[1] The area was originally settled by immigrants from Venezuela and Tobago who cultivated cacao and subsistence crops.

[1] It is accessible via a single paved road which runs from Toco to its east and is separated from the rest of the island by the hills of the Northern Range.

[2] Economic life was dominated by the 650-acre (2.6 km2) Grande Riviere estate, a cocoa plantation which was the major employer in the area.

Coupled with higher prices for sugar (the other dominant crop in Trinidad and Tobago) and the rise of the petroleum industry, this led to a long gradual decline in cocoa production.

The economy was dominated by agriculture - cocoa and bananas were grown as cash crops, artisanal fishing and road construction and maintenance work by the government.

[1] The following year Italian photographer Piero Guerrini rented the former cocoa estate headquarters and converted it into a 12-room beach front hotel, Mt.