Interesting Historical Landmarks to discover in the Turks & Caicos Islands

History buffs get ready - go back in time on this Caribbean Island to explore lighthouses, ruins, architecture and plantations that is sure to impress...

The Turks and Caicos have been inhabited for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years and evidence of that life can be found throughout our islands.

The Turks and Caicos National Museum in Grand Turk is an ideal way to get a snapshot of the history for the islands, from the original Taino and Lucayan Indian inhabitants who Columbus found when he first arrived, to colonial era settlers who thrived off the salt industry, to the 20th century fishing and boating industries that sustained the islands before tourism arrived in the 1980s.

On Grand Turk there is also a famous lighthouse, a former US Coast Guard base, as well as a monument to the US Space Program, honoring John Glenn’s splashdown there in 1962 after the first manned space mission in history.

On Providenciales, visit the ruins Cheshire Hall where English loyalist Thomas Stubbs settled on Providenciales and started his plantation. They produced sea island cotton here which was quickly preferred by the expanding textile industries of England.

Historical points of interest can be found in Middle Caicos at Bambarra beach (home of the first African settlers in Turks & Caicos, who arrived here as a result of a shipwrecked slave trader in 1842. When they made their way to land, they were granted freedom under British law). Walk the 2-mile Crossing Place Road to get a true sense of the way island life used to be.

On North Caicos, Wade's Green Plantation, gives visitors glimpse into plantation life dating back to1789 when Wade Stubbs was one of the most successful planters. While the plantation was composed of over 3,000 acres of agricultural land, the area you will visit is the plantation town, where Wade Stubbs and his associated plantation staff and family resided.

The Boiling Hole on South Caicos is a natural historic site is situated amidst the salt ponds, and was very significant in the salt production era of the Turks and Caicos, pumping water back and forth between the sea and the ponds.

Salt Cay is a registered worldwide heritage site and visitors can get a glimpse into how the salt industry sustained the Turks & Caicos, as well as the Bermudian architecture of the day at sites such as The White House and The Brown House.

Even our uninhabited island can give visitors a taste of our history. On West Caicos, for example, an old railroad system is still present, used by settlers in the 1800s who grew sisal for a period of time. Off Fort George Cay, you can see remains of cannons, presumably used by the English to fend of pirates.