Marsh Harbour is a town in

Abaco Islands The Abaco Islands lie in the north of Bahamas, The Bahamas, about 193 miles (167.7 nautical miles or 310.6 km) east of Miami, Florida, US. The main islands are Great Abaco and Little Abaco, which is just west of Great Abaco's northern tip. T ...

, Bahamas, with a population of 6,283 as of 2012. The settlement lies on a peninsula just off the Great Abaco Highway, which runs south through Great Abaco to Cherokee Point and Little Harbour. North of town, the road becomes S.C. Bootle Highway, another smooth stretch that runs north and west toward Treasure Cay and Little Abaco. Marsh Harbour has the majority of services available in all of the Abacos, including a post office, bookstore, grocery stores, specialty shops, travel agencies, and laundries. Visitors come to boat, swim or snorkel, and stay at one of the lodges located near Bay Street on the waterfront, though some adventurers reserve a day or two to

kayak ] A kayak is a small, narrow human-powered watercraft typically propelled by means of a long, double-bladed paddle. The word ''kayak'' originates from the Inuktitut word '' qajaq'' (). In British English, the kayak is also considered to be ...

in the Marls on trips conducted by naturalist guides. The Marls are an extensive region of pristine

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

habitat and open shallows called "flats" that harbour a rich variety of wildlife and offer an important fisheries, for local sustenance and for sport. In 2019, Marsh Harbour was directly impacted by category 5

Hurricane Dorian Hurricane Dorian was an extremely powerful and catastrophic tropical cyclone, which became the most intense on record to strike The Bahamas. It is tied with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane for the strongest landfall in the Atlantic basin in term ...

, severely damaging most structures and infrastructure in the city.

Notable events in Marsh Harbour history

* On 25 August 2001, American R&B singer

Aaliyah Aaliyah Dana Haughton ( ; January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001) was an American singer, actress, dancer, and model. Known as the " Princess of R&B" and "Queen of Urban Pop", she is credited with helping to redefine contemporary R&B, p ...

was among nine people killed in a

plane crash An aviation accident is an event during aircraft operation that results serious injury, death, or significant destruction. An aviation incident is any operating event that compromises safety but does not escalate into an aviation accident. Pre ...

after departing

Marsh Harbour Airport Leonard M. Thompson International Airport, formerly known as The Marsh Harbour International Airport , is an airport serving Marsh Harbour, a town in the Abaco Islands, The Bahamas. Marsh Harbour is a major tourist attraction. The airport offe ...

after filming the music video for her single " Rock the Boat". * Rhonda Lea Cornea Hull, Miss Commonwealth Bahamas 1985 is from Marsh Harbour, and she represented The Bahamas at the 1985 Miss World Pageant in London. * Lolita Armbrister Monpetit, Miss Bahamas 1978 was born in Dundas Town, a settlement next to Marsh Harbour. She represented The Bahamas at the Miss Universe Pageant in 1979 in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Australia. * On 1 September 2019,

, a category 5 hurricane on the

Saffir–Simpson scale The Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS) is a tropical cyclone intensity scale that classifies hurricanes—which in the Western Hemisphere are tropical cyclones that exceed the intensities of tropical depressions and tropical sto ...

, made

landfall Landfall is the event of a storm moving over land after being over water. More broadly, and in relation to human travel, it refers to 'the first land that is reached or seen at the end of a journey across the sea or through the air, or the fact ...

in Marsh Harbour, tying the record with the

1935 Labor Day hurricane The 1935 Labor Day hurricane was an extremely powerful and devastating Atlantic hurricane that struck the southeastern United States in early September 1935. For several decades, it was the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record in terms of ...

for the highest sustained winds at landfall for an Atlantic hurricane.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Populated places in the Bahamas Former districts of the Bahamas Abaco Islands

Notable events in Marsh Harbour history

See also

References

External links