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Gasparillo Island

island in Trinidad and Tobago

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ3392826
Source-derived summary

Gasparillo is a small island in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is one of the Bocas Islands (also referred to as Dragons' Teeth), which lie in the Bocas del Dragón (Spanish for Dragon's Mouths) between the main island of Trinidad and Venezuela. The island is currently uninhabited.

Characteristics

Gasparillo is actually made up of two islands separated by several metres of rocks. However the second island is very small and is not independently named. The main island a little over 200 metres in length but is very narrow, less than 50 metres at its widest point, approximately 8,000 m2 in area. It is, as with most islands around the Paria Peninsular, covered with dry forest vegetation, and composed of a limestone bedrock with caves. Several species of birds nest at the island, including the short-tailed swift that nest on the eastern side of the island.

History

The Gasparillo name has been derived because of its small size relative to the much larger Gaspar Grande Island, located just to the south of it. It has also been called Scorpion Island and Centipede Island due to the nature of its fauna.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Gasparillo Island” is island in Trinidad and Tobago. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Gasparillo, Island and island, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current 191-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Gasparillo, Island and island is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “island in Trinidad and Tobago” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3392826. Authority coordinates are 10.676, -61.653. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Gasparillo Island”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Gasparillo Island primary sources, Gasparillo Island archive and Gasparillo research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Gasparillo Island”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Gasparillo Island” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.