Bahamas

Eight Mile Rock is the largest settlement on Grand Bahama Island, outside of Freeport/Lucaya, and is named after the eight miles of solid rock contained here.

The "town" is actually a string of settlements, each of which takes the name of the family who settled and still inhabits the land. Jones Town, Martin Town, Pinedale, Hanna Hill, Bartlett Hill, Wildgoose, and Hepburn Town are a few of the sub-settlements. Their respective families are chiefly descendants of freed slaves who now own the land because their families have inhabited it since the mid-nineteenth century.

Deadman's Reef is the home of Paradise Cove, where one can swim out to some of the best snorkeling reefs, and the Brown family, who have lived here for 100 years. A recent archaeological dig along the eroding beachfront unearthed many artifacts belonging to the Lucayan Indians—hearths, animal bones, pottery pieces, and shell beads. One of the most important Lucayan archaeological sites discovered to date, it has been dated at around 1200 to 1300 A.D.

Holmes Rock & Seagrape together form a little community known for a unique cave that sits behind a local night club. It is over 200 yards in diameter and produces fresh water at low tide and salt water at high tide.

About five miles from Freeport/Lucaya is Williams Town, a sleepy community nestled in pine trees and resting on what Bahamians call "generation land" -- land that is settled by a single family then passed on to its descendants. In this case, the town was settled by the great-grandfather of Joseph Williams, one of the older residents. Williams' ancestor was a slave liberated in Britain's Emancipation Act of 1834, which effectively freed all slaves in crown territory. In the Bahamas, all freed slaves were allowed to lay claim to whatever unsettled land they could find.

The town's oldest building is a shack that sits next to Traveller's Rest, the only restaurant around. At the end of Beach Way Drive there is also an old cemetery marked off with a stone wall. Inside, there's a monument to 21 Haitians who died at sea 1978. Near the waterfront, about 200 yards to the west of the jetty is a "boiling hole" an opening in the seafloor where cold, fresh water pours out.

Freeport is a city and free trade zone on the island of Grand Bahama, located approximately 100 mi (160 km) east-northeast of Fort Lauderdale, South Florida and gives its name to a district of the Bahamas.

In 1955, Wallace Groves, a Virginian financier with lumber interests on the island, was granted 50,000 acres (200 km²) of swamp and scrubland by the Bahamian government. On this was built the city of Freeport, which has grown to be the second most populated city in The Bahamas (over 50,000 in 2004) after the capital, Nassau.

The Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) operates the free trade zone, under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement signed in August of 1955 whereby the Bahamian Government agreed that businesses in the Freeport area will pay no taxes before 2054. The area of the land grants has been increased to 138,000 acres (558 km²).

Freeport Harbour is accessible by even the largest vessels, and has a cruise terminal, a container port, and a ship maintenance facility. Grand Bahama International Airport (IATA airport code: FPO, ICAO airport code: MYGF) handles nearly 50,000 flights each year.

Tourism complements trade as a revenue earner in Freeport, with over a million visitors each year. Much of the tourist industry is displaced to the seaside suburb of Lucaya, owing its name (but little else) to the pre-Columbian Lucayan inhabitants of the island. The city is often promoted as 'Freeport / Lucaya'.