Settlements
Clarence Town, located in the south-central portion of the island, has a population of approximately 350 people. Nearby Deadman's Cay is the major settlement at the center of the island and is home to Deadman's Cay Airport, which offers several flights each week to Nassau and is the island's largest and busiest airport.
Mangrove Beach is the home of the island's boat-building trade, while Hamilton's is noted for its extensive cave system that is partially open for tours. Salt Pond is home of the Long Island Regatta, an annual event that draws tourists from around the world. Stella Maris, at the northern part of the island, is the center of the island's tourism industry and features several resorts. Buckley's is home to Nelson Granville MacFarlane Major High School, which frequently has the highest Bahamian GCSE scores among the nation's public schools, as well as the Long Island Library and Museum. Other settlements include Hamilton's, Scrub Hill, Simms, and Burnt Ground.
Most of the island's settlements are named after the families that first settled them. As a result, many (but not all) are named in the possessive form. The settlement of the Gray family, for example, is known as Gray's.
One main road, originally designed for carriages, runs from Cape Santa Maria, at the northern tip of Long Island, to the southern tip at Gordon's. Transport on Long Island is road-based, with limited taxi service available, particularly from Stella Maris to Deadman's Cay and Clarence Town.
Read more about this topic: Long Island, Bahamas
Famous quotes containing the word settlements:
“That those tribes [the Sac and Fox Indians] cannot exist surrounded by our settlements and in continual contact with our citizens is certain. They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement which are essential to any favorable change in their condition.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)