Turks & Caicos National Museum

Guinep House, Front St, Grand Turk

About

This is the country's first (and only) museum. It occupies a 150-year-old residence, Guinep House, originally built by Bermudian wreckers from timbers they salvaged from ships that crashed on nearby reefs. Today about half of its display areas are devoted to the remains of the most complete archaeological excavation ever performed in the West Indies, the wreck of a Spanish caravel (sailing ship) that sank in shallow water sometime before 1513. Used to transport local Lucayans who had been enslaved, the boat was designed solely for exploration purposes and is similar to vessels built in Spain and Portugal during the 1400s. Treasure hunters found the wreck and announced that it was Columbus's Pinta in order to attract financial backers for their salvage -- to guarantee a value to the otherwise valueless iron artifacts, in case there proved to be no gold onboard. There is no proof, however, that the Pinta ever came back to the New World after returning to Spain from the first voyage. Researchers from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University began excavations in 1982, although staff members never assumed that the wreck was the Pinta. Today the remains are referred to simply as the Wreck of Molasses Reef. Although only 2% of the hull now remains intact, the exhibits contain a rich legacy of the everyday (nonbiodegradable) objects used by the crews and officers. The remainder of the museum is devoted to exhibits about the island's salt industries, its plantation economy, the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the island, and its natural history. The natural-history exhibit features a 2X6m (6 1/2X20-ft.), three-dimensional reproduction of a section of the Grand Turk Wall, the famous vertical reef. You'll also find displays on the geology of the islands and information on the reef and coral growth.