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Back in the 1980s, life on the island of Utila moved at its own gentle rhythm. Neighbors were close, everyone knew everyone, and friendships crossed fences and front yards. You could borrow sugar, chat over a gate, or help each other in small ways, but when it came to social gatherings, there were lines people didn’t cross. Birthday parties, dances, and Sunday school events? Those were another story. At the time, Utila had a kind of informal segregation. People got along in e

Years ago, I found several long, thin pieces of obsidian that, at the time, I only knew were old. Now, with research and the help of archaeological studies, it’s clear what they are: prismatic obsidian blades, razor-sharp tools shaped by the Pech people, one of the oldest Indigenous groups of Honduras. These blades aren’t random shards. They were made intentionally, struck from prepared cores to produce long, thin pieces with edges sharp enough to handle everything from food

The Bay Islands are full of history, sometimes in the most unexpected places. At the Wesley Methodist Church and School in Coxen Hole, right behind the basketball court, there’s a broken tombstone that many people barely notice. My sister went to school there for two years, and when I asked her about it, she, like others I spoke to, didn’t remember ever being told whose grave it was. Students just recall seeing it there, often sitting on it during lunch breaks. It turns out t

During the summer of 1939, R.W. Feachem paid a visit to the Bay Islands, joined by Mr. Derek Leaf for most of the time. They did an expedition out there. For local and European reasons, the expedition was cut short, but in the time available, they were able to accomplish much. The support of Lord Moyne of the Royal Geographical Society, the University of Cambridge, the Faculty of Archaeology at Cambridge, and Trinity College made the expedition possible, and the generosity wa

Every old map has a story to tell, and few do it with the elegance and precision of the 1775 work titled “Ruatan or Rattan, surveyed by Lieutenant Henry Barnsley, with improvements by Thomas Jefferys, Geographer to the King.” Printed in London on February 20, 1775, by Robert Sayer, this map is more than a piece of parchment with ink, it’s an image of a world in transition, when empires were staking claims, sailors were risking everything on the sea, and the Caribbean was in t

When people picture Roatan today, with paved roads across the island, it’s hard to imagine a time when getting around was next to impossible. But in the late 1960s, roads were little more than muddy scars in the floor, usable only in dry weather, and in the rainy season, nearly impassable. To build a resort on the north side of the island back then meant more than vision and money. It meant carving a road through some of the roughest terrain in the Bay Islands. That’s exactly

When you think of Roatan today, you usually imagine beaches, coral reefs, and the growth of tourism. But life on the island hasn’t always revolved around visitors. In fact, for much of its history, survival depended on traditions that may sound unusual to us now. One of those was the practice of child lending. You read that right, child lending. According to David K. Evans, a researcher from Wake Forest University who published the paper Recent Sociocultural Change in Roatan,

Roatan’s economy today is quite diverse, tourism and diving usually come to mind. But just a few decades ago, life on the island revolved around very different industries, coconuts, shrimp, and eventually overseas jobs. According to David K. Evans, coconut harvesting was once the main source of income across the Bay Islands. Families who owned land with coconut trees could count on steady harvests, selling their crops for export, often through contracts with Miami importers.

I came across an old book during a trip to Covington, Louisiana; a gem Lani Mcnab luckily owns. It is called "MacNab: The Last Laird" written by Roland Wild, published back in 1938. It’s a rare one, packed with stories about the origins of the MacNab clan. If you're unfamiliar, the MacNab family, now spelled McNab are one of the British families that made their way and still exists on the Bay Islands, more specifically of Scottish descent. The opening tale grabbed me instantl

My latest read is The Appeal's May 22nd, 1897's paper. The piece on the left-end opens with a look at how the Mosquito Coast used to be one of the most talked-about regions in Central America. For centuries, Spain and England fought over it, with newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic treating it like a place full of conflict, beauty, and political drama. They explain how the territory eventually fell out of fashion, even though the land itself never lost its appeal. I'll s

The Appeal's 1897 paper on the Bay Islands of Honduras has quite a few stories. The following is another story I had yet to share from thatvery same paper. I've taken the time to write it out as it is read in the paper you can gaze upon, that which I have shared with you a few days ago. Old English is quite naturally a beautiful version of the language and it would sound much less enjoyable if I were to modify it. It reads as follows: For many years they formed part of Spain’

If you grew up in the Bay Islands, you’ve probably noticed something funny about the way we write English. Our place names still carry the old British spellings: French Harbour, not French Harbor; oftentimes we use colour, favour, honour... all those words that hang on to the “u” the way our grandparents did. People sometimes ask why we write it that way when the United States doesn’t. The answer goes back a couple of hundred years, and it has more to do with identity and ref

Did you know England referred to the Bay Islands as the "Garden of the West Indies", the "Key of Spanish America" and "The New Gibraltar"? Carrying on with the stories found about the Colony of the Bay Islands in The Appeal's May 22nd edition of 1897, here is how those names came about. To this day, 1897, England claims some rights over the islands in connection with her very questionable rights in Belize, based upon nothing but an ancient treaty with Spain, which simply gave