In the 1890s, West Caicos was cleared for
sisal plantations, which was a major crop of the
Turks and Caicos Islands. On the island are the ruins of Yankee Town, which was the centre of industry on the island. Remains of a railroad still exist. At least two attempts have been made to purchase the entire island: The first was made by Dominican dictator
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo whose intent was to use it as a hideaway; however, he was assassinated before the purchase was made. The second occurred in 1972 when an oil company tried to purchase the island to build a refinery; though the deal was never made, the airstrip built by the company during the attempted purchase remains to this day. A new effort appears to be well underway to develop the island into a private high-end resort reserve, billing itself as 'West Caicos Reserve'. This effort is apparently targeted toward
high-net-worth individuals, as it is integrated with an exclusive 125 room
Ritz-Carlton Resort/Spa and Marina. The anticipated opening of this community was to be mid-2008. However, due to the collapse of
Lehman Brothers, the financiers of the project, all construction work was halted in September 2008. In 2022 it emerged that Decimus Real Estate, a UK-based company, was reviving the high-end resort project, now simply called "West". The investment portfolios of Russian billionaire
Roman Abramovich is tied to Decimus, lending some uncertainty as to whether the project will continue to go ahead, since Abramovich is under international sanctions. ==References==