Point Fortin, that became a Borough in April 1980, bears the name of a Frenchman, Fortin who came under the Cedula of Population in 1783 and received a grant of land in the area called Punta del Guapo, named by the Spaniards after th north-west river, Rio Guapo. Guapo meaning beautiful, majestic or handsome.

By 1797, when the British took the island, the estate at Point Fortin was producing sugar-cane and had a harbour to ship sugar, but following the abolition of slavery in 1838, shortage of labour caused the eleven estates of the region to halt by 1840.

William Burnley, owner of the adjacent Perseverance estate brought free blacks in his own ship from America to solve the labour problem. They landed at Guapo in an area, known today as Freeman's Bay. But by 1880 everything had fallen into "wilderness".

Point Fortin was not destined to be down and in the early 1900 it had entered the "oil era". In May 1907 its first oil well was drilled and by the 1920s it felt short of labour. To supplement the labour force, Grenadians were brought in ... large numbers came on their own, in "wind jammers" (boats) and even from other islands ... and settled in Guapo and other areas, as far as Claxton Bay, Marabella and Chatham.

Today, Point Fortin even though a Borough with its own Mayor and Council, is "struggling" for survival ... a state it has found itself in for the last decade or more.