The History of Bimini

The name Bimini is believed to have meant "two islands" in the language of the original inhabitants, the Lucayans, who never survived our islands' encounter with Europeans. After the emancipation of slavery in 1838 The Bimini Islands were re-settled by a few assorted families of West African ancestry, who had immigrated from nearby islands. Prior to that the islands served as a base for a small number of "wreckers,” who made a living preying on hapless shipwrecks.

Other forms of economic activity over the years have included sponge and turtle harvesting as well as sisal cultivation. Bimini also once served as a useful staging point for rumrunners from Nassau during the Prohibition era in the United States, a time in which the Bahamian economy began to prosper.

“Islands in the Stream”

Many of the most enthralling fishing scenes in Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea and Islands in the Stream were directly taken from his experiences around The Bimini Islands. Hemingway lived on North Bimini for several seasons in the 1930s. While here, he worked on To Have and Have Not and wrote a few articles, but mostly he played hooky aboard his boat Pilar, trolling the deep blue offshore waters.

Ernest Hemingway made his way to The Bahamas settling in The Bimini Islands in the 1930s, where he often touted the world-class game fishing. His favorite watering hole and hotel was the Compleat Angler. The establishment had a room dedicated to Hemingway before it burned down.

Pappy and Papa

One Sunday morning in 1919, the citizens of North Bimini were first alarmed by a loud buzzing noise overhead and then amazed to see a Curtis HS2L "flying boat" splash down in the harbour, from which Albert Burns "Pappy" Chalk emerged to usher in a new era of transportation between The Bimini Islands and the world. Later, when Ernest "Papa" Hemingway found his way here in 1935, the islands began to develop their own tropical vacation allure. Since then famous names that have become associated with The Bimini Islands include Martin Luther King, Jr. and Adam Clayton Powell.