Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 107 is a conversation I recorded inside the Dolphin House in Bimini, Bahamas, with the man who built it, historian, poet, and self-taught artist Ashley Saunders. The Dolphin House is a one-of-a-kind monument Ashley constructed by hand over twenty-six years, entirely from recycled and found materials. We talk about the wild dolphins that turned him into an artist, his family's centuries-deep roots across the Bahamas and Key West, and what it was like growing up around Ernest Hemingway.
Listen now: press play in the player above to watch the full conversation, or stream Episode 107 on your favorite podcast app.
Ashley Saunders is a Bahamian historian, poet, and self-taught artist from Bimini, and the creator of the Dolphin House. A member of the prominent Saunders family that helped settle both Bimini and Key West, he describes himself as a gifted artist who was inspired entirely by swimming with the wild dolphins of Bimini. He is also a local historian who grew up around Ernest Hemingway and other figures who passed through the island.
The Dolphin House is an eclectic, one-of-a-kind building Ashley Saunders constructed by hand in Bimini over twenty-six years, from 1993 to 2019. It is built entirely from recycled and reused materials, things he found in the dump, on the beach, or that were given to him, with not a single item from a hardware store. Some of the walls are shaped like waves, and it stands as a monument to the wild dolphins that inspired him.
Ashley says his art was asleep inside him until he swam with the wild dolphins of Bimini, more than forty of them, and it changed him in seconds. He describes the moment like lightning striking, telling Tom it touched his heart and made him an artist on the spot. He had no formal art training and considers himself a gifted artist who owes his creativity and inspiration to those dolphins.
Ashley traces the Saunders family in the Bahamas back roughly four hundred years, to around 1646 and the Eleutheran Adventurers who arrived after the Sea Venture was shipwrecked at Eleuthera, an island whose name means freedom in Greek. His ancestors came to Bimini about two hundred years ago to salvage goods from wrecked ships, and the family has roots in both Bimini and Key West, where some relatives still live today.
The Saunders family has been part of the early settlers of both Bimini and Key West for about two hundred years, which is why the Saunders name appears in both places. Ashley explains the migration between the islands and the Florida Keys, a shared history Tom connected with directly because his own children were born in Key West as conchs.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 107 with Ashley Saunders is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
I went to Bimini with my family, partly because I had filmed there once before with Into the Blue and loved it. On a windy day we did the touristy things, and that led us to the Dolphin House. It floored me. When I learned that one man had built this place by hand over twenty-six years from things he found, I asked if he would sit down with me, even though he had no idea what a podcast was.
Press play in the player above to hear the whole conversation.
The Dolphin House is unlike anything I have ever walked through. Ashley built it over twenty-six years using only recycled and found materials, telling me not one thing in it came from a hardware store. Some walls are shaped like waves. Every corner holds something he salvaged, was given, or repurposed. He walks through how it all came together, piece by piece. Worth hearing in his own words.
Ashley says his art was asleep until the day he swam with the wild dolphins of Bimini. He describes it like lightning striking, a thing that happened in seconds and never left him. He had no training, no apprenticeship, no art school, just that one encounter and everything that flowed from it. The way he describes the moment is the heart of this whole conversation. Listen to that section of the episode.
If you know the Bahamas, you know the Saunders name. Ashley traces it back roughly four hundred years, through the Eleutheran Adventurers and the Sea Venture shipwreck, down to his ancestors who came to Bimini to salvage wrecked ships. He connects all of it to Key West, where my own kids were born. It is a remarkable oral history from a man who has spent his life keeping it. Press play in the player above.
Bimini drew remarkable people, and Ashley grew up around some of them, including Ernest Hemingway. As the island's historian, he carries the stories of who came through and why. We only had about thirty minutes before I had to catch a plane, but he packed it with history you cannot get anywhere else. Scroll up and watch the player above.
Listen to the full conversation: press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
What stays with me about Ashley is that he treated a single encounter with wild dolphins as a calling and then spent twenty-six years answering it, by hand, with whatever the island gave him.
I have climbed and traveled and chased fish all over the world, and he told me sitting with those dolphins beat all of it. After an hour in his house, I believe him.
Press play in the player above to hear how it all fits together.
Ashley Saunders · The Dolphin House · Bimini, Bahamas · Key West · Eleuthera · Ernest Hemingway · Into the Blue · The Eleutheran Adventurers · Nassau
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Ashley Saunders is a Bahamian historian, poet, and self-taught artist from Bimini and the creator of the Dolphin House, a monument he built by hand over twenty-six years entirely from recycled and found materials. A member of the prominent Saunders family that helped settle both Bimini and Key West, he became an artist after swimming with the wild dolphins of Bimini and has devoted his life to art, poetry, and preserving the history of his island.
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