A look back in time

After entering the Bay and approaching Fisherman's Point

View from Fisherman's Point looking out toward opening of Bay

Guantanamo Bay had its first entry into the history books when Christopher Columbus entered it on his second voyage. Columbus had made pit stops at different islands in the Caribbean looking for gold. Upon reaching Guantanamo Bay, he was convinced it was China and spent the night at what is called Fisherman’s Point on April 30, 1494. Columbus named the Bay “Puerto Grande” and after considering the area to be an unlikely prospect for treasure, he and his ships left the next day for Jamaica (where they didn’t have any better luck).

Over the next several hundred years, Guantanamo Bay was a pirate stronghold, a haven for ships bent on peaceful missions, and an area defended at different times by the British, Spanish, and Americans. Due to the area’s lack of fresh water, the land directly around the bay was generally not appealing for population development, although supposedly there was a small fishing village there at one time.

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an agreement with Cuba to lease 45 square miles of land and water for use as a coaling station. A treaty reaffirmed the lease in 1934 granting Cuba free access through the bay, and converted the lease payment to $4,085 - the same price paid for the lease today. There is also a requirement that both the U.S. and Cuba must mutually consent to terminate the lease. Rumor has it that Fidel Castro has not cashed any of the lease payment checks for years and that he files them away in a drawer.




The oldest buildings existing at Guantanamo Bay are two of these concrete gun emplacements, built in 1906 by an Army contingent to help defend the Bay. Apparently, the gun emplacements were never used -- we wish the grass would be cut on top of the roof, since it overlooks the ocean and would be a great place to sit in a lawn chair and look out over the water.