Qualla: Cat Island, Bahamas

Cat Island, Bahamas: Introduction

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bahamas_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: ~~Uniongreen113~~, CC BY-SA 3.0. At the summit of the highest point in the Bahamas -- all 207 feet of it -- sits a tiny stone monastery that a single man built by hand. Father Jerome, born John Hawes, was an English architect who became a Franciscan hermit and spent his final years on Cat Island constructing The Hermitage atop Mount Alvernia. The building is barely larger than a garden shed, but its location gives it an outsized presence: from the peak, the Atlantic stretches east to the horizon while the shallow Bight of Acklins shimmers to the west. That a nation's highest point is topped not by a radio tower or a flag but by one man's act of devotion tells you something essential about Cat Island. This is a place where individual stories matter more than grand infrastructure.

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Image: Bahamas_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: ~~Uniongreen113~~ | CC BY-SA 3.0

Cat Island, Bahamas: Pirates, Loyalists, and a Disputed Name

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Trish Hartmann from Tampa, Florida, USA, CC BY 2.0. The Lucayan people called this island Guanima, meaning "middle waters land." For a time, Europeans believed it was Guanahani -- the very first island Columbus reached in the Americas -- until written records clarified that San Salvador held that distinction. The island's modern n...

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Image: Trish Hartmann from Tampa, Florida, USA | CC BY 2.0

Cat Island, Bahamas: Blue Holes and Boiling Water

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Trish Hartmann from Tampa, Florida, USA, CC BY 2.0. Cat Island is riddled with geological curiosities that have spawned centuries of folklore. Near Orange Creek, the Big Blue Hole plunges to depths that connect through underground caverns to the open ocean -- objects tossed into the freshwater lake have been known to emerge in the...

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Image: Trish Hartmann from Tampa, Florida, USA | CC BY 2.0

Cat Island, Bahamas: Sidney Poitier's First Stage

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit ISS Expedition 26 crew, Public domain. Arthur's Town, the island's capital settlement, was the childhood home of Sidney Poitier, who would become the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Poitier was born in Miami but raised on Cat Island, where his parents farmed tomatoes. He left for Nassau as a t...

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Image: ISS Expedition 26 crew | Public domain

Cat Island, Bahamas: Bark, Faith, and the Sound of a Saw

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Trish Hartmann from Tampa, Florida, USA, CC BY 2.0. The economic life of Cat Island runs on small-scale farming and one unusual export. Cascarilla bark, harvested from the Croton eluteria shrub that grows wild across the island, is shipped to Italy where it becomes an ingredient in Campari, fragrances, and medicines. It is a stran...

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Image: Trish Hartmann from Tampa, Florida, USA | CC BY 2.0