Salt Cay

The island of Salt Cay is an island of the archipelago of Turkish, dependant on the territory of the Turkish islands and Caïques. By its surface, it is the second island of the archipelago of the Turkish ones. The name of the island comes from the Saline S which made the prosperity of the island formerly.

Salt Cay is a triangular small island of form of a size of 7,1 km ² whose the large with dimensions one measures approximately 3 kilometers.

Near the island the small island of Cay Knitting machine is (1,1 km ²) and some other small islands.

Population of the island east of 120 people (rec. from 2001), concentrated in the only city of the island, Balfour Town, on the west coast.

History

The first European to discover the island was the Spanish conqueror Juan Ponce of León which unloaded in 1512 there. The island at the time was populated by the Indians Arawaks. The Spaniards reduced Arawaks in slavery and off-set elsewhere them, leaving the uninhabited islands.

Inhabitants of the Bermuda came at the XVIIe century to establish there an industry of the salt which was going to make the prosperity of the island for the 300 years to come. The Turkish islands became a British colony in 1766.

In the years 1920-1930, the competition of other islands and the absence of deep water port made péricliter the industry of salt. With close a short rebound in the years 1940 because of the war, the production of salt finished definitively in 1964.

District

The district of Salt Cay includes, in addition to the island of itself, the uninhabited small islands which surrounds it. The total surface area of the district is of 9,1 km ².

External bonds

Tourist site - information on Salt Cay

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