Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) were first settled by the Taino Indian people from Hispaniola, the big island to the south. Numerous village sites have been discovered that date a early as 900 AD. However, Indian people had been visiting these islands from their homes in Haiti from a few hundred years before that. After using these islands for food gathering and staying a few months a year, they finally settled here full-time and became a people called the Lucayans.

The Lucayan people were unfortunate in their encounter with Europeans and were wiped out as a people in less than a generation from Spanish diseases and slave raiding that emptied not just these islands but the entire Bahama archipelago of this original population possbily as high as 100,000 people.

In 1513 Ponce deLeon stopped in Grand Turk on his way to Florida (Land of Flowers) and noted in his journal that these islands were uninhabited and except for a a ship-wrecked sailor or two, these islands remained basically uninhabited for another 200 years.

The people of Bermuda who were similar to the Lucayans began in 1700s to make good use of the Caicos Islands by finding ships wrecked off the reefs of the Caicos Banks and salvaging the remains of these unfortunate ships. They set up camps in Providenciales and North Caicos to watch for wrecks. The Bermudians took up sucessful salt raking in the Turks Islands.

While the Bermudians were sucessfully salt raking in the Turks Islands, the Caicos Islands were attracting settlers. Britain offered Loyalists grants of land in the empty southern Bahamas and Caicos Islands and many took up the offer of land by the close of 1700 and brought their families and their slaves. They attempted to start the plantation economy but the land was soon depleted and insects ravaged the crops so most of the Loyalist planters became discouraged and left for other islands or for their return to Europe.

Those who stayed on were further ravaged by a series of devasting hurricanes in the early 1800s. Bermudians had been building a profitable Salt Industry in the Turks Islands but the Loyalist Planters of the Caicos Islands only lasted about 30 years.

In the 1800s most of the Loayalists abandoned their slaves to the land. A few brought their slaves to Grand Turk to join the Bemudians in the salt trade.

Turks Islands were booming and high prices were being paid for salt produced in Grand Turk and Salt Cay and so the salt producers expanded operations to South Caicos.

This being the only economy, when the Turks customers found cheaper and closer sources for the salt purchase, the prices dropped and difficult times began again. New products like sisal fibre, sponges and lobster canning were tried but the decline continued. Government subsidies kept the inevitable from happening right up until the 1950s when finally the salt ponds were abandoned and many Turks and Caicos Islanders had to leave their land and country to earn enough money to support their families.

Hundreds moved to the Bahamas. Some found work on cargo ships that sailed past the islands and some moved to American east coast to find work.

World War II and the beginning of the Cold War brought military installations to Grand Turk and South Caicos. Lease payments and employment at the Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard bases provided much relief to the depressed economy of these Islands.

Shortly thereafter came the beginning of the Caribbean tourist boom and the disappearance of the traditional industries and the population grew rapidly. The number of available jobs far outstripped the native population.

In 1960 Hurricane Donna devastated all the agriculture. Jamaica became independent but Turks and Caicos Islanders chose to stay a British Crown Colony.

In exchange for 4,000 acres of land, a company called Provident Limited began to develop Providenciales. An airstrip was constructed, and soon came a ten-room hotel called The Third Turtle, and soon to follow were cars and roads. The airport opened for further development in tourism in 1968..

Between 1968 and 1992 there was much development - especially on Providenciales which saw the opening of two banks, a Club Med Turquoise and a golf course, and in 1985 cable television was introduced.

Since 1985, expansion in the Turks and Caicos has increased exponentially. From arts and culture to technology and engineering to tourism, not to mention real estate investment, TCI is proud of its development. For more information about Turks and Caicos and the prospects it can offer, please contact Peter Crawford Smith on his internet line at 416-619-0746 or on his cell at 649-231-2979. He looks forward to speaking with you and welcoming you to TCI!