Bomi County: History
From 1822 until the Liberian Declaration of Independence from the American Colonization Society on July 26, 1847, some 3,198 freed people of color from the United States and the Lesser Antilles came to Liberia with the help and support from the American Colonization Society and other organizations. The first settlers who left the Caribbean islands were from Barbados. The second set of 345 settlers who came from the Caribbean were from Trinidad and Tobago, followed by 620 from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, another 350 from Saint Kitts and Nevis, and two groups from Grenada. The last group of settlers to arrive were from Saint Lucia.
Bomi County, formerly known as Bomi Territory, was first part of Montserrado County. The military regime of Samuel Doe established Bomi County in 1983. A legislative act later confirmed the County as being a separate entity. Bomi means “LIGHT” in the Gola language, recognizing the County's status as the first site for iron ore mining in Liberia.
The Liberia Mining Company extracted iron ore in the territory during the 1950s and 1960s. The company closed its operations in 1979.