Jamaica Vacations Resorts

One of the first people to realise Negril's potential was Norman Washington Manley whose administration cut canals to drain the swamp and built a highway. The Negril Land Authority was established in 1958 to supervise development of the area and has functioned intermittently and ineffectually ever since. Regulations enacted to preserve Negril's unspoiled beauty have been honoured more in the breach than the observance and even the oft-quoted rule that no building must be taller than the tallest tree is disregarded nowadays.

Initially, development was very slow. Then in the 1960's the American "flower children" discovered Negril.

Accommodation was very limited and the few establishments on the beach did not appreciate or encourage "the hippies". So these young foreigners, college kids, draft dodgers, Vietnam veterans, gravitated to the West End and The Rock and lodged in the humble homes of the local people, renting a room, a bed, or a space for their sleeping bags and eating out of the family pot. It was a beautiful example of symbiosis. As a result the landlords in Redground and along Lighthouse Road prospered, extended their houses and put in modern conveniences as the hippies came in ever-increasing numbers. In the early days the more affluent landowners were worried about Negril becoming a "Hippie Haven" and set up a committee to deal with the problem of "long haired, ganja-smoking, loose-moralled foreign visitors", but the reply from the villagers was "let those that have the problem deal with it".

Only a few decades ago, telephones and TVs were unheard of. Telegrams delivered from the Negril Post Office provided communication. Few hotels existed. The main road was the beach, known today as Negril's "second high-way".