On July 10, 1973, The Bahamas became a free and sovereign country, ending 325 years of peaceful British rule. However, The Bahamas is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and celebrate July 10th as Bahamian Independence Day. San Salvador Island, previously Watling’s Island, is an island and district of The Bahamas, famed for being the probable location of Christopher Columbus’s first landing of the Americas on 12 October 1492 during his first voyage. This historical importance, the island’s tropical beaches, and its proximity to the United States have made tourism central to the local economy. The island has a population of 824 (2022) and is under the administration of Gilbert C. Kemp. Its largest settlement and seat of local government is Cockburn Town.
During the Cold War, the United States Navy’s Mobile Construction Battalion 7 constructed a long-range navigation (LORAN) station on Grahams Harbor at the north end of the island from 1957 to 1959.[29] After the LORAN station was decommissioned, it became the Bahamian Field Station and then the Gerace Research Center.[30] More than 1,000 students and researchers work from the station every year as a base of operations for studying tropical marine geology, biology, and archeology.
