Can somebody help me to remember?
When was the last time the Great Pond really dried up? I discovered a photo from the early ´80th showing the Pond covered in high yellow Seymour grass with dots of lignum vitae trees in between.
That is a good question, a very good photograph appears in the now Famous Magazine,The Jamaican Collectors Edition,The Best OF St Elizabeth on page 12. The Publisher of this magazine is Deeks Designs Limited, University Of Technology, Phone (876)512-2572.
Good Luck
It was 1979/80. The drought was so bad and lasted so long that a new problem was created: the dust from the dry pond was blown by the wind all over the place.
It created sand dunes so high along the main road running down to Calabash Bay that an alternative road had to be created through 'Brother Reid's' land on the other side.
Several families also had to abandon their homes for a while because of the volume of sand that settled onto their roof and other parts of their premises.
The veteran journalist, C. Roy Reynolds, wrote a very good piece for the (now defunct) Daily News on the problem, complete with photographs.
Copies of the paper are available at the National Library of Jamaica, located at East Street in Kingston.
One of the ponds was dry about 2 years ago (in August). It stunk to high heaven.