Grand Turk contains the territory's capital, Cockburn Town, and the JAGS McCartney International Airport.

[10][11] Grand Turk has been put forward as the possible landfall island of Christopher Columbus during his first voyage to the New World in 1492.

[15] In addition, the latitudes recorded in Columbus' diary place the landfall island at 90 nautical miles (100 mi; 170 km) from Hispaniola, too close for the Bahamas, but almost exactly the distance from Grand Turk.

[15] On the contrary, historian Gregory McIntosh has concluded that Grand Turk was not Guanahani but Babueca, an island separately discovered by Martín Alonso Pinzón in November - December 1492.

The actual undersea surveillance mission of the system and shore facility remained classified through decommissioning.

[20] In 1962, John Glenn's Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft landed in the vicinity of Grand Turk off the southeast shoreline.