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Mayaguana
About 60 miles north of Inagua and 350 miles south of Nassau, this island is considered the halfway point between South Florida and Puerto Rico and about 450 nautical miles off Palm Beach, Florida, making it a popular stopover for yachtsmen on a direct route to the Caribbean. Mayaguana meaning "Lesser Midwestern Land" and the only Bahama Island to retain its Arawak name is the least developed and most isolated of the family islands. The Island was uninhabited until 1812 when people began to migrate from nearby Turks Islands. Today Mayaguana has a population of 319 and is about 110 square miles.
Its largest settlement is Abraham’s Bay on the south coast; other settlements are the neighboring towns of Betsey Bay and Pirate’s Well in the northwest. The uninhabited areas of Upper Point (north shore), Northeast Point, and Southeast Point are largely inaccessible by road. Mayaguana is known for its fertile soil, which is good for farming, and its woody terrain. Hardwoods such as Common Lignum-vitae, Holywood Lignum-vitae and other hardwoods can be found throughout the island. The island is home to several government nature reserves. As the easternmost island in the Bahamian chain, Mayaguana is bordered to its east by deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean rich in conch, fish and shipwrecks. The island's unofficial coat-of-arms bears a Spanish coin, evoking the long-ago era when treasure-laden galleons sailed through on their way to Spain. Many underwater coral reefs are found off-shore, as well as shipwrecks.
The Island is home to the Bahamian Hutia, a rodent, a rodent that was thought to be extinct until the mid-1960s, as well as American Flamingoes, Bartsch’s Inguanas, Plovers, Terns, and Osprey. Nesting Sea Turtles can be found throughout the undeveloped eastern part of the island. About 118 species of bird are found on the island, including two large Brown Booby Colonies (a large seabird of the gannet family).
As the most isolated island, Mayaguana is one of the least visited by tourists in the Bahamas. Most tourists who visit do so for the isolation, scuba diving, bone fishing, snorkeling, ecotourism and duck hunting. The eastern part of the island is popular with advanced off-trail bikers.
Mayaguana has never really seen major growth; the country's mail boat system is the island’s primary form of communication, with boats visiting once a week for delivery and pickup. During NASA’s Project Mercury and The Apollo Program, the United States space program had a missile tracking station on what is now Mayaguana Airport, located at Abrahams’s Bay, The station was used to help keep Astronauts on course.
The Bahamian government has recently approved working with American investors MMC to turn Mayaguana into a “Free Trade Zone” complete with tourism development of approximately 14% of the island. Actually, this is 14% of the total landmass but essentially most of the coastal region. The proposal was met with moderate resistance by Mayaguanians, who look forward to economic expansion but are unsure of what change is to come. This development is projected to maintain the nature of the island as a quiet eco-tourist destination while still creating sustainable economic growth
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