Some News, Reviews and Accolades

"Sitting high on an 80 foot hill, overlooking a fabulous panorama of sea and islands, is BLUFF HOUSE. It is a place for the discriminating folk who enjoy quiet simplicity and natural beauty.

Tourist's Guide to the Out Islands - Lloyd R. Wilson & James Landfield

"Certainly the piece de resistance must be the BLUFF House with its spectacular view of the Sound and the islands to the south. The Club extends a quiet, deep-cushioned atmosphere in which everyone feels completely at ease"

Bahamas Islands - A Guide to the Land and Water

...we checked in and cooled off with a Tranquil Turtle. ... There seemed to be just one rule: If we wanted dinner we had to sign up by five. We could handle that. A variety of easy-wading sand and grass flats - plus lots of big bonefish - make the Green Turtle area a fly fisherman's paradise.

Salt Water Sportsman

A rustic retreat where a visitor can doze in a hammock on a white sandy beach without seeing another person all day.

U.S. News and World Report

A Bit of History

Arawak speakers, called the Lucayans, were probably the first to inhabit these islands and navigate these waters in their dugout canoes. In the wake of Columbus, Spanish Conquistadors enslaved these gentle people and took them to the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean to dive for pearls.

In the mid-seventeenth century, Harbour Island, New England and Bermudian fishers braved these waters(infested with Spanish raiders and pirate vessels) to strike turtle, to hunt whales, to cut logwood and to salvage wrecks. Pirates careened their sloops in the sound and the notorious Captain Charles Vane brought two prize ships into Green Turtle Cay. It is possible his quartermaster Calico Jack Rackam and pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read sailed with him. In 1704, a New England Whaler captured a pirate vessel near Marsh Harbour.

Bluff House Beach Hotel originally started out as the private home in the 1950's of Pearce ans Kitty Coady, well know restaurantuers from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Over the years Pearce and Kitty added rooms for friends until 1978 when they sold out to a family from Minneapolis.

The resort has had many additions, but is now entering its most exciting phase under new owners, headed by Roger and Susan Phillips.

The first American Loyalists to come to Abaco were refugees from New York. Banished from theirhomeland after the Revolutionary War, they arrived at Carleton (Treasure Cay, Abaco) in August of 1783. Later, hundreds of American Loyalists from East Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina, joined them. The soil refused to support the vast plans of these wealthy landowners and by the close of the 18th century, disillusioned planters began to leave Abaco. A few diehard Loyalists remained to take up subsistence farming. Loyalists Adam's, Malone and Weatherford joined Bahamians Roberts, Sawyer, Saunders, Russell, Curry, Bethel and Lowe, whose families had been in these islands for over a hundred and fifty years.

Founded by artist Alton Lowe in l976, the Albert Lowe Museum houses photographs and artifacts of the descendants of these early settlers. The Memorial Sculpture Garden, created by James Mastin, opened in 1987 and honors these early settlers in a living museum. Raw courage characterized the life of these people. The Cherokee Sound baptismal record, dated 1830, listed one father's occupation as: "Planter, wrecker, fisherman or anything else to make a living."

\By the mid 1850's, Green Turtle Cay became the wrecking capital of the Abacos. New York, New Plymouthand Key West became a mini-triangle of trade. The basement of the museum housed wrecked goods until they could be sold.

During the 20th Century, seafaring industries continued to prove most profitable for Abaconians. Crawfishers have replaced whalers and pleasure boats have replaced dugout canoes.