- Samana Cay
Samana Cay is a small island in the central
Bahamas , uninhabited most of the time, and believed by some researchers to have been the location of Columbus's first landfall, onOctober 12 ,1492 .The natives on the island that Columbus first landed on called it
Guanahani . Samana Cay was first proposed to be Guanahani byGustavus Fox in 1882, but the predominant theory for most of the 20th century gave the honor toSan Salvador Island (see theGuanahani article for a list of other candidates). However, in 1986Joseph Judge of the National Geographic magazine made new calculations based on Columbus's logs, and declared that Samana Cay was indeed the right location. Judge's identification has been controversial.The island is nine miles long (in the east-west direction) and between 1 and 2 miles wide. Its geographical coordinates are coord|23|05|N|73|45|W|region:BS_type:isle|display=inline,title.
Samana Cay had a permanent population during the first half of the 20th century (the ruins of this settlement are still visible on the south side of the island, near the western end), but is today uninhabited. Residents of nearby Acklins Island visit Samana Cay occasionally to collect
cascarilla bark, which grows abundantly on the island. The island is about 45 km² in area.External links
* [http://www.angelfire.com/sc3/paleogeography/ Paleogeographic evaluation furthering the Samana Cay landfall theory]
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