Late 1990s
The Hurricane of 1941
- Storyteller
- Morgan Wagner
- Where
- Roatan, Bay Islands
The storm that tore through Roatan, Utila and Guanaja in 1941, in Morgan's words, with rare 1990s recordings of islanders remembering what they lived through.
Island Legends.
Long before podcasts, island storyteller Morgan Wagner sat down in front of a tape recorder and told the legends of Roatan. This is his voice, recorded in the late 1990s.
Featured story
The Golden Cow
A group of foreigners arrived on Roatan with a single goal: a golden artifact shaped like a cow. Islanders thought little of it. The strangers searched around Saint Helene, found it, and left rich, while a local family was left cheated.
1990sIsland storyteller Morgan Wagner is recorded on tape on Roatan
2018The last remaining CD reaches Caribbean Honduras
Digitised, and shared in our history book
Today: free to hear on Spotify
Where these stories come from
In 2018, the founder of Caribbean Honduras met an American woman who had lived on Roatan in the 1990s. During those years she recorded an island storyteller on tape: Morgan Wagner, a Black English-speaking islander who worked for many years as a security guard at Anthony's Key Resort in Sandy Bay. She later wrote a book about her time on the island. By then she was living in the United States again, coming back whenever she could, sometimes with her family.
She had given away every copy of the recordings but one: a single CD. Before that last copy could be lost, she gifted the audios to Caribbean Honduras, and we digitised them. They first appeared in our book History, Culture & Cuisine of the Bay Islands, and now they live on Spotify, free for anyone to hear.
On our Spotify channel you'll also find more episodes, in English and in Spanish, that Caribbean Honduras has recorded itself, in the Bay Islands and in other parts of Honduras.
More stories from the islands
Press play to listen.
Late 1990s
Duppies and Dogs
- Storyteller
- Morgan Wagner
- Where
- Roatan, Bay Islands
On the Bay Islands, the spirits of people who have passed away are called duppies, from a word with roots in Ghana meaning spirit. And it was the dogs, people said, who would tell you when a duppy was near.
Late 1990s
The Gibson Bight Shark
- Storyteller
- Morgan Wagner
- Where
- Roatan, Bay Islands
A shark sighting off Gibson Bight, as Morgan told it, and his reminder to respect the sea and everything in it.
Late 1990s
Anthony's Key's Tiger Shark
- Storyteller
- Morgan Wagner
- Where
- Roatan, Bay Islands
While working at Anthony's Key Resort, Morgan watched a tiger shark glide through the waters off the key, a sight he never forgot.
Late 1990s
Gringos Dig Gold
- Storyteller
- Morgan Wagner
- Where
- Roatan, Bay Islands
A group of Americans arrived from the United States looking for gold, and they knew exactly where it was. They hired local men to dig, and found it.
Late 1990s
Hyde's Dog, Wood's Spirit
- Storyteller
- Morgan Wagner
- Where
- Roatan, Bay Islands
Hyde's dog was said to sense the spirits of the dead. Morgan tells of its encounter with the spirit of a man named Wood.
Late 1990s
Witchcraft Man
- Storyteller
- Morgan Wagner
- Where
- Roatan, Bay Islands
A man dabbles in witchcraft, and the sinister events that follow come swiftly, and without mercy.
Know a story that should be kept?
If someone in your family still tells an island legend, we would love to hear it, and record it before it's lost.