The beginning of remarkable change.

Story & Photos By Richard Grainger

The article in the Winter 2023/24 issue of Times of the Islands, “Blue Hills—An Authentic Seaside Settlement,” reminded me of my first visit to Blue Hills in 1971. At that time, it was the name of the entire island of Providenciales, not just one settlement. It was the beginning of a great transition, not just for Blue Hills but for the whole territory of Turks & Caicos.

I first visited Blue Hills in the early 1970s under rather strange circumstances. I became the sole medical officer on Grand Turk after a period when there had been no regular doctor for some time. Locum general practitioners from Canada had provided an interim service so there was no handover or notes to introduce me. Indeed, there was no one in charge of the health service and nothing like a strategic plan, annual reports, or even proper financial accounts available.

Matron Molly Laycock walks along the beachside road; she ran the clinic in Blue Hills.

Fortunately, Matron Molly Laycock was able and adaptable and she took me around the Islands on a familiarisation tour. Blue Hills was one of the first clinics I visited. We left from the US Navy Base on Grand Turk on the early morning flight of Air Caicos in a Piper Aztec plane piloted by Berkely Barron. The flight to “Blue Hills” (as Providenciales was known locally at that time) took about forty minutes.

It was at this time that I learned about Fritz Ludington who had built two hotels in the Bahamas. When the Pindling government embarked on a policy of “The Bahamas is for Bahamians,” Fritz saw this as a time to leave there. He realized the enormous potential of Providenciales, as it became known.

At the time of my visit the population of Blue Hills was small. Packed coral roads linked the settlements of Blue Hills, Five Cays, and The Bight. There were no major roads, public electricity supply, running water, or other essentials but it was planned to develop the island into a major tourism destination. Fritz had to get approval for his development proposal with the help of Gus Lightbourne, who was the Blue Hills member of the legislature council.

The development proposal included the construction of the 4,500-foot, packed coral airport runway on which we were about to land. This was not at the site of the current international airport. The plan included the building of a hotel. A lease of 4,000 acres of Crown Land for development was agreed upon.

Scenic Turtle Cove was the area selected by Fritz Ludington to construct the Third Turtle Inn.

Scenic Turtle Cove was the area selected by Fritz to construct his hotel. He named it the Third Turtle Inn as it was his third hotel after the two in the Bahamas. The rationale was to provide a marina to base Fritz and his friends’ motor yachts so they did not have to sail down from Florida to fish. The Third Turtle was the first hotel in the eastern Caicos Islands, besides the Admiral’s Arms on South Caicos. There were several developments that followed this initial project such as the formation of the Provo Power Corporation and the establishment of Caicos Airways Limited. 

My first visit to Blue Hills some fifty years ago was at a time when many of the original plans were coming to fruition but great change was underway. Having arrived early, we went to the Third Turtle for breakfast. From there we travelled by truck to board a boat to get to Blue Hills, then off loaded our gear to be carried on the heads of local boys to the clinic.

There was little at Five Cays at that time apart from a lobster packing plant. Most of the “crayfish” were caught by Haitians free diving to considerable depths. Some of them eventually suffered from symptoms like the bends with collapsed lungs and neurological deficits. Quite a terrible price to pay for very small reward! Crayfish tails were sold for about 50 Jamaican cents (the Jamaican dollar was the currency in use then) so it was cheaper to eat crayfish than meat. Another local delicacy we got used to was conch fritters. The best fritters were produced by Mamma Ariza at Grand Turk airport.

There were many Haitians on the Islands who did most of the heavy work for minimal wages. Many had valuable skills but could not compete with the locals for permanent posts. For example, the government mechanics on Grand Turk condemned a couple of lorries as beyond repair and they were were dragged to the Grand Turk town dump and abandoned. Some Haitians rescued them and the lorries were back on the road the same day.

Hand-built Caicos sloops were crucial to the economy for fishing and transport between islands.

In the past, small hand-built wooden sailing boats were crucial to the TCI economy for fishing and transport between the Islands. The designs had evolved from earlier European designs introduced in the 18th century. The Caicos sloops were constructed using the hardwood of the West Indian locust tree and mahogany for the frames with Caicos pine for the planks. (The Caicos pine is the only native pine species in the Turks & Caicos Islands.) Lignum vitae and Jesuit bark were used for the fittings or recycled pieces were utilised. Blue Hills was the only place in the Turks & Caicos where remnants of this industry could still be seen at that time and I saw a sloop under construction as I went to Blue Hills Clinic.

Blue Hills is the oldest settlement on Providenciales, and at one time the entire island carried the name. After the salt industry began to develop on Grand Turk and Salt Cay, only a small number of people settled in Providenciales and lived by subsistence farming, fishing, and ship salvaging.

Blue Hills used to be the center for wreck salvaging in the Turks & Caicos. The many recorded wrecks on the reef off the north and west coasts show Providenciales was hazardous to seafarers before GPS became common. 

During a wilder time in Turks & Caicos history, the islands between Providenciales and North Caicos supported pirate bases due to their fresh water sources. In fact, what is one of the closest cays used to be known as Pirate Cay because of the buccaneers. The famous female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read were known to have operated from the island.

Caicos sloops were constructed using local hardwood.

In 1960 Hurricane Donna was one of the most powerful hurricanes to strike the Turks & Caicos, causing widespread destruction, yet amazingly did not take any lives. A significant storm surge—probably one of the highest seen in centuries due in part to the Caicos Islands lying across the path of the hurricane and damming the flow of water created by the low pressure and wind—isolated many communities for weeks. New channels were opened at quite a few locations, including Bottle Creek, and Water Cay was split in two. On my visit it was still possible to see the effects of Hurricane Donna. There were many abandoned houses as their occupants had moved to Grand Turk or the Bahamas. Many houses had lost their roofs and palm trees looked like telegraph posts without their leaf tops. 

It was on this visit to Blue Hills that I first met traditional midwives who provided basic health care, support, and advice during pregnancy and childbirth. Their training was based mainly on experience and knowledge gained through the traditions and practices of the communities where they lived. Few had received formal secondary education and training, but learned their trade by informal apprenticeship. One midwife I met was also using traditional healing methods and herbs. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) was said to have run a training course for the nurses in the Turks & Caicos although I was never able to find any syllabus that was used. Questioning the nurses it seemed that they were taught to use a sharp razor and sterilised string when cutting the baby’s umbilical cord. They were then instructed to give an injection of ergometrine to facilitate delivery of the placenta  to prevent postpartum bleeding. One nurse I spoke to did not agree, as local tradition seemed to suggest that a pint of blood should be lost after birth to flush out the uterus. She took me outside the clinic and showed me some plants that she boiled up to use instead of ergometrine.

This was a worrying situation to me, as supervision of the outer clinics was very limited because the doctor on South Caicos was virtually confined to that island. I decided to visit the outer clinics as often as possible and it threw up many interesting cases.

The WHO definition of health, formulated in 1948, describes it as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” In my opinion, conditions at Blue Hills at the time did not conform to that definition. It was a challenge to initiate change and distinguish when the change lead to progress.