Artifact Repository

Not a term you hear every day, is it? “Museum” is apparently a legal term that may not be used here at GTMO -- instead, an “artifact repository” is the allowable descriptor according to the Navy. Whatever you want to call it, the contents of the building and grounds are quite interesting.

First of all, the 60 feet high lighthouse was built in 1904 by the Coast Guard (a branch of the military that often gets overlooked for their contributions). The lamp itself originally burned whale oil (where did they get that?), and two lightkeepers lived in the adjoining house, sharing a 24 hour responsibility to keep the light burning. In 1955, an electric light was installed with the original lens and prisms now on display in the Coast Guard museum in Connecticut. Unfortunately, the lighthouse is no longer used, and is sadly in need of repair.

One of the houses used for lodging now displays memorabilia. Here sits the only traffic light in GTMO -- this was removed from Sherman Avenue in 1989 and now is just an exhibit. And there are numerous old photographs going back to the Spanish American War in 1898.

The most moving exhibit to me was the collection of boats in the yard surrounding the museum (I don’t care what anyone says -- I’m calling it a museum!)

Beginning in 1991 through 1994, these battered and leaky vessels were some of the boats which helped to transport over 45,000 Haitians and Cubans who were fleeing their countries.

GTMO had the responsibility of housing these refugees in 1994 and I can’t even begin to imagine the tent city that was quickly erected to accommodate these people.



Upon close examination, the boats were caulked with ripped up t-shirts, rugs, cardboard, and even palm fronds.

I had remembered hearing the term “boat people” but seeing these wrecks up close was quite sobering.







Here is a photo that I took from a magazine just to give you an idea of how many people might have been crammed in one boat. And, according to what I have learned, this boat is not as fully loaded as most of them were.



One of the boats was actually a dugout -- I cannot begin to imagine crossing the ocean in one of these. I get nervous on the big ferry when it crosses the bay, and there is a little rocking motion from the waves.....what it would be like to be out in the middle of nowhere in the Caribbean, in a tiny boat, especially during an inky black night during a storm? I shudder to think about it.

This just illustrates the desperation of the refugees trying to escape the horrific conditions in their countries.

We have so much to be thankful for when we live in a country that grants us so many freedoms. Even being on a restricted and isolated military base is a thousand times better than what many other people in the world have to endure.