The walk continued on and off the beach for another 45 minutes and at last I arrived at my destination Anthony's Key Resort. I took the stairway up the hill to the reception & bar area, turned around and looked out toward the sea.
What a glorious magnificent view ! It was breathtaking!
I ordered a cold beer from the bar and met the bar tender - Sherwin James. Of course my first question was how did the resort come to be - how did it begin? He told me that if I could wait a few minutes I would be able to talk to the man who created it. It was at this point that I had the honor of meeting Mr. Paul Adams. He walked up to the bar, pipe in hand, and ordered a drink telling Sherwin to put it on his tab - I introduced myself and then Paul & I had a long conversation... |
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He had first became interested in Roatan when he spotted the Island from a submarine chaser. It was during World War II and his ship was headed to Panama searching for German Submarines which were causing havoc in the shipping lanes near the Panama Canal. He promised himself that one day he would return to Roatan and of course he did. |
After a successful business career in his home town of Dubuque, Iowa, he returned in the 60's looking for an area on the island he could develop into a resort complex. It wasn't luck that he wound up with the most beautiful area on the island. He rented a small plane & traversed the island east to west & back again deciding upon a specific spot in the Sandy Bay area. It is truly a glorious location - two small islands ( keys) just off shore with a channel in between opening to a protected harbor with a hillside over looking everything. He knew he had the right property.
Now it was time for the design phase & the building of "Anthony's Key Resort". Working with his son John and his architect Brooks Builder's from Chicago, they developed an absolutely beautiful tropical design - a double bedroom cabana connected by a covered deck - some on the hillside & others along the shoreline of the largest Key. The bar & dining areas were located on the hillside capturing that wonderful view. |
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Paul Adams had established one of the most beautiful & exotic touism destinations in the world - the very first of its kind in the Bay Islands of Honduras on an international scale - and after years of struggle Anthony's Key resort became an award wining, world class diving destination - with world wide recognition!
Paul & I became good friends over the years & I helped him with different projects at the resort. But what he did for Sandy Bay & Roatan on a human scale was truly the measure of the man. He never came to take, he came to live with & help the people of the island in Sandy Bay. He provided electricity & water for the neighborhood - He brought in teachers for the children even an agricultural expert to educate Islanders in setting up vegetable gardens.
He truly is the "Father of Tourism in the Bay Islands" no one else comes close.
The original layout of his resort has stood as a living moument for designing with nature. He LOVED the environemnt and natural beauty of Roatan... He did not just talk about it, he took care of it.
Paul Adams died in 1979 and he is buried in Sandy Bay near Anthony's Key Resort in a place he picked long ago. There are no markers or physical monuments marking the grave site - only living monuments of love and respect he left in the hearts of the people that knew him.
