh and blasted a cut into the lagoon from the sea, planted 5000 palm trees and built over a mile of meandering concrete paths. He later imported a zoo of monkeys, peacocks, turkeys, pheasants, parrots, and iguanas to populate the paradise garden. He shared the island with the public by bringing guests over on his boat for $1 a head.

McCutcheon Family

From 1916 to 1979 (63 years) the island was owned by the McCutcheon family. John T. McCutcheon was The Chief Foreign Correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and was recognized as the dean of American political cartoonists. He purchased the island (Salt Cay) by mail sight unseen for $17,500 from the estate of Van Winkle, a New Jersey manufacturer who had died. He called it Treasure Island and for decades it was known under that name in The Bahamas.

Pirates and Privateers

The lagoon used to be a salt marsh in the late 1800’s. That’s how the island got its legal name Salt Cay. Numerous pirates and privateers used the island, not to bury treasure, but to cull salt from the lagoon to preserve their food. They also used the island as a rest stop while they waited for permission to enter Nassau Harbour.

During World War II, the island was requisitioned for a year by the allies for use as a secret training base for three teams of British and American underwater demolition squads who would swim the seven miles around the island every day. Explosives and depth charges were blown up regularly around the island, and in the evenings, just for fun, they would toss hand grenades over the cliff. It was felt that the concussions weakened the cliff that so much that it caused the small fort to collapse.

The Entrance Tower

A three-story concrete tower replaced a wooden one which was destroyed during a hurricane. Holes were chiseled out of the masonry on the tower’s ground floor and John T’s rock collection was pasted into the wall with India ink labels scrawled below each stone identifying it.

Distinguished Guests

Among certain social circles in Chicago and elsewhere it was becoming a mark of distinction to be invited to McCutcheon’s private island. He hosted numerous European Earls, Counts, Dukes and Duchesses. They were joined by American luminaries of the period such as Drew Pearson (journalist), authors John Dos Passos, James Thurber, Arthur Crock, Archibald MacLeish and Kenneth Roberts.

Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne, who were friends of author John Marquand, came down once for a two week visit. Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote part of her book, “Gifts From The Sea”, during her stay on Blue Lagoon Island.

Reporters sometimes shadowed visiting socialites, returning stateside later to write up breathless accounts of the place, which of course heightened the island’s fame further.

Part of the charm of the island used to be the primitive living conditions. The lack of communications became a humorous nuisance in the 1970’s when Caspar Weinberger, who was then Nixon’s Secretary of Defense, visited for a few days. Whenever Nixon wanted to reach Weinberger the White House had to call a local marina in Nassau, who would send a boat to the island and take Weinberger back to Nassau to return the call. Nixon was most likely not impressed.

In 1991, the same storm that inspired the book and movie “The Perfect Storm” cut the island in two at the northwestern corner of the lagoon where the current bridge is located. On a sunny, clear, windless day, the island experienced 30 foot swells generated by the storm over 1,000 miles away.

In February 1979, L.A. Meister, the current owner, visited for the first time. At the time, author William Styron was putting the finishing touches on his soon-to-be bestseller, “Sophie’s Choice” on the island. In October 1979, Blue Lagoon Island was sold to Mr. Meister who became the island's sixth owner.

Famous visitors

James Marquand (author); Charles and Mrs. Lindbergh; William Styron (author); King Paul of Greece and Lord Tredagar, direct descendent of the pirate Henry Morgan; Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake & Palmer rock band wrote an instrumental “Salt Cay” for his solo album “Honky”; the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (occasional guests while the Duke was Governor of The Bahamas in the 1940’s; USA VP Charles Gates Dawes

Other visitors included society queens, literati, European nobility, and national politicians.

Further reading

References

* H. Shaw McCutcheon. "A Family Island"