West End (also referred to as Settlement Point) is the oldest town and westernmost settlement on Grand Bahama. Since the 1950s, the settlement of West End has fluctuated with the rise and fall of the adjacent resort developments.
Records from West End show that the population in 1836 was only about 370 people but in 1861 people flocked back to Grand Bahama because of the American Civil War. At the outbreak of the war, with the Confederate States of America under a strict Union embargo, smugglers operating out of West End were able to command hefty prices from the South for goods such as cotton, sugar, and weapons. As soon as the war ended, the economic boom ended as well.
A second smuggling boom came a few decades later when the 18th Amendment prohibited alcohol in the United States. West End achieved notoriety as a rum-running port during this prohibition. Warehouses, distilleries, bars, and supply stores sprang up all over West End. Eventually prohibition ended, the economy contracted again.
Tourism first started on Grand Bahama Island in 1949 when an Englishman built a small holiday camp for his vacationing countrymen. The camp did not succeed, but by the late 1950s development in West End started to create the Jack Tar Village resort, which opened in 1960.
Accommodation
- Grand Bahama Club
- Grand Bahama Club (A Jack Tar Hotel)
- Grand Bahama Hotel (A Jack Tar Resort)
- Grand Bahama Hotel and Country Club (A Jack Tar Resort)