Treasure Beach, Jamaica City Guide
For over 20 years, Pamela Lanier's Treasure Beach, Jamaica Travel Guide has been your connection to Treasure Beach's tourism community with invaluable details on local attractions, restaurants, shopping, museums, history, outdoor recreation and more.
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Treasure Beach History
The Tainos Indians came to Jamaica around 700 AD and were the first residents of Treasure Beach. The Tainos were peaceful people living in a community with women gathering food and men fishing and hunting. They were potters, carvers, weavers, boat builders, fishermen, and farmers. After a hard rainfall, it’s still possible today to walk through a meadow and find pieces of Tainos pottery stuck in the ground. The Tainos Indian population all but disappeared after the Spanish came to Jamaica and enslaved the Tainos. In the mid-1600’s a small Scottish ship sank off the coast of Treasure Beach, stranding the survivors and causing them to settle in the area. The intermixing with the locals created a local population of “red men” with light skin, blue or green eyes, and blonde or red hair.
Fishing and farming are the main industries in Treasure Beach. Fishermen use both nets and clay pots to trap their catch, and many make their living off the Cays located 60 miles off Jamaica’s South Coast. It’s a big event when a boat comes in after a day at sea and unloads their catch. People crowd around to see what the fishermen have brought back, and visitors will also enjoy watching the men unload their catch and weigh and ice it before it’s put on trucks to sell around the island. Although St. Elizabeth parish receives very little rainfall, the area is fertile for farming and supplies the rest of the island with more produce than any other parish. You’re sure to catch sight of the famous “donkey ladies” and vegetable trucks selling produce, and you can always stop by roadside farm stands to purchase fresh local produce.
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