The History of Sophia Point

Indigenous people, including nearby communities at Rivers View and Falmouth, have lived in Guyana’s rainforest for centuries. Their stewardship and understanding of nature have ensured that it remains largely undisturbed and thriving to date.

In 1916, American biologist, William Beebe established the first research station in Guyana, on the opposite side of the Essequibo River to the present-day Sophia Point site. The project was backed by Former US President, Teddy Roosevelt, with whom Beebe was close friends. This was Beebe’s second extended trip to Guyana. He hoped that a permanent centre, at a site he called Kalacoon, would allow the study of the surrounding jungle in more detail than his earlier expedition. Roosevelt helped generate support for the station, writing about it in an article for the Scribner’s Magazine. Bebe and his team spent his first season at Kalacoon in 1916, dissecting the small area of jungle nearby, cataloguing the plants and animals they found. This was one of the first assessments of the rainforest from floor to canopy. After the season, they took 300+ specimens back to New York zoo. Beebe published his findings in his 1917 book Tropical Wild Life in British Guiana. A letter of congratulations to Beebe for his earlier work on pheasants was the last letter Roosevelt wrote before his death in 1919.

Beebe left Kalacoon to serve in the First World War in October 1917. The station was closed and supplies returned to New York. After the war, Beebe returned to Guyana to study a new location using the same processes he developed at Kalacoon. The site at Kalacoon fell into disrepair and many of the rubber trees have been cut down.

The beautiful hand-built house that now stands at Sophia Point was built by German botanist and biologist Bernhard Klein-Heinz and his Guyanese wife Sharmilla. In their search for an accessible and biologically diverse location, Bernhard and Sharmilla had arrived at a spot just across the water from where Beebe had a century before them. The house is built from locally sourced Greenheart Wood, built like a boat around a central mast, and runs on solar power. Bernhard wanted to continue Beebe’s work, living in the rainforest and systematically documenting it.

After Bernhard and Sharmilla had to return to Georgetown due to ill health, Nicola and the Sophia Point Rainforest Research Centre took on the management of site. Their wish was that Sophia Point continue to be preserved and that the unique beauty of the site can be experienced by generations to come.

All that we are doing at Sophia Point builds on the legacy set by those past stewards of the site. Read more about our work here