About 50 miles off the Florida coast lies the country’s fourth-largest island, Grand Bahama, which is the site of the giant Freeport industrial-residential-resort complex. Freeport is only a small portion of this flat island, whose pine forests have supported lumbering operations for some years.

By 1961 tremendous industrial expansion was going on in Grand Bahama. The government of the Bahamas had granted permission to developers to create a city that would become a free port to attract industry and duty-free shoppers. Almost overnight a modern metropolis materialized out of what had been, up to that time, mainly pine forest.

Since that time the original concept of Freeport has undergone great changes. The government of the Bahamas has made its presence felt to a much greater degree, and the city has become largely Bahamian in character.