San Salvadorans claim Columbus

SAN SALVADOR, Bahamas — Columbus landed here. And there. And over there!

There are at least four sites on this little island of sand and scrub where the famous explorer is said to have made landfall when he "discovered" the New World in October 1492. Most of the sites have monuments.

Truth is, the history is as murky as San Salvador's super-salty inland lagoons.

But in the 1920s, after historians gave sufficient credence to the claim that this was "the" landfall, locals officially changed the name of their island from Watling — after a local pirate — to the name Columbus bestowed on his first landfall: San Salvador.

But Columbus didn't have modern instruments with which to document exactly where he had landed. Geographers and historians still love to argue about it. In fact, 20 years ago National Geographic magazine published an exhaustive analysis that put Columbus' landing on Samana Cay, some 65 miles to the south.

That conclusion took into account ocean currents and lateral drift on the trans-Atlantic voyage, as well as geographic descriptions from what remains of Columbus' log.

San Salvador visitors should read that Geographic from 1986. When you arrive you'll find yourself looking for Columbus landmarks that might or might not be here.

No matter the controversy. San Salvador isn't about to give up its claim to Columbus.

"The wonderful thing is, nobody will ever know!" said Elizabeth Brill, an Earthwatch guide, though she has reason to believe in the local version of history. Her father, Dr. Robert H. Brill, a research scientist with New York's Corning Museum of Glass, helped add to the Columbus legend in the 1980s by analyzing some glass beads and other artifacts found at the site of a 500-year-old native camp on San Salvador.

The artifacts were found to be of Spanish origin, from Columbus' era — perhaps items traded by seamen from the Niņa, Pinta or Santa Maria.