Times of the Islands Winter 2020/21

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astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum INGRID POHL FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS Top: This is the yacht Spindrift tied up on the Miami River just before departing for East Caicos with the “modern Crusoes” on board. Bottom left: Cletys Ackerman and Greta and Karl Kvanvig stand next to a cottage on East Caicos built of tabby concrete. Bottom right: Margaret Lorntsen sits in front of a pile of conch shells which were burned to create lime. It was mixed with water, sand and ash to make the tabby concrete. Modern Crusoes The rest of the story. By Jeffrey Dodge In 2017, the Astrolabe published a story I wrote about 19 Californians who went to East Caicos in 1940 with the intention of establishing a utopian colony there. (See: https://www.timespub.tc/2018/01/modern-crusoes/). Since that article was published, I have been contacted by descendants of the group’s leader, Richard Irvine. They’ve shared recorded interviews with Richard Irvine, two of his daughters and 100-year-old Alton Higgs of Middle Caicos. Higgs worked for the Californians on East Caicos in 1940 when he was 18 years old. Here is the rest of the story. 62 www.timespub.tc
astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum Synopsis By 1938, Richard Irvine, a traveling salesman living in Pasadena, California, had become so distressed with what he viewed as the Roosevelt Administration’s swing toward socialism that he considered moving out of the country. Later that year, Irvine’s political dilemma was solved. In late 1938 while in Phoenix, Arizona on business, Irvine made the acquaintance of James Lake. During their conversation that evening at Irvine’s hotel, Lake mentioned that his wife Grace had inherited land on East Caicos Island in the British West Indies from her father John N. Reynolds. Based on a trip Lake and his wife made to the Turks & Caicos Islands in 1934, he told Irvine that the abandoned island was abundant in valuable resources such as hardwood forests, fruit trees, wild cattle and jackasses, sisal and bat guano in caves that could be sold for fertilizer. His description was so impressive that Richard Irvine thought East Caicos might be the perfect place to establish a colony far away from the politics at home. James and Grace Lake moved to Pasadena and into the Irvine home in late 1939 so they could more easily plan forming a co-operative settlement on the island Grace had inherited. Twenty-one people—fifteen strangers plus six members of the Irvine family—were chosen for this venture. They included a salesman, insurance investigator, carpenter for Walt Disney, a housekeeper for Hollywood celebrities, a nurse, a retired Standard Oil engineer and a student. Their ages ranged from 69 years to 18 months. The group of twenty-one signed an agreement forming a closed corporation they called the East Caicos Trading Company. Under the agreement, Richard Irvine became the group’s leader and could only be replaced if found to be incompetent and a qualified replacement identified. The group left Pasadena on January 17, 1940 for Cutler, Florida in four cars—one towing a trailer—and a truck. While on the way, the Irvines saw the group’s trailer, filled with their supplies, abandoned by the side of a gas station near New Orleans. The trailer had been towed behind a car driven by John and Jill Dowdle. The group was so angry with the couple that they were voted out of the corporation on the spot and sent away by bus. While camped at Cutler, Richard Irvine met and contracted with Vincent Conley, the owner of the yacht Spindrift, for transportation to East Caicos at a cost of $800 and the rights to later establish a resort on the island. Spindrift left Miami on February 18 and, after a stormy two-week voyage that included layovers in Key West and Cuba, arrived at East Caicos on March 2, 1940. Trouble brews on East Caicos Two days after arriving on their newfound paradise, the Californians moved their belongings from the coast to Jacksonville, a settlement abandoned by the East Caicos Sisal Company 20 years before. This would become their permanent encampment. The “modern Crusoes” became more and more disillusioned as they learned that none of the valuable resources James and Grace Lake had promised them were From left: Helene Irvine, Jane Irvine, Grace Lake, Dawn Irvine, Louise Irvine, Richard Irvine and baby “King” Irvine review a map at the Irvine family home in Pasadena, California. Times of the Islands Winter 2020-21 63
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