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Interesting Facts
- Montego Bay had a somewhat unflattering beginning, which is still reflected in the name. Montego is derived from the Spanish word "manteca," meaning lard, because the area was once prime hunting ground for wild hogs. The Spanish hunted these hogs for their "hog butter," or lard, and on some antique maps, the city is shown as Lard Bay.
- Montego Bay has deep roots in Jamaica's sugar and banana trade. Up through the middle of the 19th century, the area boasted thousands upon thousands of acres dedicated to these crops. Today, only small portions of land remain in production because of the ripe tourist business, but you can still visit working plantations that operate on a much smaller scale.
- The tourist industry in Montego Bay originated with the idea of hydrotherapy. Dr. McCatty, a local doctor, started to recommend the waters just off of his land to treat ailments of all kinds, and at the turn of the century, aristocrats and wealthy gentry from around the world started to make treks here. After his death, Dr. McCatty donated his land to the city, and today, Doctor's Cave Beach is perhaps the most popular watering hole in Jamaica.
- Annie Palmer is possibly the most famous person in Montego Bay, though for infamous reasons. It is reported that she killed three husbands and a lover at Rose Hall, one of the area's great plantation houses. Today, there is suspicion that her apparition roams the grounds of Rose Hall. A book entitled "The White Witch of Rose Hall," which is based on her story, became one of the all-time bestsellers in Jamaica.
- Like many islands and ports in the Caribbean, Montego Bay once played host to famous explorer Christopher Columbus. Ever since its rebirth as a tourist destination, many people have echoed the sentiment embodied in the name Columbus gave the area: "el golfo de buen tiempo," or the gulf of good weather.
- Present-day visitors to Montego Bay can take a step back into time to see how past residents lived on the large plantations in the area. Barnett Estates and Belfield Great House, Greenwood Great House, and Rose Hall hail from the late 18th or early 19th centuries, when well over 100,000 acres were dedicated to the production of sugar cane and other spices.
- It was not until Captain Jonathan Barnett switched hats from plantation owner to city planner that Montego Bay became a large port city. When he decided to divide his sugar cane fields into Charles Town and Barnet Town, business in the area suddenly began to boom and a port city and tourist hotspot were born.
- Montego Bay and the outlying area was the site of one of Jamaica's most historic events. National hero Sam Sharpe, a slave and preacher in the area, began an anti-slavery movement that resulted in the famous Christmas Rebellion of 1831. Though Sharpe was hung for inciting rebellion, other slaves and abolitionists championed his ideals, resulting in a treaty that freed Jamaica from bondage.
- Montego Bay has earned the right to call itself the biggest tourist city in Jamaica. The country's busiest airport, North Shore Airport, welcomes more guests than any other in the country, and the city's port is the busiest as well. Cruise ships dock here almost daily, and since the weather is superb, visitors from around the world constantly arrive to keep the city hopping.
- Montego Bay may not be the birthplace of reggae legend Bob Marley (it is actually Kingston), but the city's enthusiasm for the music is legendary. For 16 years, Jamaica's biggest reggae festival, Sunsplash, was held in Montego Bay. Though that festival has now moved to Kingston, Montego Bay citizens just couldn't do without a big festival to celebrate this unique music. Today, the city's Sunfest is over ten years old and a major reggae festival in its own right.
