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Allegory of Europe supported by Africa and America
William Blake, circa 1790.
U.S. Virgin Islands

A Guide to National Parklands in the

United States Virgin Islands

Produced by the
Division of Publications
Harpers Ferry Center
National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Washington, D.C.
 Five National Park System units help preserve the natural
resources and history of the U.S. Virgin Islands. This
handbook offers you insight into these islands' marine
and terrestrial ecosystems and human histories. The pro-
tected natural landscapes and marine areas of the islands
are of great significance to the whole of the western hem-
isphere, particularly for sea turtles, neotropical songbirds,
and other migratory species. Island reefs, seagrass beds,
and mangrove forests serve as nurseries and homes for
many ocean-going species.

National Park Handbooks are published in support of

National Park Service management programs and to pro-
mote understanding and enjoyment of the more than 380
units of the National Park System, which preserve impor-
tant parts of our nation's natural and cultural heritage.
Handbooks are sold at parks and can be purchased by
mail from Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Govern-
ment Printing Office, Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-
0001, or at [Link] on the Internet. This is
handbook number 157.

1+&

MET
Part 1 The U.S. Virgin Islands
Caribbean Setting 8

Part 2 St. Thomas: Getting

Your Island Bearings 30

Part 3 [Link]: Virgin Islands

National Park and Coral Reef 46

Part 4 St. Croix: Christiansted

And Salt River Bay 74

Part 5 Buck Island Reef:

Underwater Trail 102

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The U.S. Virgin Islands
Caribbean Setting

ATLANTIC OCEAN

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Caribbean Sea and U.S. Virgin Islands: Quick Facts
The U.S. Virgin Islands are Character in May and September
part of the northeastern Caribbean Sea water is less through October. Water
West Indies, the island arc salty than Atlantic Ocean temperatures range from
between the Caribbean Sea water. The current runs 78°F to 85 throughout the
and Atlantic Ocean. To their clockwise. Volcanism and year. Hurricane season, June
northeast lie the British earthquakes are common in 1 to November 30, peaks in
Virgin Islands. West, across the region. European, East September and October.
the Virgin Passage, are the Indian, and American lan-
islands of Culebra, Vieques, guages and many blends of Travel Savvy
and Puerto Rico —together them, some influenced by The U.S. dollar is used in
a self-governing U.S. com- African tongues, are spoken the US. and British Virgin
monwealth. The Virgin in the Caribbean. Local cus- Islands and Puerto Rico.
Islands use Atlantic Stand- tom in the US. Virgin Postal rates are the same as
ard Time all year. Islands is to greet strangers mainland U.S. Postal Service
with "good morning" or rates. Customs: U.S. citizens
Sizeand Deepest Point "good afternoon." are allowed $1,200 in duty-
The Caribbean Sea covers free purchases from the US.
about 750,000 square miles. Climate Virgin Islands but check cur-
The Cayman Trench, be- Year-round daytime temper- rent limits before you buy.
tween Cuba and Jamaica, is atures range in the 80s°F, 70s
22,788 feet below sea level. at night; summer days are Documents
commonly in the low 90s. Proof of citizenship (pass-
Average annual rainfall is 45 port, birth certificate with
inches. Rains are more likely seal, or voter registration
card) is needed for U.S. citi-

zens on departing the U.S.

Virgin Islands. Passports are
not required for travel by
U.S. citizens between the
U.S. Virgin Islands and
Puerto Rico. Passports are
required for U.S. citizens
traveling between the U.S.
Virgin Islands and the Brit-
ish Virgin Islands nearby.

-
N\. A globe made in Nuremberg,
Germany, in 1492 showed
Earth as Columbus believed
itto be. Opposite: A young
snorkeler explores Great
Lameshur Bay off St. John.

11
HP
 Where People, Worlds,
And Continents Meet

Captured from above Whist- Worlds once met here in the Caribbean. So many
ling Cay off northern St. peoples have met and still meet here that the region
John, this view of Francis has been described as "an ethnic salad of native
and Maho bays — backed by Indian, East Indian, African, and European ingredi-
forested mountains topped
with puffy clouds —might be
ents." Oceanic plates actively converge here, too.
This region's rich biological diversity is both natu-
mistaken for a landscape
architect's model of paradise. rally surprising and unnaturally threatened. "I think
that the Caribbean Sea does not enclose .
." writes
.

Preceding pages: Snorkelers Edouard Glissant, "It does not impose one culture,
swim off a Buck Island it radiates diversity."
beach (contents pages), and Advertising paints the region as strips of sandy
islanders celebrate their beach at the end of airplane flights or on a cruise-
annual, colorful Carnival ship shore call. Its images of the Caribbean suggest
(pages 4-5). Native to these
oversimplification instead of this region's diversity.
islands, the iguana is listed as
The actual U.S. Virgin Islands are real places and
endangered by the Virgin
Islands government, largely
home to people with real histories. These islands
because of poaching and also support, shelter, and harbor diverse natural
automobile traffic (pages 6- niches: from coral reefs to a mountain-deep sea
7). Yearly, the Rolex Regatta trench, from tropical forests to semi-arid headlands.
attracts sailors to compete off Even the beaches boast diversity, ranging from coral
St. Thomas and St. John sands to rocky cobbles.
(pages 12-13). The U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Thomas, St. John, St.
Croix, and Buck Island today host five units of the
Cover: Coral reefs are living
National Park System: Buck Island Reef National
organisms. They hug sun-
Monument, Christiansted National Historic Site,
struck shallows of seawater
Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Eco-
around the equator and are
often linked ecologically to
logical Preserve, Virgin Islands National Park, and
shallow-water mangrove and Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument. This
seagrass communities. book will help you explore these real places, engage
Together these are among their rich stories, and visualize them for yourself.
Earth 's most biologically They are part of our collective national heritage that
complex and diverse ecosys- Congress has set aside for permanent protection.
tems. Long-time monitoring
That the Caribbean Sea "does not enclose" is no
of coral reefs in the Virgin
mystery. The great island arc or archipelago of
Islands confirms other evi-
which the U.S. Virgin Islands are a part defines the
dence that coral reefs are
sea's eastern edge. Known as the West Indies or
deteriorating worldwide.
Antilles, these often-volcanic islands separate the
Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico from the open
Atlantic Ocean, curving 2,500 miles from the

15
How the Northern Atlantic Ocean Works
Trade winds and westerlies are glo"
the northern Atlantic Ocean, trade wind:
northeast and westerlies from the "southwest. Earth's
rotation bends them away from north-south paths: W
and cold ocean currents describe similar movement,
prevailing winds can drag surface waters. These for
distribute heat from the equator and c< from the pol
making more of Earth habitable. Trade v
the Virgin Islands' tropical climate

NORTH
PACIFIC CENTRAL
OCEAN AMERICA
Plate
make up
Several large plates
They float on
Earth's crust.
molten matter below. The
eastern Caribbean is geolog-
ically unstable because the
Atlantic, Caribbean, and North
American crustai plates meet
here. Mild earthquake tremors
average one per day on St. John.

SOUTH AMERICA
 )t. 25, 1989
jgo dissipates
E U R O R E^
- V-

PREVAILING
WESTERLY WINDS '-*
35° fo 60° North latitude

r L ANTIC OCEAN
HORSE LATITUDES
Light variable winds
25° to 35° North latitude i

AFRICA

NORTHEAST 9
/ TRADE WINDS / &ff& Sept. 9, 198!
Hugo forms
5° to 30" North latitude

Hurricanes form as far away

w-!«® as West Africa— as Hugo did,
devastating the Virgin Islands
in 1989. Tropical storms have
winds from 39 to 74 mph;
Sahara Desert dust rides the hurricanes have winds more
trade winds to the Caribbean than 74 mph. Decade-long hot
and Central America. or dry periods in West Africa
influence how frequently
hurricanes occur in the
Caribbean. North of the
DOLDRUMS equator, hurricane winds
Light variable winds move counterclockwise.
5° North to 5° South latitude
History Followed Nature's Pathways

Commerce between Europe, Africa,;

flowed clockwise at first, with the wind
shown on the previous pages. The trade winds wer
for their role in sailing-ship days. By the
Denmark picked up slaves in West Afric ^r sale in
Virgin Islands. The islands exported mostly sugar, rum
molasses, cotton, and hardwoods. Until Denmark o
its slave trade in 1803, Danish ships car
I
U*2
manufactured goods and rurr£to Africa, the
Caribbean, and the islands' exports
Other trade flowed between fsurope?
Indies, and Charleston, New^York, oi

NORTH
AMERICA

Charleston^

Savannah #JP
Bermuda

'<',

GULF OF
MEXICO

December 3, 1493
Yucatan Columbus returns to
Peninsula Cadiz, Spain

NORTH
PACIFIC CENTRAL
OCEAN AMERICA
S£a
The Panama Canal was built S" Barbados
by the United States from Panama
1904 to 1914. World War I Canal

persuaded the United States

to purchase the Danish West
Indies— now the U.S. Virgin
Islands— from Denmark for
$25 million for the strategic
protection of the canal.
'

.w moved

arly*1400s. They conqu

north
America in t"

le'Taino Indians and later

gave their name to the region.

S O U T H fA ME RICA
Slaves were acquired by
Danish ships at any of five
slaving forts along the coast
of Guinea, now Ghana. Up to
25 or 30 percent of this
human cargo usually died in
passage.

Mmf^ilnWIifWrJ-''
 Venezuelan coast northward and westward to near
[Link] groups of islands make up the West
Indies Archipelago: the Greater and Lesser Antilles,
southern Dutch or Netherlands Antilles, and Venez-
uelan Islands. The U.S. Virgin Islands are part of the
Lesser Antilles (meaning "smaller," not "less impor-
tant"). Within the Lesser Antilles the U.S. Virgin
Islands are part of the Leeward Islands, to whose
southeast lie the Windward Islands.
However, no absolutes on the matter
atlases offer
of these [Link] were affixed not by native
peoples but by wind-borne foreign navigators and
Hugo Moolenaar has been ships' chart-makers.
described as "a cultural entre-
preneur. " Best known for re-
viving the cultural tradition
On a pottery shard-strewn shore at Salt River Bay
Mocko Jumbi, who on the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix, time itself
of the
walks on stilts, he also helped bakes in the tropical sun. Stare northwestward to
revive the former plantation the watery horizon and you may imagine this sea's
harvest festival as Carnival namesake Carib Indians paddling their log canoes
on his native St. Thomas. the 90 miles to Puerto Rico to help attack the
Spanish there in 1511. The Caribs had wrested con-
Opposite: A St. Thomas pro- trol of today's St. Croix from the Tainos (tye-ee-
duce market stall hints at the
nos) in the early 1400s and would themselves later
great globalization of food
sink under the onslaught of the Spaniards. What
plants thatcommenced when
intimate knowledge of these sun-splashed islands
Columbus linked two old
worlds as a new one. His sec-
vanished with the disappearance of the Tainos and
ond voyage, in 1493, sparked Caribs? What nautical knowledge disappeared for-
the Columbian Exchange of — —
ever clues as subtle as changes in wavelet patterns,
peoples, cultures, plants, ani- or how the water may reflect light to give paddlers
mals, and, unfortunately, dis- a sense of direction when only open water offers a
eases — between formerly iso- horizon? A
remnant earthwork fort at Salt River
lated worlds. One of the goals Bay marks how European nations fought for colo-
of today's Territorial govern- nial footholds here in the 17th century. History runs
ment is to make the Virgin
as deep as the tropical forest shade, as colorful as
Islands more self-sufficient
plumage, as varied as the cultures now burnished in
in food production.
tropical beauty here. There are manifold attractions:
colorful comminglings of blue waters and narrow,
often white strands of coral-sand beaches. Inside
forests, lacy sunlit patterns filtered by the layers of
leaves drip golden through dense vegetation.
It would always be hot and humid here but for
the trade winds that wafted Columbus westward
across the Atlantic. They moderate this tropical cli-
mate for a mean annual temperatureof 79°F. These
winds that carried trade bring hurricanes as well.
They also carry Sahara Desert dust that settles on
islanders' household furniture. The globalization of

20
 'JfA

^
 —

cultures that Columbus came to symbolize followed

nature's pathways after all.

Tremors and trenches underscore the theory of

—that great slabs of Earth's crust
plate tectonics
semi-molten outer or mantle
float atop the planet's
Eons ago,
layer. these tectonic plates —
all major six
and some minor ones —were joined as the super-
continent Pangea, all or whole Earth. Where the
crustal platesmeet and grind against each other, as
three do in the Caribbean, earthquakes and volca-
noes occur. Indeed, the island of St. John averages
30 minor earthquake tremors per month.
Guy Benjamin was the first
Both St. Thomas and St. John were formed by vol-
[Link] resident to graduate
canoes and rise steeply from sea level, so they have
from Charlotte Amalie High
narrow beaches. Steepness made those islands less
School on St. Thomas. With
profitable for agriculture than flatter St. Croix as
degrees from Howard and
New York universities, he has the importance of sugar cultivation grew. St. Croix
had a distinguished career as and Buck Island were formed by uplift, from tecton-
an educator. He has docu- ic pressures, not by volcanism. Largest of the U.S.
mented the old ways of daily Virgins, St. Croix remains more amenable to agri-
life on St. John. His books culture.
include Me and My Beloved The Caribbean Sea is formed of two major basins
Virgin and More Tales from
and has many volcanic neighbors. Just north of
Me and My Beloved Virgin. Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and North American
plates grind together, causing earthquake tremors
and the 28,374-foot-deep Puerto Rico Trench. Off
St. Croix's north coast a trench-like deep plunges
13,000 feet where the South American and Carib-
bean plates meet: St. Thomas and St. John mark the
southernmost tip of the North American continent,
and St. Croix and Buck Island mark the northern-
most tip of the South American continent. Tecton-
ically speaking, the U.S. Virgin Islands are diverse
and intercontinental.
—
So are its people even more so. Over 4,000 years
ago migratory Archaic peoples began traveling up
the Antillean chain from South America. They left
evidence of their culture on St. Croix and migrated
north and west as far as Puerto Rico 3,000 to 4,000
years ago. About 2,000 years ago they seem to have
disappeared, to be replaced by the Igneri, who were
pottery makers and St. Croix's first agriculturalists.
After many centuries the Tainos or Island-Ara-
waks settled on St. Croix, which they called Ayay.
They, too, came north from the northern Amazon
and Orinoco South America. Less
river basins in
than 100 years before Columbus ventured to the

22
Caribbean, its namesake Island-Caribs, pottery
makers as well, moved into the Lesser Antilles and
St. Croix, subjugating the Tainos. At Salt River Bay
in 1493, Columbus's men encountered Caribs and
their Taino slaves. Collectively, Caribs, Tainos, and
their predecessors had lived here for thousands of
years with less environmental and cultural impact
than these islands have sustained in the past 400
years, even though Columbus noted in his log book
the extensive cultivation on St. Croix.
Each Caribbean island has a distinct cultural her-
itage. Today 85 percent of U.S. Virgin Islands resi-
dents are people of color. Those of African descent Leona Watson of St. Croix is
a cultural story teller and one
mostly originated in the Gold Coast region of West
of the leading proponents of
Africa. Hispanic residents largely have come from
the West African song form
Puerto Rico (including Vieques and Culebra) and cariso. Like the later West
the Dominican Republic. Most Caucasians have Indian calypso form, cariso
come from the United States, but a small percent- provided social commentary
age descend from European colonial families. Some and satire by telling stories
anthropologists suggest that all humans originated based on people and events.
in Africa, so perhaps we were merely brought back These are usually set in the
together here in the Caribbean. Indeed, as historian plantation era, both before

Arnold R. Highfield has written, 1492 "marked the and after the emancipation.

beginning of the end of the movement of human-

Pages 28-29: Coral reefs
kind" away from Africa.
cover only 360,000 square
From the late 1800s through about 1960 the popu- miles world-wide but host
lation of St. John was 600 to 700 people; today it is one quarter of all ocean
more than 3,500. The populations of St. Thomas and species. Only tropical rain-
St. Croix have almost quadrupled in that time. De- forests rival some Pacific
spite the pressures confronting them, among areas Ocean coral reefs for their

under the U.S. flag these islands are remarkable for biological diversity. Coral

their ethnic and cultural diversity. reefs of these U.S. Virgin

The mission of the National Park Service in the

Islands, much younger than
many of their cousins in the
Virgin Islands is to help preserve the natural and
Pacific and Indian oceans,
cultural heritage of five protected areas. Together
are crucial to the biological
with territorial and other federal agencies, the Na-
diversity of the Caribbean.
tional Park Service works to combine preservation
with restoration, stewardship, and sustainable living.
We invite you to share and spread our vision of pre-
serving the richness of this heritage for the future.
We want to be good and enduring neighbors to —
these islands' history and diverse cultures, to you,
and to this fascinating natural world of land and
sea and air.

23
 Timeline: U.S. Virgin Islands

The story of today's Virgin Islands begins in more recent geological time have caused

with the tempest of our planet's geological these islands sometimes to join together,
past. The form of many major and 50-some sometimes almost to disappear. Archeolog-
lesser U.S. Virgin Islands originated in vol- ical work on shoreline village sites is adding
canism. Yet volcanic islands such as St. to what we know about early cultures here.
Thomas and St. John were also uplifted by This work must be done before wave action
movements of the crustal plates that form erodes the beaches and disturbs artifact
Earth's surface. Rising and falling sea levels deposits. The first peoples on these islands,

1665 1754 Danish crown buys 1801 E

Danish attempt at settling Danish West India & Guinea First British occupation dur-
St. Thomas fails. Co. stock and terminates ing Napoleonic Wars.
charter. The islands are a
1671 Danes resettle St. crown colony. 1802
Thomas, sponsored by Peace of Amiens returns the
Glueckstadt Co. (later Y16A Frederick V
grants islands to Denmark.
Danish West India Co.). free-port status to St.
Thomas, St. John. 1803 Denmark is first Euro-
1673 First slave vessel's pean nation to end its African
arrival with 103 Africans 1792 March 16 edict of King slave trade.
launches St. Thomas as a Christian VII of Denmark-
slave market. Norway specifies an end to 1804 Charlotte Amalie fire
African slave trade. destroys hundreds of homes;

A.D. 1 Archeological evi- put ashore. He names the 1731 Annaberg under culti-
dence shows beginnings of northern Virgin Islands col- vation;by the 1800s one of
Igneri (pre-Taino) culture lectively "Las Once Mil [Link]'s largest sugar pro-
here. Virgenes." ducers. Windmill added in
the 1820s or 1830s.
700 Archeological evidence 1520 Caribs stage raids
of Taino (so-called Arawak) against Puerto Rico from 1733 Plantations total 109
cultureon coastal areas — northern Virgin Islands. (21 sugar). Slaves mount
Trunk, Cinnamon, and November 23 pre-dawn
Lameshur. 1717 attack on Fort Frederik-

1493 1
M
Columbus passes
I

St. John on
Denmark
St.
St.
claims uninhabited
John; 20 planters settle on
John to grow sugar, cot-
svaern in Coral Bay, kill the
soldiers, and launch a care-
fully orchestrated slave
second voyage but doesn't ton, and other crops. rebellion. (See page 68.)

2500 B.C. Archeological evi- 1509 Ponce de Leon, first extermination of all Caribs
dence shows migratory South governor of Puerto Rico, on St. Croix.
American hunter-gatherers extends administrative influ-
in the Virgin Islands. ence to St. Croix through 1587 John White and Eng-
agreement with its Carib lish colonistsbound for
1425 Caribs reach here in chiefs. Slave raid on St. Croix Virginia stop at St. Croix;
their westernmost territorial by Diego de Nicuesa breaks one nearly dies from tasting
expansion. the truce. poisonous manchineel fruit.
From a distance they see
1493K 1511 Carib warriors from St. very few "savages and
Columbus, on second voyage, Croix support Tainos in gen- divers[e] houses."
names the island Santa Cruz eral uprising in Puerto Rico.
("Holy Cross"). Crew mem- 1590 A
French explorer
bers skirmish with Caribs at 1512 King Ferdinand I of notes that the island is com-
Salt River Bay. Spain issues Cedula ordering pletely depopulated.

24
as inmost of the Caribbean, disappeared Denmark Knights of Malta
and leftno written traditions and few physi-
cal traces. Today's populace reflects more
than 500 years of migrations. Many of the
people who came to these islands from
around the world were forced, indentured,
m Spain

England
Netherlands

France
or bonded. Note: Entries in italics below
refer to all three islands.

losses total 11 million rigs- tends future competition for 1830 Impressionist painter
daler. cane sugar. Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
born in Charlotte Amalie
1807-1815 E 18151 July 10. His career in art
Second British occupation Islands returned to Danish began here, not in France.
during Napoleonic Wars. sovereignty.
1834 Social equality between
1808 British abolish slave 1820 Decade-long, region- Free Blacks and Whites
trade; build Ft. Cowell on wide economic depression. decreed.
Hassel Island to protect
Charlotte Amalie harbor. 1825 Last pirate ship in West 1838 Ordinance in Danish
Indian waters captured. Virgin Islands prohibits sell-
1810 Beet-sugar process ing slaves in public market
developed in Germany por- places.

Revolt quelled six months armed to protect the growing 1844 Annaberg School, for
later withFrench aid from village. slave children, opens on St.
Martinique. John. Moravian brethren
1780-1800 Plantations make teach classes in English.
1749 Moravian Brethren major shift from cotton to
begin missionary work on St. sugar; trade moves from 1847 King Christian VIII
John. Build first church at Coral Bay to Cruz Bay. decrees a 12-year plan for
"
Emmaus in Coral Bay. "graduated emancipation.
1804 Slave population peaks
1754 Bethany Mission at 2,604. 1848 Emancipation of slaves
founded. inDanish West Indies, July 3.
1820-1826 Sugar production
1766 Cruz Bay established. peaks at 1.1 million pounds
The Battery is built and per year.

16421 1650 Christiansted. Eighty planta-

English and Dutch each Spanish attack and expel the tions grow tobacco, indigo,
attempt settlements, fight; English. A
Dutch incursion is cotton, sugar, and food crops.
Dutch end up in control of repulsed, but the French
the island. expel the Spanish and start a 1696 French colonists and
colony. removed to Sainte
slaves
1643 First record of African Domingue (now Haiti)
slave presence. 16551 because of disease.
[Link] governed by French
1645 chapter of Knights of Malta. 17331
English subjugate and expel Denmark buys St. Croix
the Dutch and their French 16651 —
from France the first
Huguenot allies. French crown takes back peaceful transfer of owner-
Main settlement
island. ship of a West Indian island.
moves from Salt River Bay
to Bassin, future site of

25
 Timeline: U.S. Virgin Islands

1839 Compulsory education 1872 Telegraph links St. 1922 Nine passenger ships
decreed for slave and Free Thomas and Europe. Charlotte Amalie.
call at
Black children.
1879 Bay rum manufactur- 1924 Rothschild Francis pro-
1844 Danish statute abol- ing begins in St. Thomas. motes Organic Act to create
ishes poll tax, gives slaves a single legislature for the
Saturdays off, and requires 1902 Second U.S. attempt to islands. Such a bill is intro-
observance of Sundays. buy Danish West Indies fails. duced in the U.S. Congress.

1867 First U.S. attempt to 1916 $25 million U.S. offer 1930 Pan American Airlines
purchase St. Thomas and St. for Virgin Islands accepted. serves St. Thomas from New
John; major earthquake and York City.
tsunami affect all the islands. 1917 1
1

On Transfer Day, March 31, 1931 Civilian government

1871 Seat of government in U.S. flag replaces Danish flag. established under the US.
islands moved to St. Thomas. U.S. Navy administers the Department of the Interior.
islands.

Mid-1800s Sugar production 1908 Last operating sugar 1956 Virgin Islands National
and population start to factory ceases production at Park dedicated December 1.
decline. Reef Bay. Laurance S. Rockefeller
bought the land and donated
1852 St. John, St. Thomas it to establish the park.
one voting district in new On Transfer Day, March 31,
assemblies. US. flag replaces Danish flag. 1962 5,650 acres of sub-
U.S. Navy administers the merged lands added to
1890-1940 Producing Bay islands. Virgin Islands National Park
Rum oil assumes major eco- to protect marine features
nomic importance, chiefly at 1953 Total of 14 jeeps regis- like coral reefs and seagrass
Cinnamon Bay and Coral tered on St. John. To save its beds.
Bay distilleries. peaceful lifestyle the admin-
istrator proposes "limiting 1976 Virgin Islands National
1901 St. John population is the number and size of Park designated a Biosphere
925. motor vehicles on the Reserve, as a Caribbean eco-
island." system worthy of preserva-

1734 St. Croix settled by 1755 Christiansted designat- 1776 First foreign salute to
Danish colonists from St. ed as capital of Danish the American flag fired from
Thomas. Islands in America. Fort Frederik, Frederiksted.

1735 Christiansted estab- 1759 Abortive slave revolt 1848 Slave revolt in Fred-
lished and named for King ends in brutal public execu- eriksted culminates in eman-
Christian VI of Denmark- tions. cipation.
Norway.
1764 The golden age of 1849 Provisional Labor Act
1746 Slave revolt fails. sugar agriculture on St. Croix adopted to ensure continua-
begins. tion of plantation system.
1747 Building code adopted
for Christiansted is the first 1771 Royal Danish Amer- 1852 Colonial Law establish-
in the West Indies. ican Gazette, first newspaper es first legislative assemblies.
in the Virgin Islands, is pub-
1752 Frederiksted estab- lished. 1877 First central sugar fac-
named for King Fred-
lished, tory set up by colonial gov-
erick V ernment.

26
1936 Organic Act defines opens St. Thomas campus. 1978 Congress authorizes
federal-territorial relation- (Today it is the University of adding Hassel Island to
ship. the Virgin Islands, with cam- Virgin Islands National Park.
puses on St. Thomas and St.
1950 Morris F. de Castro ap- Croix.) 1999 Nearly 900 cruise ships
pointed first native Virgin Charlotte Amalie.
call at
Islands governor in modern 1970 First election of gover-
times. nor and lieutenant governor
held. Dr. Melvin H. Evans is
1952 U.S. Congress adopts black elected as a gov-
first
Revised Organic Act; territor- ernor in the Virgin Islands
ial government replaces and in the United States.
municipal government.
1972 The islands' first Con-
1963 College of the Virgin gressional delegateRon de
Islands, first school of higher Lugo elected.
learning in these islands,

[Link] status recognizes

the park's role as a preserva-
tion and research model for
other protected island areas.

1988 Friends of Virgin

Islands National Park found-
ed as a nonprofit partner in
the park's mission.

2001 President Bill Clinton

proclaims Virgin Islands
Coral Reef National Monu-
ment of 12,708 acres of fed-
erally owned submerged
lands off St. John.

1878 Major labor uprising, 1934 Homesteading pro- 1963-1965 Sugar agriculture
the "Fireburn," damages or gram to help establish inde- ceases. Economy diversified
destroys two-thirds of sugar pendent small Black and by tourism and heavy and
plantations. Hispanic farms begins. "New light industries.
Deal" Virgin Islands Com-
1915 First labor union in the pany (VICO) set up to revi- 1992 Salt River Bay Na-
Virgin Islands established; talize St. Croix sugar and Park and
tional Historical
calls general strike in 1916. rum industry. Ecological Preserve estab-
The Herald, first local news- lished.
paper free of government 1952 Virgin Islands National
subsidies or censorship, is Historic Site, later Chris- 2001 Buck Island Reef Na-
published. tiansted National Historic tionalMonument expanded
Site, established. by more than 18,000 acres of
surrounding federally owned
On Transfer Day, March 31, 1961 President John F. submerged lands.
U.S. flag replaces Danish flag. Kennedy proclaims Buck
U.S. Navy administers the Island Reef National
islands. Monument.

27
 '

J5p

tss

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 C
Part 2

T LANT I OCEAN
Cricket
Rock Rough
Point

West Botany
Cay p in t

Montalvan Saba Flamingo

Point island Point

National Park
System lands
 St. Thomas: Getting Your
Island Bearings
Pelican Cay

Little Hans
Lollik Island

Hans
Lollik
Island

Congo
Cay

CaN
ao9°

Mingo
Cay

Henley
Cay

OB
jbst
Steven Cruz
Cay Bay

ST
JOHN

Buck Island
National
Wildlife Refu ipella
Islands
fW v .• *a »»

I
St. Thomas: Quick Facts
Emergency Thomas, St. Croix, and Tours and Hikes
Call 911. For hospital Puerto Rico; seaplanes go Tour St. Thomas by taxi,

emergencies call 776-8311. from Charlotte Amalie to rental car or boat, charter
Christiansted on St. Croix. boat, or helicopter ride.
Information Ferries at Red Hook and
Virgin Islands National Charlotte Amalie, St. Recreation
Park, RO Box 710, St. Thomas, serve Cruz Bay, Snorkeling, hiking, scuba
John, VI 00831-0710; St. John. Other ferries diving, kayaking, windsurf-
340-776-6201; or serve the British Virgin ing, parasailing, sailing,
[Link]/viis Islands. Check phone book trailrides. Check at your
and rack cards in airports. lodgings for watersports
Virgin Islands Department equipment rentals and for
of Tourism; 340-774-8784; Character commercial services.
www. us vi org/tourism
. St. Thomas is volcanic in
origin and therefore hilly. Lodging
St. Thomas/St. John Part of it retains a French Hotels, guest houses, bed
Chamber of Commerce influence. St. Thomas is a and breakfasts, and resorts.
340-776-0100; premier Caribbean port of Ask a travel agent, Virgin
[Link] call for cruise ships. Islands Department of
Tourism, or chamber of
Most of Hassel Island, in Popular Beaches and Reefs commerce.
St. Thomas Harbor, is part Hull Bay, Magens Bay,
of Virgin Islands National Coki Beach, and many oth- Safety Tips
Park. Reach it by rental ers. Whether you walk or drive
boats, charters, or personal on St. Thomas, be alert to
watercraft. No scheduled Size and Highest Point traffic, and especially in
services are available. St. Thomas covers 32 Charlotte Amalie. Remem-
square miles. Crown ber, you need not be on
Transportation Mountain's elevation is beaches or boats to get a
Scheduled airlines serve 1,556 feet. Of Hassel sunburn!
Cyril E. King Airport on Island's 135 acres, 122.4 are
St. Thomas. Inter-island part of Virgin Islands
planes serve airports on St. National Park.

Frangipani caterpillars
become toxic from the sap of
frangipani leaves they eat
before they pupate as hawk
moths. Their bold caterpillar
colors tell birds "eat else- f
where!" Opposite: From suffi-
cient altitude the bold colors of
a sinuous carnival parade
might seem to emulate an
undulating caterpillar.

33
 ^^ f^a^
4

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 / -».;- hko
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^
f I4H

i
 A Mercantile Mystique

Caribbean children make the Its centuries-old role as an international maritime

most of a window on their trade center still strongly flavors the character of
world. Its deep water port the Island of St. Thomas. Its roles today as cruise-
gave St. Thomas an early
ship destination and transfer point for trips to St.
window on a wide world of
John, the British Virgin Islands, and St. Croix keep
international commerce.
this character vivid still. With tourism and the

Preceding pages: As a free cruise-ship trade as major drivers of the island's

port and popular shore call economy, the mercantile mystique continues to hold
for international cruise-ship sway. St. Thomas served as the capital of the Danish
passengers today, St. Thomas West Indies from 1871 into modern times. Today it

still retains its historically is the political seat of territorial government for all
cosmopolitan flavor. the U.S. Virgin Islands.
That all this and much more focuses on the deep-
water harbor and port city of Charlotte Amalie only
underscores the island's enduring aura of interna-
tional commerce. Free-port status was first granted
to St. Thomas in 1764 by the Danish crown. It was
retained when the United States bought the islands
in 1917. Thanks to this duty-free advantage and its
superb harbor, St. Thomas ranks as a world-class
shopping paradise.
All this is old hat to St. Thomas, which served as a
major station of the English Royal Mail Steamship
Company from the 1830s to 1880s and then served
as a major headquarters as well for the German
Hamburg- Amerika Line and its shipping network
up until World War I. In the 1700s a large part of St.
Thomas was put to agricultural uses, but the island's
steep, volcanic terrain quickly made sugar culture
too labor intensive to be economically profitable.
Sugar agriculture on St. Thomas became compara-
tively even less profitable for Denmark when that
nation acquired far more cultivatable, non-volcanic
St. Croix in 1733. It then made far more sense for
St. Thomas to cash in on its deepwater harbor. His-
merchant class dominated St. Thomas
torically, a
social whereas a planter class played that role
life,

on St. Croix. For the past 50 years St. Thomas has

increasingly developed large resort hotels. Today

37
 —

the island particularly attracts tourists who are

attuned to duty-free shopping and a nightlife cen-
tered on resort hotel complexes.
Piracy pre-dated free-port status by nearly 100
years,and thrived from 1672 to 1700. During that
time some colonial governors openly associated
with pirates or privateers. But piracy's role in the
lifeof St. Thomas as a Danish colony came to an
end in the early 18th century. Denmark's home gov-
ernment began to regulate the colonial governors
more closely, but only open-market piracy ended
Hassel Island is a rocky, cac-
then. Piracy went on for another 125 years in the
tus scrub-covered island in St. Caribbean. The last pirate ship to be captured
Thomas Harbor off Charlotte hailing from Columbia, South America fell to a —
Amalie. This detail of a 1717 Danish vessel in 1825. Today you will have to imag-
nautical chart shows todays ine the pirates' era by seeing Bluebeard Castle or
island as the peninsulait was by reading about Blackbeard's colorful exploits. He
before the narrow neck of was, after all, a denizen of these Virgin Islands when
land was excavated in 1865 to
he was in his prime.
create a boat channel and — Denmark not only clamped down on colonial gov-
the island.
ernors but influenced predominant historical archi-
tectural styles of St. Thomas. Many buildings date
Much of Hassel Island is part
of Virgin Islands National from 1840 on, after the last of several fires ravaged
Park now. The entire island is the port city of Charlotte Amalie throughout the
on the National Register of 18th and early 19th centuries. Up to that time most
Historic Places because of its construction had been of wood. The building styles
archeological value and its were imports, as were most building materials. How-
role in architecture, com- ever, the nature of islands requires making do with
merce, engineering, industry,
what's at hand, especially when the imports are
the military, and transporta-
bulky, heavy materials from distant ports. Historical
tion in the 18th, 19th, and
local fire-resistant building materials are coral and a
20th centuries. Cowell Bat-
tery, on the island's highest
blue-gray stone so hard and so difficult to work that
point 267 feet above the har- the early masons inelegantly named it "blue bitch."
bor, saw duty as a signal sta- Not all is Danish style nor mercantile. One of the
tion into the 1960s. more distinctive ethnic groups on St. Thomas are
people of French descent who migrated from the
island of St. Barts, officially Saint-Barthelemy. Their
Frenchtown settlement can be seen from the bal-
conies of cruise ships pulling into St. Thomas's
deepwater harbor. They have made their distinctive
mark on the St. Thomas landscape and life mostly
as small-scale farmers and fishermen. Remarkably,
they have quite successfully retained their French
identity, heritage,and community to this day and
still farm Thomas's more arable north shore
St.
lands. They were once noted for the weaving of bas-
kets, straw hats, and fish nets. Frenchtown folk still

38
fishusing fish pots, nets, and traps. They still make Also known as Blackbeard,
the traps, but of wire now, not of local materials as Captain Edward Teach was
one of many pirates and pri-
in bygone days. Human cultures are rarely static, as
who frequented St.
vateers
indeed these islands' many thousands of years of
Thomas between their forays.
human habitation everywhere reveal. It is not our Piracy s heyday was late in
specie's nature to stand still amidst a world of con- the 1 7th century, when some
stant — —
some would say relentless change. colonial governors conspired
Updating the ancient urge to take to the open openly with the pirates. Euro-
waters are the many yachts and charter boats so pean monarchs reined in
Thomas's east end. This island
characteristic of St. their governors about 1700,
still retains renown as a charter hub for the
its but piracy persisted in the
Virgin Islands, both U.S. and British, despite grow- Caribbean until 1825. Black-

ing competition from the island of Tortola. beard's Tower on St. Thomas,
built in 1678, probably never
But the deepwater harbor still reigns as the locus
played host to Blackbeard.
of marine travel here. The sub base in Charlotte
Certainly Bluebeard Castle
Amalie's harbor hosted submarines during World did not harbor Bluebeard,
War II. For 400 years European powers jockeyed who was only a character
for control of various West Indian islands. A glance in fiction.
back at the map of the Caribbean basin on pages 8
and 9 shows why. The goal ever and always was to
protect and/or control the shipping lanes into and
out of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.
Beginning in 1867 the United States joined in this
jockeying for favorable naval bases in the region.
Rumors during World War I that Germany was
interested in the Danish islands inspired the United
States to purchase the Virgin Islands from Denmark
for $25 million in 1917. The recently completed
Panama Canal could not afford to be threatened.
Today, for the most part, St. Thomas's deepwater
harbor hosts not sailing ships, submarines, or even
today's containerized-cargo behemoths but cruise^
ships. Sea-borne vacationing goes on year-round
now but peaks from November to April. The St.
Thomas harbor and ship docks can accommodate
up to a dozen cruise ships. At any one time this
might include four large ships of 2,500 passengers
—
each and six or seven smaller vessels for a com-
bined cruising population of 18,000 or more people
on a big mid-winter Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thurs-
day. That figure does not include the cruise-ship
crew members who were also "born-to-shop" in the
free port of St. Thomas in their hours off.
With busy international airport, St. Thomas is
its

also a logistical hub for comings and goings whose

ultimate destination may be St. John, mostly via
public ferries, or St. Croix by commuter flights. So,

39
Documenting

Magens Bay Fishermen,

St. Thomas, 1948

Fritz Henle
was a onotosrapner or inter-
national repute. His work
helped secure the national
park on St. John.
Traditions

St. John Ferry,

1949

Henle also documented

traditional ways of life,
including those of the fishing
folk of French descent on
St. Thomas.
A legend gave its name to St. Thomas is a port of call for many splendid things
Bluebeard Castle (both in addition to its own [Link] these are the
pages), built on St. Thomas animated faces of school children with whom you
beginning in 1666. Danish
may find yourself traveling on a public ferry as they
troops used tower for a
its
commute between their homes on St. John and their
lookout. The old graves on
schools on St. Thomas. That school uniforms cannot
the terrace hold former citi-
zens, not Bluebeard's mur-
mask the rich diversity of their multiple cultural
dered wives. heritages is yet another vivid reminder of the real
people, real places, and real stories that these jewel-
like tropical islands embody.

".
*
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42
m:<
 Recreation and Cultural Activities on the Islands
Beaches, weather, and warm water draw beaches, pass the crumbling walls built of
people to the Caribbean. Once you are here rock, brick, and coral that recall the changes
the evidence of cultures, past and present, these islands have witnessed. Visit Anna-
surrounds you. To kick off your time at Virgin berg sugar plantation to learn about the
Islands National Park, take a taxi tour of St. work of planters and slaves and, later, sub-
John. Catch a safari bus at Cruz Bay to the sistence farmers and fishermen on these
top of Coral Bay Overlook, 1,080 feet above isolated islands. Check each park's sched-
the sea. You'll find panoramic views of the uled activities for special cultural events like
islands, waters, and offshore cays and see craft demonstrations, drumming, and plays
the British Virgin Islands. You'll stop at and storytelling.

Island Cultures
Discover these islands' rich mix of cultures.
Music is important, ranging from quelbe,
steel pan, reggae, calypso, and rock-and-
roll to classical music. Carnival time corre-

sponds with the Fourth of July on St. John

and Christmas time on St. Croix and is in
late Aprilon St. Thomas. Try some conch
pate, coconut tart, fungi (a boiled mixture
of corn meal and okra), or salt fish. Talk
with taxi drivers and shopkeepers, remem-
bering to wish them the time of day.

Schoolgirl in unifor

TO fos% * \

K\

)cession, Christiansted, St. Croix

In Christiansted, St. Croix, visit Fort Chris- for the Reformed Dutch, Moravian, Angli-
tiansvaern, the Steeple Building museum, can, and Roman Catholic churches in addi-
Scale House, and other reminders of the tion to the Danish State (Lutheran) church.
daily lives of the whites who ruled these At Salt River Bay you can stand in the first
islands in the 18th and 19th centuries. Ask place under the U.S. flag where crew from
about commercial tours of St. Croix, visit- Christopher Columbus's fleet put ashore,
ing St. George Village Botanical Gardens, in 1493. Concessioners offer day trips from

Whim Great House, Fort Frederik, and the Christiansted to Buck Island Reef National
scenic drive. Relative Danish religious tol- Monument for snorkeling or scuba diving in

erance that began in the 1750s accounts the marine world of the colorful coral reef.

t
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Sailboarding is a recent favori Hiking trails in the mountains, St. John

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Riding through the past, Frederiksted, St. Croix Exploring the bays and shorelines, St. John
 Private property exists with- Virgin Islands Coral Reef
inthe boundary of the park. National Monument was
Respect property owners' created in 2001 by presi-
ational Park do not trespass.
rights; dential proclamation from
System lands 12,708 acres of federal
submerged lands.
 ,

TORTOLA
[Link]: Virgin Islands
National Park and Coral Reef

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mm
-
St. John: Quick Facts
Emergency of the public dock and fol- private land. Respect own-
Dial 911. A health clinic is low the waterfront, a five- ers' privacy.

at the intersection of minute walk. No general

Routes 104 and 10, five park entrance fee, but fees Popular Beaches
minutes from Cruz Bay. are charged at Trunk Bay Hawksnest, Trunk, Cinna-
and Annaberg Plantation. mon, Maho, and Francis
Information bays. (Watch valuables on
Virgin Islands National Transportation beaches while swimming.)
Park and Virgin Islands Tour the park and St. John
Coral Reef National by taxi and safari tours, Size and Highest Point
Monument, P.O. Box 710, rental vehicles, guided [Link] covers 20 square
St. John, VI 00831-0710; ranger hikes, or hiking miles. The national park is
340-776-6201; or trails. Taxis from Cruz Bay 9,485 acres terrestrial
[Link]/viis serve lodging areas and (authorized) and 5,650
beaches. Buses run be- acres marine. Bordeaux
Friends of Virgin Islands tween Cruz Bay's ferry Mountain's elevation is

National Park dock and Saltpond Bay via 1,277 feet. The national
340-779-4940 Coral Bay. Ferries from monument is 12,708 acres
[Link] Cruz Bay serve Red Hook of submerged lands.
(20 minutes) and Charlotte
Virgin Islands Department Amalie (45 minutes) on St. Tours and Hikes
of Tourism, 340-776-6450 Thomas, 340-776-6282. Taxi-tour times, round trip
[Link]/tourism Driving time (in minutes) from Cruz Bay (in hours):
from Cruz Bay to: Hawks- Trunk Bay with snorkeling,
St. Thomas
John/St. nest Bay, 10; Trunk Bay, 15; 3; Annaberg Sugar Mill

Chamber of Commerce Cinnamon Bay, 20; Anna- with sightseeing, 3; and

340-776-0100 berg, 25; Coral Bay, 30; Reef Bay Trailhead with
[Link] Saltpond Bay, 40; and round-trip hike (hail a taxi
East End of island, 50. on Centerline Road for
Cinnamon Bay Camp- return to Cruz Bay), 6.
ground 800-223-7637 or Character Hiking time, round trip: to
340-776-6330 Greet strangers with the closest beach (Salomon or
time of day. Local custom Honeymoon) with swim, 3.
To go to the National Park and ordinances require
Service Cruz Bay Visitor wearing a shirt or cover-up Recreation
Center, bear left at the end in town. Bathing suits alone Snorkeling, hiking, scuba
are not acceptable. Virgin diving, kayaking, windsurf-
Islands law prohibits public and boating.
ing, sailing,
nudity. The mix
island is a Rent watersports gear at
of national park land and Trunk and Cinnamon bays.

W
Part of a pottery vessel's han-
dle, this adorno is from the
Taino culture. Ram Head
(opposite), at St. John 's dry
southeast side, is cooled by
the trade winds.

49
Contemporary

Square Away

Shari Erickson
ny contemporary
Artists

Tardy

Erickson celebrates
saturated, primary colors
and the islands' intense,
tropical sunlight.
CT
 The One Biosphere Reserve
In the Lesser Antilles

Star coral is the most com- Its steep volcanic terrain made St. John one of the
mon reef coral in the Carib- last West Indian islands to be cultivated by Euro-
bean at depths of less than 60 peans. Whenthe Danes came over from St. Thomas
feet. In deeper water it flat-
John was not inhabited. The Tainos for-
tens out more — to maximize
in 1717, St.
merly living here had disappeared. Archeologists
its ability to capture light.
Light feeds the algae that
have been trying to pinpoint when they left. Why
grow inside the coral in a
they left remains even more of a mystery. Perhaps
symbiotic relationship with it.
Caribs drove them off and then did not stay them-
Algae produce the oxygen a selves. Archeologists have been working Cinnamon
coral requires to live. They Bay beach to document both pre-1493 Taino and
also enhance the ability of the colonial-era village sites before beach erosion and
coral to produce its skeleton. rising sea level destroy their artifacts. A 200-year
gap no doubt all but erased the
in habitation
Virgin Islands Coral Reef
impacts of Tainos on the larger island environment.
National Monument was pro-
Some changes that the Tainos wrought remain.
claimed in 2001 from 12,708
acres of federally owned sub- Although they gathered much marine life for food,
merged lands off the island of they did introduce two mammals to St. John as food
St. John. This new area, ad- animals: the hutia (originally a Bahamian relative of
ministered by the National the South American nutria), and the agouti, a mem-
Park Service, protects coral ber of the rat family. These animals may have had
reef and mangrove habitat impacts on the island's ecological dynamics. Mostly
crucial for the biological plant-eating, the hutia also ate some small inverte-
diversity of the entire brates and reptiles, which may not have adapted to
Caribbean.
its predation. The Tainos also introduced their staple

food plant manioc, which was processed as cassava

by leaching out its poison. Manioc does not natural-
ize but dies out if human cultivation ceases.
Because it was small, isolated, and undeveloped,
St. John was where the newer and more rebellious
slaves from Africa would be taken to be broken in.
Some St. John planters were absentee landlords liv-
ing on St. Thomas, and their St. John holdings were
run by overseers. Working conditions were more
brutal and difficult for slaves here.
Despite the plentiful, haunting evidence of the
Danish sugar plantations still to be seen on St. John,

terrain has ultimately defined how humans interact

with this island. The evidence of prehistoric human
settlement here means that the island once had

53
 year-round sources of fresh water like dependable
springs or streams. The Tainos evidently did not dig
wells, desalt sea water, or collect rainfall in catch-
ment basins —or archeologists would certainly know
if they did. No doubt the lush tropical forests col-
lected the rainfall then. The forests stored that
water in the deep, root-held humus soil formed over
centuries by the decay of the dense forest canopy's
fallen leaves. The mountain forests released the
stored moisture slowly throughout the year, thus
keeping springs and streams vibrant year-round. As
the soil becomes built up again, it becomes almost
peat-like, spongy, and absorbent.
Cutting down tropical forests turns out to be dou-
ble trouble. It not only wipes out natural water stor-
age but can actually decrease the rainfall. When the
As you travel from Cruz Bay land dries out after the forest is removed it heats up
on St. John's west end to Ram and may cause decreased precipitation. Prevailing
Head, its southeastern penin- winds from the east-southeast flowing over St. John
sula, the vegetation changes have their air cooled enough to precipitate some of
dramatically. Interior moun- its cargo of moisture as rainfall on the island's lee
tains are characterized by
side and its interior. Bordeaux Mountain is part of
moist, subtropical forest
this pattern, which explains why St. John's west end
(above).
is so moist, while its east end is semi-arid. On such a
Island forests now contain small island this dramatic ecological variation is

over 800 plant species. These remarkably noticeable. The moist forests of St. John
are amix of native species grow the West Indian locust, hogplum, and yellow
and many exotic species — prickle trees. Trees of the island's dry-forest include
those that people have intro- lignum vitae and black torch.
duced from other islands, the
The southeast corner of the national park at Ram
mainland, and continents. We Head anything but moist tropical forest. Its low,
is
may never know what the
scrubby vegetation is dwarfed by aridity aggravated
native plant life was like on
St. John.
by its open headland exposure to drying winds. St.
John has some of the best examples of dry tropical
forest remaining in the Lesser Antilles.
Rising rapidly and steeply from sea level, St.
John's terrain offers many microclimates and dis-
tinct ecological niches. This favors the biological
diversity of an abundance of plant species. National
Park Service specialists in natural resources man-
agement watch closely how the now-protected nat-
ural systems recover after centuries of having their
internal dynamics disturbed by agriculture, intro-
duction of exotic species, former farm animals gone
feral the list is a litany. Indeed, much that is eco-
. . .

logically amiss in today's Caribbean could be said to

have begun with the Spanish explorers' assumption

54
that nature existed to be exploited. We still seem to
daydream about nature as something that is espe-
cially adapted to human needs and wants. Our urge,
if would make all landscapes artifacts
unrestrained,
of human However, the biological diversity
desire.
of the tropics proves this unimaginative by compari-
son. Our 500-year-long encounter with Caribbean
natural history turns out to be not so much a dis-
covery as a slow awakening.
The first European naturalists to study the terres-
trial Caribbean region encountered its western pe-
rimeter, the Central American land bridge, in the
first half of the 1500s. They were overwhelmed by
the forest's leafy unfathomability. Now, St. John's
protected park area struggles to reclothe itself with
its former forests through what a modern naturalist
calls "the roller coaster of diversity." On windswept peninsulas like
Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdez and his Ram Head, cacti and other
philosophical rival Bartolome de Las Casas were arid-lands plants replace the
contemporaries in the first half of the 1500s. Neither forestsof the island's interior.
The constant winds would
could know that rain forests resulted from 500 mil-
dry out plants that are not
lion years of life diversifying and adapting to its
—
environment the qualities national parks are now
adapted to these desert-like
conditions. Escaped slaves
meant to protect. Oviedo and Las Casas held very reportedly got their drinking
different views of the worth of American Indians. water from cactus plants
Las Casas became an outspoken opponent of the while living in hiding after
enslavement of Indians, but such opposition unwit- the 1733 slave revolt.

tingly led to the introduction of enslaved Africans

to the New World in large numbers.
Baffled by the "great numbers" of trees, Oviedo
called the dense forests "a vast and hidden ocean,
for though it can be seen, most of it is unknown."
Overwhelmed by their seemingly endless variety, he
dismissed tropical lizards as an almost infinite sub-
ject. Neither Oviedo nor Las Casas possessed the
framework for a sense of time deep enough to ap-
preciate the vast differences between the natural
history of Europe and that of the Caribbean.
Writing in 1722 the Dominican friar Francisco
Jimenez strongly sensed the differences. He also
praised the Indians as "scientific about the animals
of the forest." Who knows what great and intimate
knowledge of St. John's natural history disappeared
with the Taino's abandonment of the island? In the
1930s a zoologist working among Central American
village farmers found that their descriptive knowl-
edge of even rats and spiders routinely surpassed

55
 Plant Life: Greatly Changed, but Traditional Uses Remain
The plant life of the Virgin Islands has been below. Yet these people's small populations
greatly altered in the past 500 years. Island and low-technology ways of life did not
residents who were here before Columbus intrude on steep interior forests or the arid
(but had disappeared from St. John before coastal scrublands. European development
1500) had some impacts on some parts of of the islands— beginning in the mid-1600s
the landscape. They cleared moister valleys on St. Croix, the late 1600s on St. Thomas,
for farming and may have introduced some and the early 1700s on St. John— rapidly
plants, such as the genip and the kapok destroyed all the ancient forests. Planters
tree, whose buttressed trunk is shown cut trees to make way for cotton and sugar.

Traditional Uses of Plants

Many wild plants of the Virgin Islands are

sources of widely-accepted traditional bush
medicines and food. Plants provide reme-
dies that strengthen the immune system,
cure sickness, remove internal parasites, or
cast off evil spirits. Active agents in many
such plants are now identified and are
sources of today's medicines. The oral tra-
ditions of bush medicine have been docu-
mented recently to preserve them. Tama-
rind trees (far left) came from India. Pulp
from the seed lis flavors a drink, curries,

and preserve labash trees (left) provide

nectar for h$> ees and herbals for a
purgative,; «fc-n t skin poisons, and to
f> '
treat dia ^'s. and colds.

e&S&St
Hundreds of non-native plants were intro- modern times. However, in Virgin Islands
duced. many locations large quantities of
In National Park, early successional phases of
topsoil and humus disappeared once the forest regrowth are apparent. Taller trees
forests had been cut down. The topsoil was that form the canopy layer of the evergreen
parched by the hot tropical sun and then forests on St. John include hogplum, West
washed away by heavy rains. Today exten- Indian locust, yellow prickle, monkey pistol,
sive development continues in much of the mango, and genip. Guavaberry, false cof-
Virgin Islands, and many ornamental plants fee, hoop vine, and anthuriums grow in the
have been introduced to the islands in forest understory.

'/,
'i
\*J

Flamboyant Flo Century Plant

Eyelash Orchid
 Beaches and Cays
The good news for plants on long. Seagrape trees help shore rocks to make sand,
beaches is that there's plenty stabilize beaches. On windy coral rubble, and rounded
of light and very little compe- beaches they may be stunted, cobbles (inset) that make up
as this photo of Trunk
tition, lopsided, or growing horizon- most island beaches. Several
Bay and Trunk Cay shows. tally. Wave action forms many parrotfish species also make
The bad news includes salt beaches, bringing sand from great quantities of coral sand.
spray and relentless drying reefs and submerged beach Their fused teeth look like
sun and wind that would kill terraces. Storm waves can parrot beaks, and they use
most plants, not to mention erode both coral reefs and them to scrape algae
that sand is poor in nutrients
and doesn't stay put for very
from coral that is usually Cays (pronounced keys) are
already dead. In the back of small, low islands that are
their throats the coral gets made up of rock, coral, or
ground to powder so the par- sand. The word may have
rotfish can digest the edible come from the Lucayan
plant material. The fish then (Bahamian) language.
excrete the indigestible skele-
tons as sand. Some trigger-
fish do this, too.

^-•i#f^£sftj"
 the skills of but highly trained European special-
all

ists —who developed no such skills until the end of

the 19th century. "These people must have perfect-
ed their opinions on the subject before Columbus
discovered America," the zoologist wrote. Fixated
on finding gold, you may miss the myriad richness
staring you in the face.
Clearing tropical forests for agriculture, as Danish
sugar planters began to do on St. John in 1717, is
deceptive. For a short while the soil is very produc-
tive, but nutrients are quickly depleted. It begins to

Evidence of missionary work dry and to erode. Volcanic mountain terrain com-
performed among the slaves pounds erosion problems. Terracing was used to cre-
persists in the masonry struc- ate level terrain for growing crops. These old terrac-
ture of Emmaus Moravian ings are mostly on St. John. Their crumbled dry-wall
Church now inside the town masonry style is best seen along the Reef Bay Trail
of Coral Bay. Mission work and the Cinnamon Bay Loop Trail. Old masonry
began on St. John in 1 749. animal pens or slave-hut foundations are other
Congregations were estab-
types of walls seen along trails.
lished at Bethany (1754) and
Picturesque masonry and mechanical evidence of
at Emmaus in 1783. A slave
the Danish sugar era are rarely far from view on St.
preacher, mason, and Morav-
ian helper named Cornelius John. Indeed, they provide the thematic thrust for
laid its The date
cornerstone. the Caneel Bay development of Rockefeller family
of its completion is not cer- interests, for example. As such they may be said to
tain. The church is used as a have contributed to the Rockefellers' inspiration to
shelter by the community acquire the land they donated to the people of the
when hurricanes threaten. United States for the creation of Virgin Islands Na-
tional Park. Subsequent private development on St.
Opposite: Miss Felicia
—
John's non-park lands greatly speeded up since
Caines demonstrates the craft
of weaving hoop vine into a
—
the 1960s has had the effect of making the park a
biological island within the geographical island.
traditional St. John market
basket at Annaberg Sugar Basic to the modern ecological view of life is that
Mill. The hoop vine is gath- all things natural are linked or interconnected. If

ered in St. John forests. the influence of natural processes abruptly ends at
the boundary of a protected natural area, the area
ceases to be a living ecological organism. This poses
serious long-term problems now even for protected
natural areas as large as Yellowstone National Park
with its two-million-plus acres.
At Virgin Islands National Park some impacts of
the development on non-park lands, while largely
unseen to nonspecialists, can have much wider eco-
logical consequences. Construction excavations and
road building activities, for example, can create ero-
sional sediments that wash downhill, eventually into
the bays to smother the fragile coral reef ecosys-
tems that require clean water to get solar energy.

60
 Sanctuary for a Hemisphere's Birds
Humans are not alone in flying songbirds. Undisturbed wood- become ever more important.
round the Virgin Islands.
trip to lands, both moist forest and Loss of mangrove forest to
So do northern parula warblers dry forest, are essential for coastal development has
and many other birds known as migratory birds but are more destroyed nesting habitat of
"neotropical migrants." They and more rare in the Carib- white-crowned pigeons, which
nest in Canada and the United bean. Without quality wintering are locally protected. Recently
States and winter in Mexico grounds these birds can't nest some have begun nesting in
and points south. Moist wood- successfully— or survive. As mangroves that are colonizing
lands on St. Thomas, St. John, bird habitat shrinks elsewhere, the shoreline of Ruth Cay. The
and northwestern St. Croix are the forests in these National cay was built off St. Croix with
wintering grounds for these Park System units and other the spoils from dredging.
protected natural areas

Smooth-billed Arti Green-throated

Carib

Mangrove Cuckoo

Northern Parula

62
Even ocean-feeding birds like photo at left) need habitat on

the brown booby (shown un- land for nesting. Although they
derwater from beneath in the are small, these islands loom
very large in importance to the
long-term fates of many bird
species. Because they are free
of human disturbance and nat-
ural predators, small offshore
cays may be even more impor-
tant for seabird species.

American
Oystercatcher

Bahama White-cheeked
Pintail Duck

63
 A great contemporary challenge for the National
Park Service and other federal and territorial con-
servation agencies is to work in partnership with
private landowners and municipalities to mitigate
and avoid the problems that might otherwise com-
promise the preservation mission in the national
park itself. Much is at stake because the intent of
the national park's creation and indeed of the gen-
erous donation of Rockefeller lands was to assure
— —
protection forever of the natural and cultural
attractions of a Caribbean-island setting.
For many years a mystery of Much is at stake for residents of St. John, too, for
St. John has been the petro- tourism is the island's lifeblood. And unlike neigh-
glyphs found just off the Reef boring St. Croix, St. John has no substantial agricul-
Bay Trail. Who carved them? ture or industry to supplement its economy. Too
Archeologists today think much loss of its natural attractions could dramati-
they were carved by the Taino economics of tourism.
cally alter the
peoples who lived on St. John Marine ecosystems around much of St. John were
from about 700 to the late
given additional valuable protection with the proc-
1400s. In the 1970s a scholar
lamation of Virgin Islands Coral Reef National
posited that ancient Africans
carved them before Columbus
Monument in 2001. This new area, also adminis-
encountered the Americas, but tered by the National Park Service, includes 12,708
their symbols match designs acres of federally owned submerged lands. It pro-
on Taino artifacts excavated at tects coral reef, seagrass beds, and mangrove habi-
Cinnamon Bay recently. No tat. It will benefit not only the national park and
way to date the petro-
reliable other immediate areas but the tropical marine eco-
glyphs is presently known. system generally. These habitats, now protected,
play essential roles in the developmental stages of
many plants and animals associated with coral reefs,
including fish and crustaceans. Over 25 species of
sea birds also feed in the waters of the national
monument.
St. John's cultural history also shows that ways of
life can and do end. Witness the disappearance of
the early Indian cultures and economy and the end
of slavery and sugar cultivation. Even the monolith-
ic plantation system's day had come. By the 1850s,
many estates had ceased production and had been
abandoned. The large agricultural complexes de-
volved into small freehold plots, scattered here and
there about the island. In a century and a half, na-
ture has largely smothered colonial structures in a
dense green embrace. Root systems penetrate mas-
sive walls and cause them to crumble, returning all
to the earth.
Slavery officially ended here with Emancipation,
decreed by Denmark in 1848. Its end was hastened

64
 —

by increasing economic competition from the sugar Rockefeller family interests

beet and growing opposition from humanitarian bought most of what would
be Virgin Islands National
and religious groups. Slavery was also out of keep-
Park and gave the land to the
ing with the burgeoning international movement
federal government in 1956 to
toward expanded political rights.
be designated as a park. In
The seeds of St. John's traditional post-European 1962 the park was enlarged to
but pre-tourism economy were planted after the include 5,650 acres of sub-
—
1733 slave revolt see pages 68 and 69. Partly as a merged lands. The park is

result of that revolt, slaves were increasingly given now a Biosphere Reserve,
use of provision grounds. These were plots on which recognizing its global signifi-
they had the opportunity to raise their own food. cance in protecting biological

The slaves were given Sundays off to work their diversity and representative
provision grounds, which were usually located near terrestrial and marine Carib-
bean environment. In 2001
the slave villages of plantations here onJohn.
St.
the proclamation of Virgin
However slowly at first, this movement eventually
Islands Coral Reef National
gave rise to a market economy among the slaves Monument lent further signif-
and later to those freeholders of African descent. icance to St. John and envi-
This economy continued to develop as slavery and rons for the region's tropical
the plantation system slipped into history. marine ecosystem generally.
The growing market economic system also fos-
tered cultural identity. Because land ownership up Pages 72-73: The west end of
to Emancipation changed so frequently on St. John, Mary Point (left) on St. John
few Europeans stayed on the island long enough to and Great Thatch Island (in
the middle distance), part of
develop a distinctive local culture. Nor was there
—
any indigenous island culture because the island
the British Virgin Islands, are
separated by The Narrows, an
had become uninhabited before 1717. Therefore, St. Atlantic Ocean channel less
John's island culture developed from its African- than three-quarters of a mile
descended people and not from Europeans. In fact, wide. Leinster Bay lies in the
St. John's culture largely developed from within foreground here.
during the period from 1850 until the upsurge of
tourism in the 1950s.
Although it may be small compared to some other
national parks, Virgin Islands National Park con-
tains a significant part of all the lowland and coastal
habitat that protected throughout the West Indies,
is

and it is the only Biosphere Reserve in the Lesser

Antilles. The importance of Virgin Islands National
Park regionally as a protected natural area must
therefore not be underestimated. The cumulative
land area of all the Caribbean islands is no larger
than the State of Oregon. Yet no part of the West-
ern Hemisphere contains as many vertebrate
species per square mile as these islands do.

65
 ^•rvausvBssf
Natural Resources Inventory and Monitoring
hose 'animal-plants' which Monitoring tells
e. algae on a reef, the decrease
are equipped with a stony, us how it Monitoring
is faring. in plant diversity on a closely
horny, or spongy exterior are the natural resources at na- watched forest plot, a slow
generally called coral, and are tional park units here has rise in the quarterly turbidity
divided into four kinds," Mor- '
rapidly altered our image of measurements of a formerly
avian missionary C.G.A. Old- these islands as pristine envi- crystal-clear bay, a decline in
endorp noted in the 1760s. His ronments immune to outside long-term sea turtle nesting
are among the earliest known -influences. Disturbing trends activity.
records of nature in the Virgin link the islands to regional
Islands. The National Park and global changes beyond These are only a few situa-
Service and its partners and the control of a national park tions that may warn of multi-
cooperators inventory and or monument/ Most changes ple changes taking place in
monitor natural resources are slow, small, and difficult water, on land, or both. First
to track: a qradual increase of the scientist translates the

, 4

$?
 .
«*-
language that monitoring to the environment that is
techniques speak. Then the natural and change that is
park manager acts to restore human-caused. Nature's
natural conditions. Census health in and around these
data are essential; numbers islands is linked with this
are telling. If reef fish keep labor-intensive monitoring of
declining in diversity, size, plants and animals, especially

fishing may need more strin- In the inset photo a scientist

gent regulation. How marine studies the impacts on coral
and terrestrial systems re- reefs of sedimentation that is
coup after hurricanes is care- caused by road building. The
fully studied. This helps us large photo shows a trumpet
distinguish between change fish and sea fan.
f

^w

ft*
-

<
 Slave Revolt of 1733
In the pre-dawn darkness of all but one of the six soldiers and assert control over St.
November 23, 1733, a carefully billeted in the fort. Taking the John. Pannet also wrote of the
planned slave revolt began as fort, the Africans fired its can- Africans' resolve to work with
a small group of slaves carried nons to signal that the revolt other slaves on St. Thomas to
bundles of wood into the Dan- had begun. The shots signalled bring about "our complete
ish fort, Frederiksvaern, atop the general insurrection and ruin" as well as "that of Tor-
Fortsberg hill, at Coral Bay, on the killing of whites. A contem- tola." Inone of the most suc-
St. John. Concealed inside the porary report by Pierre Joseph cessful slave revolts ever in the
bundles were cane bills, a type Pannet of St. Thomas— dated West Indies, the Africans kept
of short machete. With the ele- December 4, 1733— suggests control of St. John for six
ment of surprise they overpow- that the Africans planned to months and were finally sub-
ered and killed the sentry and take the Europeans by surprise dued not by the Danes but by

^
French troops brought in from "Mortality was very high." The the slaves who led the revolt
Martinique. As Arnold R. High- work was heavy, and men and were recently arrived from
field and Aimery P. Caron have women worked side by side at Akwamu, a warlike nation in
written, "Virgin Islanders are it. Death from overwork, mal- Guinea. The Akwamu men
proudly aware that those dis- accidents involving
nutrition, despised field work, seeing it
tant acts of resistance marked machinery, cuts, and infections as women's work. They were
the beginning of their long was commonplace. A string of known at home in Africa as
struggle for freedom and self- droughts and hurricanes made great warriors and skillful ne-
determination." Immediate starvation likely for the slaves. gotiators with Africans and
roots of the revolt were many. The Danish governor had re- Europeans. Often, new slaves
"The Caribbean was a tremen- cently instituted a harsh slave would be brought to planta-
dous devourer of human life," law. Linguist Gilbert A. Sprauve tions on St. John to be broken
says historian Steven Mintz. of St. John says that many of in. In this case it backfired.
 Development of Black Cultural Traditions

It was common in the West vided diet. Slaves on St. John They usually bartered for fowl,
Indies to allow slaves, in their engaged in various subsis- fruits, or small livestock— there
limited free time, to cultivate tence tasks, but, with no real was little money on St. John.
their own provisions on small town on the island, no formal When plantation society col-
tracts near the village to sup- weekly market grew up. How- lapsed after Emancipation, St.
plement the plantation-pro- ever, the informal economy John residents developed a
encouraged further develop- system for shipping cargo—
ment of cultural traditions and charcoal, fish, and sometimes
institutions among the slaves cattle— to St. Thomas for sale
and free blacks. Women from formoney. But in the St. John
St. Thomas, many of them community, barter held sway.
freed, regularly visited the St. As a free port St. Thomas was
John estates to market goods. the commercial hub and

*v»
jepr J"
offered a variety of jobs. The blacksmiths, carpenters, ma-
women might have market sons, barrel makers, tailors,
stalls, take in laundry, or work barbers, shoemakers, farriers,
as seamstresses, cooks, bak- and fishermen. The inset pho-
ers, maids, or coal carriers. tograph by Fritz Henle, "Bar-
Men worked as fishermen, gaining for Bananas," shows
cabinet makers, carpenters, an island market in 1 948. The
blacksmiths, masons, barbers, hand-colored 1 854 lithograph
and tailors. On St. Croix the by Emil Baerentzen shows a
job market included work as freeholder's farm on St. John
field hands, sugar boilers, after the Emancipation in 1848.
 '': ''•*£
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62
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 Part 4

Sandy
Point

CARIBBEAN,
 St. Croix: Christiansted
And Salt River Bay

Buck Island Reef

Na

BUCK ISLAND

Christiansted
National
Historic

Tague Cottongarden
Point Pt
Romney
int
l M * - '^V East
Point
Cramer
Park (Po/nf
HILLS
\ SEVEN HILLS GOAT Udglj)
/g2)
(60)
Isaac
Hughes Point
@) Point
CHRISTIANSTED

CROIX (624)
f
it.^r^
Grass
Point

I)

(83)

Milord
'
Point

rerrall Point
Point
Vagthus
Point

Buck Island Reef National

Monument was expanded
by 18,135 acres from fed-
eral submerged lands by tional Park
lands
presidential proclamation
i

SEA in 2001.
P '<iBl»3IiI|rsf|
a

xat *S3g
St. Croix: Quick Facts
Emergency Transportation seven acres. Salt River Bay
Dial 911, except in Chris- Scheduled airlines serve National Historical Park
tiansted National Historic Henry E. Rohlsen Airport and Ecological Preserve
Site call 773-1460 between on St. Croix. Commuter covers 312 acres terrestrial,
8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Christian- planes serve St. Croix and 600 marine. Mount Eagle is

sted has a hospital; Fred- St. Thomas airports; sea- 1,169 feet of elevation.
eriksted a medical clinic. planes go from Christian-
sted to Charlotte Amalie. Tours
Information Check airport rack cards Commercial tours or self-

Christiansted National and the phone book. Visit- guiding historical sightsee-
Historic Site and Salt River ing Salt River Bay — it has ing to Estate Whim and
Bay National Historical no park facilities or ser- Little La Grange planta-
Park and Ecological Pre- vices yet —requires a car. tion museums, St. George
serve, 2100 Church St., Take a self-guiding walking Village Botanical Gardens,
#100, Christiansted, VI tour of Christiansted Na- Fort Frederik, and Virgin
00820-4611; 340-773-1460; tional Historic Site with Islands Rum Industries
or [Link]/chri and the brochure available at (Cruzan Rum) distillery.
[Link]/sari the visitor center. Ask at your lodgings, the
National Park Service visi-

Virgin Islands Department Character tor center, or chamber of

of Tourism, 340-773-0495 St. Croix was formed pri- commerce.
[Link]/tourism marily by uplift, not by vol-
canic action. The island's Recreation Opportunities
St. Chamber of
Croix cultural resources, archeo- Swimming, snorkeling,
Commerce 340-773-1435 logical sites, and preserved scuba diving, windsurfing,
colonial architecture are kayaking, horseback and
A National Park Service remarkable. Local custom bicycle tours, and scenic
visitor center is at the en- and ordinances require drives. Rent equipment or
trance to Fort Christians- wearing a shirt or cover-up ask about services at your
vaern. There is a modest in town. Bathing suits lodging.
entrance fee collected alone are not acceptable.
there for Christiansted Lodging
National Historic Site Size and Highest Point Several hotels and inns in
only. A park bookstore is St. Croix covers 84 square Christiansted are within
in the Scale House. miles. Christiansted Na- walking distance of shops,
tional Historic Site covers restaurants, and points of
interest. Others require use
of a car. There are no camp
A Taino chief or shaman sites on St. Croix.
would have worn this mask —
carved from conch shell about Safety
—
900 on a cotton belt over his
Historic walkways and
navel to ward off evil spirits.
steps may be uneven. Walk
Opposite: The windmill, chim-
ney, factory, and Great House
with care. Wear a hat and
Whim plantation use sunscreen.
of Estate are
must-see features on an island
tour of St. Croix.

77
w
 When Sugar Was King

Fort Christiansvaern was Three successive pottery-making cultures had lived

completed in 1749 and has on St. Croix by the time Columbus added the island
protected Christiansted's har- to a fledgling Spanish empire in 1493. The first sea-
bor ever since without firing a
sonal human inhabitants of St. Croix were here
hostile shot. Its name means
" Christian " —for 4,000 years earlier. Twenty-seven major American
's defense
Indian settlements have been unearthed by archeo-
King Christian VI of Den-
mark-Norway. Some of the logical investigations on St. Croix. At the Salt River
captured leaders of the 1 733 Bay site, then occupied by Caribs and their Taino
slave revolt on St. John la- slaves, Columbus and his fleet dropped anchor dur-
bored on the fort's initial ing his second voyage of exploration in 1493. Salt
construction. River Bay marks the first of only two locations now
under the U.S. flag that are directly associated with
The gunpowder magazine is Columbus. (The second is a bay in western Puerto
end of the parade
at the far
Rico.) The island of St. Croix is the largest of the
ground. The fort and its his-
U.S. Virgin Islands, and today its approximately
torical exhibits are central
55,000 residents equal the population of the island
features of touring Christian-
sted today. of St. Thomas to the north.
The brief skirmish between Europeans and Caribs
Preceding pages: Danish neu- at Salt River Bay in 1493 also marks the first docu-
trality and natural features mented hostile encounter between the two races.
were keys to the fort's strate- Subsequent reprisals by the Spanish resulted in the
gic success. So were cannon depopulation of St. Croix by the late 1500s. In the
batteries on Protestant Cay — 1600s various European nations vied to control and
the small island with the har-
colonize the island: the Netherlands, England,
bormaster's house and on — France, and the French chapter of the Knights of
the promontory at the right of
this view from Estate Mount
Malta. No such settlement proved ultimately suc-
Welcome. A formidable reef at cessful, however, and St. Croix was once again left
the harbor's entrance, plus the without human population in 1696.
cannons, would deter maraud- In 1733 Denmark entered into successful negotia-
ers. Emil Baerentzen made the tions with the French crown to buy St. Croix and
original of this hand-colored develop it for the cultivation of sugar. The purchase
lithograph in 1854. Its vegeta- marked the first time that ownership of a West
tion detail reveals his botani-
Indian island had transferred by purchase rather
cal training. After this trip, he
than by warfare. The king of France agreed to sell
switched his specialty to tropi-
St. Croix because he needed money to finance his
cal plants.
father-in-law's ambition to become king of Poland.
Denmark, having taken possession of St. Thomas in
1671 and St. John in 1717, finally provided the basis
for the permanent settlement of St. Croix.

81
Fort Christiansvaerns floor The Danes located their first settlement on St.
plan, annotated by Danish Croix on the island's northeast coast. It was built on
Army officer P. L. Oxholm in
the site of an earlier French settlement, because the
1 779, describes how the inte- site boasted a harbor adequate for commercial ship-
rior rooms were used. The
ping. Named Christiansted, the new town honored
rounded water battery faced
the harbor. A wedge-shaped
King Christian VI of Denmark-Norway. Officials
ravelin protected the inner
hoped their new town might one day rival Chris-
gate. Projecting corner bas- tiana (now Oslo), Norway.
tions were also designed for Danish surveyors laid out Christiansted on a grid
repulsing ground attacks. system and instituted both a building code and zon-
ing. Their work was impressively progressive for its
time. Street widths were regulated, easements estab-
lished, areas zoned commercial or residential, and
building materials specified. This urban planning
scheme is still visible in today's historic Christian-
sted. The city's historic architecture matured over a
100-year span. Neoclassical government buildings
and residences blend with Gothic Revival churches,
combination shop-residences, and shingled wooden
cottages. The three residential styles also are arti-
facts of Christiansted's colonial social structure, as
explained on pages 94 and 95, when sugar was still
king on St. Croix.
In the first decades of Danish control, the island's
economy did not benefit from administrative energy
and insight. St. Croix's economy stagnated while the
was governed by the Danish West India &
island
Guinea Company from 1734 to 1754. This was Den-
mark's royally chartered slave trading monopoly.
The company placed too great a burden on planters
and merchants by taxing both imports and exports
excessively. Its policy required carrying all trade in
Danish vessels, which inflated shipping costs. After
the Danish crown bought the company's stock in
1754, the island's economy flourished. The royal
governor-general established his residence at the
new capital, Christiansted. St. Croix had a one-crop
economy, however. Everything hinged on its sugar
industry, which was at the mercy of market demand
for sugar in America and Europe, adverse weather,
and wars.
Between 1760 and 1800, the free-trade policies
resulted in large profits from sugar, molasses, rum,
cotton, and tropical hardwoods generated by Chris-
tiansted's international port. With prosperity the
population increased. This period became known as
the "Golden Age of St. Croix," although hardly so

82
 who provided labor on the planta-
for the slaves This fired-clay figurine from
Europe, however, sugar began to be pro-
tions. In Salt River Bay on CroixSt.

could represent a Taino or

cessed from sugar beets after 1810, and cane sugar
Carib chieftain or a Spanish
prices fell off sharply in the 1820s. Irreversible eco-
conquistador. It probably
nomic decline loomed ahead. After the slaves who
dates from between the 1300s
worked the cane plantations were emancipated in and early 1500s. If the lined
1848, labor costs increased. A series of hurricanes chin piece is a beard, the fig-
and droughts throughout this period merely added urine could be an armored
momentum to the economic decline. conquistador. Otherwise, it is

Eventually Christiansted also lost its status as the probably a chieftain in parrot-
capital of the Danish West Indies. A
futile attempt feather headdress. The promi-
in 1871 to soothe inter-island rivalries led to the nent navel places the figurine

seat of government being transferred between St. within the Taino and Carib
religious views.
Croix and St. Thomas every six months! This situa-
tion was not to be resolved entirely until the United
States bought the Danish West Indies during World
War I. Under its new flag St. Thomas became the
capital of the U.S. Virgin Islands. But today you still
find in Christiansted, amidst its wealth of 18th- and
19th-century buildings, picturesque reminders of the
former West Indian colonial capital that sugar built.
As you cast your gaze out across Christiansted's
harbor, think in terms of naval strategy in the 18th
and 19th centuries, and the fort-protected harbor
makes immediate historical sense. What your eye
may not pick up so readily is how the underwater
reef contributed to military strategy in the harbor's
defense. A
ship could enter the harbor only through
a relatively narrow channel through this reef struc-
ture. Cannon emplaced on the fort, headland, and
offshore Protestant Cay formed a triangle of fire-
power handily controlling any hostile ship's attempt
to enter.
Built between 1738 and 1749, Fort Christians-
vaern exemplifies the strategic roles of Danish forti-
fications in the Virgin Islands. Here the harbor was
defended, custom duties enforced, and internal
security [Link] Danes completed Christian-
sted'sharbor defenses in the 1780s. No pirate or pri-
vateer risked running its gauntlet of 18-pounder
cannon trained on the narrow ship lane. In fact,
Denmark relied more heavily on its neutrality in
foreign affairs. The cannon at Christiansted were
never fired in anger but saw only ceremonial use.
Fort Christiansvaern's landward defenses were
aimed at assaults by either hostile European powers
or rebellious slaves. Each of the fort's bastions

Continued on page 90 83
 Taino Culture— and the Skirmish with Columbus's Crewmen
Archeological investigations Carib peoples, who expanded Antilles. Two opposing teams
andearly Spanish accounts west as far as St. Croix. The kicked or threw a solid rubber
show that a succession of large painting recreates the ball but could not use hands
groups from South America's Taino village and ceremonial or feet to stop it. The chief
Orinoco River basin inhabited ball court at Salt River Bay in sat at the head of the court.
the Virgin Islands for 4,000 the 1300s. Tainos dominated At the left rear of the large
years before Columbus found this area from 700 until the painting two women use a
the Americas. The first peo- Caribs conquered and en- hanging device of woven bas-
ples were migratory. Then slaved them about 1425. No ketry to squeeze cassava to
came the Igneri, then Taino or other ball court, or batey, has be made into flour by leach-
Arawak, and then Kalina or been found in the Lesser ing out its poison.
 '
v-

*£&smu&. +» *-*
Columbus sent a boat ashore
at Salt River Bay, November
14, 1493, to explore the Carlb
i village and to look for fresh
water. They took Taino slaves
from the village but then met
a Carib canoe (inset). The en-
suing fight— there was one

'
^ .
'*
m death on each side— was the
first documented resistance
by native Americans to Euro-
pean encr

M
 The Nature of Salt River Bay
The range of human cultures Stands of all three mangrove replenish fisheries in the
recorded at Salt River Bay species— red, white, and islands' coral reef environ-
reflects continuous use of the black— fringe the bay. This is ments. Snugged against St.
area's natural endowments. the last major natural stand Croix's uplands, the bay's
The deep, carbonate subma- of mangroves in the Virgin estuary and mangroves (see
rine canyon offshore is the Islands in an estuary setting, inset photo) also get nutrients
only one in the Virgin Islands. where fresh and salt waters washed into the bay from the
Its dynamics bring nutrients mix. Mangroves filter runoff land. Some also reach the
to the surface and feed the from the land and serve as open marine environment.
many species of coral and nurseries for fish and inverte- Both bay and land here also
reef organisms found here. brate species. They help host a variety of land and

J^y,
.,. «^ ......jiSjjgJPv*

^J

.-

""

0&fL*
Columbus and
Carib skirmish

Trench-like deep offshore

 marine species, from West
Indian whistling ducks and
•
ospreys to threatened and
endangered species like the
marine turtles and bottlenose
dolphins. The Salt River Bay
area also has both a rich his-
tory and an extensive data-
base of scientific research.

.bS^ •
? '•-Sf sjip -» '-

Mangroves

Salt River Bay

 The Sugar Plantation and Economy
European demand for sugar most American Indians had matically. Plantations replaced
to sweeten imported tea and vanished for various reasons, small farms. Wealth grew at
chocolate from cacao rose and early use of white inden- the top of society; misery flour-
sharply after the 1650s. The tured laborers failed. Trading ished at the bottom. Map dia-
craving grew nearly addictive for African slaves with inex- grams at right indicate cotton
in the 1700s, when the only pensive manufactured goods plantations (green) and sugar
source for sugar was sugar intensified. Manufacturing, plantations with horse-driven
cane, first domesticated in and sugar became
slavery, mills (blue) or windmills (red)
New Guinea. The West Indies and helped
inextricably linked about 1800. St. Croix was one
proved ideal for furnishing to develop world markets of the wealthiest sugar islands,
sugar to North America and needed for the industrial revo- then, but invention of the beet
Europe. Soils and climate were lution in Europe and later in sugar process in 1810 soon
right, and the islands lay on the North America. Sugar agricul- caused cane-sugar prices to
trade routes. In these islands ture changed island life dra- decline. Plantations were typi-
cally 225 to 300 acres, two-
thirds planted in cane. Mills

*v*#*m

i i\ij r
^K"^l»
St. Thomas St. John

crushed the cane for its juice, rum, a product enjoying equal Sugar Plantation, Windmill
which was boiled to a moist, demand and value. The paint- Sugar Plantation, Horse-driven Mill
brown, crystalline form called ing by Frederik von Scholten
Cotton Plantation yf
muscovado. This was dried in shows the sugar plantation
modified barrels that drained Estate Montpellier on St. St. Croix not shown in proper location
relative to the other islands.
off molasses to be distilled as Croix in the 1830s.

fife^
Erected atop hills to catch the mounted cannon that fired six-pound projectiles.
trade winds, conical, limestone Embrasures (openings in the surrounding walls)
windmills crushed sugar cane offered some
protection for gun crews. These slots
to extract its juice. Slaves used
had angled sides permitting the guns to be trained
the tailpiece (shown at left in
or aimed from side to side, to cover a wider area.
this cutaway illustration) to
Stored at the fort for field operations were horse-
steer the blades into the wind.
Gears and a drive shaft trans- drawn artillery.
ferred the power to iron roll- Today at the fort and along the wharf bulkhead
ers that crushed the cane. The you can see some types of muzzle-loading cannon
juice flowed from the mill's used by the Danes over the course of 180 years.
reservoir, via a trough (lower Others are displayed at street corners in the historic
left), into the boiling house. In these locations their unforgiving bulk,
district.
There the dried and crushed not their former firepower, protected building cor-
cane stalks, called bagasse,
ners from damage by the large ox carts that trans-
were used as fuel for the
ported St. Croix's wealth-producing heavy barrels of
boiling process.
sugar, molasses, and rum to the harbor for shipment

Mills symbolized how sugar to international markets.

planters were part farmer and The Island of St. Croix itself is also rich with var-
part manufacturer. Operating ied natural and cultural features far beyond the
a plantation involved capital bounds of its National Park System units at Chris-
and considerable risk —from tiansted and Salt River Bay. At the town of Fred-
market fluctuations, creditors, eriksted another Danish-era fort guards the island's
shipping hazards, drought,
and hurricanes.
west end —and accepts cruise ships into its harbor.
At 1776 the U.S. flag was first acknowl-
this fort in
edged from foreign soil. And an important slave
rebellion at Frederiksted in 1848 forced the emanci-
pation of the slaves in the Danish West Indies.

At St. Bay area in 1923, Danish

Croix's Salt River
archeologist Gudmund
Hatt discovered evidence of
a major religious and cultural center of the Taino
culture. We now recognize this as the only known
ceremonial ball court in the Lesser Antilles. The
—
excavated artifacts of the game like a precursor
—
of soccer include many petroglyphs or rock art,
human three-pointed stone zemis,
sacrificial burials,
and so-called stone Whether the belts were
"belts."
trophies or handicaps, we don't know. Zemis are fig-
urines of spirits or deities and were used in ances-
tor-worship. The Tainos were the second of the
three pottery-making cultures to settle permanently
on St. Croix: Igneri 1-700, Taino 700-1425, and Carib
1425-1590.
The complex at Salt River Bay that pre-dates
written history contains some of the most important
archeological sites in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It has
been the focus of every major archeological investi-
gation on St. Croix since 1880, with subsequent digs
taking place in 1899, 1912, 1915, 1917, 1923, 1925,
1935, 1938, 1952, and 1978-1979. Artifacts found in
some of these excavations are now in Denmark's
National Museum in Copenhagen and in both pub-
lic and private collections in the Virgin Islands, else-

where in the United States, and in other nations.

When Columbus and his fleet dropped anchor
safely outside the reef at Salt River Bay in 1493, the
Caribs had already conquered and enslaved the
Tainos of St. Croix. This island marked the western-
most limit of Carib expansion in the Antilles. Irreg- Alexander Hamilton was
ular warfare aimed at getting captives and plunder raised in Christiansted by his
was basic to Carib culture. Carib social order was mother. She ran a small shop
patriarchal but more egalitarian than Taino society. there until she died when he
Carib chiefs were not hereditary but were elected was 13 years old. New York
based on their leadership or prowess in warfare. merchant Nicholas Cruger
And fierce fighters the Caribs were, both women recognized that Hamilton
and men, as the records of their encounter with was unusually precocious
members of Columbus's crew attest. and made him a clerk.
Four eyewitness accounts of this St. Croix episode
Hamilton educated himself by
survive: Columbus's son Fernando quotes from the
reading. His vivid letter to his
Admiral's own journal, since lost; Italian nobleman father about the 1772 hurri-
Michele de Cuneo, a friend of Columbus and leader cane that devastated St. Croix
of the landing party at Salt River; the fleet surgeon was published in the Royal
Dr. Diego Alvaredo Chanca; and Guillermo Coma. Danish-American Gazette.
The admiral sent more than two dozen armed This inspired Cruger to send
men ashore in the flagship's boat to explore the vil- Hamilton to school in the
lage on the west bank of Salt River Bay. The men British North American col-
onies. Hamilton later served
were also to search for sources of fresh water, which
in the Revolutionary War as
the fleet always needed. On a return to the flagship,
aide-de-camp to Gen. George
having "liberated" some Taino women and boys
Washington, co-authored The
enslaved by the Caribs at the village, the boat's Federalist Papers, and was
crew encountered a canoe with Caribs (four males the first secretary of the Treas-
and two females) and one or two male Taino slaves. ury for the United States.
The Carib canoe had just rounded the eastern cape
of the bay. Distracted by the sight of the fleet, the
Caribs readied their bows and arrows when the
Spaniards approached too closely. The Spaniards
finally rammed and overturned the canoe, and a
fierce but unequal skirmish ensued. There was a
fatality on each side.
This hostile engagement was the first documented
resistance shown by American Indians to European
encroachment. In memory of the Spanish fatality,
Columbus later gave the name Cabo de las Flechas,
"Cape of the Arrows." He had already named the

Continued on page 91
 Christiansted and International Commerce
For nearly 200 years Chris- charter of its monopolistic Napoleonic Wars blocked St.
tiansted's destiny was tied to Danish West India & Guinea Croix'saccess to foreign
sugar's fortunes on world Company and took control of markets in 1801 and again
markets. At the Christiansted the "Danish islands in Amer- from 1807-1815. When trade
wharf the ship captains, mer- ica." The wharf also revealed resumed, U.S. markets took
chants, planters, and slaves the magnitude of imports that on increasing importance —
from this international com- kept the plantation economy accounting for 75 percent of
merce came together. Sugar, running. Clothing, furnishings, St. Croix's agriculturalex-
molasses, rum, and cotton building materials, livestock, ports by 1830. The U.S. pur-
turned great profits from 1760 foodstuffs, agricultural imple- chase of the Danish West
to 1800, "The Golden Age of ments, and slaves were im- Indies in 1917 only formal-
St. Croix." New free-trade ported. Alexander Hamilton ized, for some people, a long-
policies held sway after 1754, cut his financial teeth on this standing economic relation-
when Denmark bought the dynamic trade as a clerk. The ship. Heinrich Gottfried

^0^AmSSSJSSmSm ...j*- Mil

/
T
Beenfeldt painted this wharf
scene in 1815 from the mem-
ory of his military service here
in the 1790s. H. Petersson
depicted the fort and wharf
area (inset) from Protestant
Cay during a rainstorm out of
the west in 1832. Protestant
Cay got its name in the late
1600s, when the French ruled
St. [Link] Roman Catho-
licscould be buried on the
island. Protestants would be
buried on the cay.
 ;

Christiansted Survey and Building Code

Christiansted was laid out on a grid sys- one major fire in its history, in 1866 on
tem beginning in May 1735. The Building its western limits. The city's architecture
Code of 1 747, unique for its time, greatly developed over 120 years. Early wooden
influenced its development. The code buildings gave way to solid and imposing
was supervised and enforced by govern- masonry structures by the 1 760s. Colo-
ment building inspectors. It regulated nial government buildings generally fol-
street width, setbacks, building materi- lowed neoclassical lines (see details),
als, and commercial and residential zon- with practical adaptations for the trop-
ing. Remarkably, the town suffered only ics. These included verandas or gal-

^":.y
Architectural Details
Craftsmanship and durable masonry are
key to the enduring beauty of Christian-
sted architecture. The four pediments
above windows and an arched doorway
at right typify the Neoclassical style,
which imitated Greco-Roman architec>^
ture. Pediments are masonry moldings
fashioned from bricks— individually hand-
cut by slaves— that have been plastered
over. Clockwise from top left, the pedi-
ments date from the 1760s, 1770s to
1780s, 1770s to 1780s, and 1790s to
1800. The relative religious tolerance in
the Danish West Indies found expressioi.
in the variety of architectural detail in
some of Christiansted 's churches, nota-
bly the curvilinear gables of the Dutch
and the Gothic Revival of the English.

iftfo/tac
*?i**j / Otitic)/ /t&4J,riJ»< /8- Ai ^v<v#/ / /&* Si
leries, jalousiewindows to adjust for (middle left), the masonry ground floor

light and breeze, and hurricane doors for work and the upper wooden story for
and shutters. Two- and three-story town- living. In the 18th century, rectangular
houses (bottom left), many with interior wood-shingled cottages (upper left) in
courtyards, were the residences of well- the town's upper tier housed free blacks
to-do urban professionals and planters and poor whites. These 18th- and 19th-
wishing to be near political power and century buildings still vividly recall this
society. Bourgeois merchants worked colonial capital when sugar was king.
and lived in two-story shop-residences

wdk

LUTHERAN PARISH HALL

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1
 Estate Children and Sunday Market
These so-called "estate chil- hands. A few worked as black-and-white lithograph
dren" photographed on St. household servants or craft that appeared in a Danish
Croix between 1890 and 1900 ers. Although Denmark had newspaper in 1878. The Sun-
successfully mask the obvi- ended its slave trade in 1803, day Market was an entirely
ous joke— that their donkey Emancipation was not pro- black venue that had its ori-
stands in his traces back- claimed until 1848. On Janu- gins in the slaves' weekly day
wards. This photograph is ary 1, 1849, former slaves off before Emancipation.
also unusual for the number began working for regulated Slaves would gather to sell
of estate children pictured wages on the plantations. The produce raised on their gar-
together. Perhaps 85 percent lithograph (inset) shows the den plots on their own time,
of the black population on St. Sunday Market in Christian- which was very limited. They
Croix at this time still worked sted. This is a contemporary could keep the proceeds from
on the plantations as field hand-colored version of a their sales. Over time, some
slaves were able to purchase
their freedom via this venue.
Guinea fowl, shown in the
lower left of the lithograph,
were brought to the West
Indies in the 1700s from West
Africa. Guinea was the area
that is now Ghana. Denmark
entered the slave trade later
than some other European
nations, and Guinea became
its sphere of influence in West
Africa.

*&4

1
 island Santa Cruz, "Holy Cross," hence St. Croix.
Leaving this island, Columbus sailed north around
and collectively named Las Islas Virgenes after the
legendary St. Ursula and her 11,000 virgin compan-
ions reputedly martyred by the Huns at Cologne in
the fourth century. Then the fleet sailed off to what
is now Puerto Rico, which Columbus named San

Juan Bautista, "St. John the Baptist."

In 1509 the conquistador and first Spanish gover-
nor of Puerto Rico, Juan Ponce de Leon, entered
into negotiations with the Carib chieftains on St.
Croix as part of his effort to extend Spanish sover-
Slaves expected full emanci- eignty to the island. The Caribs agreed to accept
pation in 1847, but the Danish Christianity, stop raiding Puerto Rico, and provide
king set a 12-year phaseout of
foodstuffs to the Spanish in Puerto Rico. A few
slavery instead. There were
months later, however, a Spanish adventurer Diego
17,000 slaves and 5,000 free
blacks on St. Croix. On July 3, de Nicuesa raided St. Croix and took off 140 slaves.
1848, John Gottliff, a field
That led to the Caribs taking part in the 1511 anti-
hand on Estate La Grange Spanish uprising by Tainos in Puerto Rico. The
who became known as Moses Spanish crown then decreed that the Caribs of St.
Gotlieb, General Bordeaux, —
Croix already their name had become linked with
or Buddhoe, led 8,000 blacks —
unrelenting warfare and cannibalism should be
in a freedom march to Fred- exterminated. American Indians soon were deci-
They demanded free-
eriksted.
mated by the thousands throughout the Antilles.
dom, or they would burn the
Under intermittent Spanish military pressure from
town and the estates.
Puerto Rico, St. Croix was rendered devoid of
The sympathetic Danish Gov-
human inhabitation by 1590.
ernor-General Peter von Some 150 years later Salt River Bay became the
Scholten arrived from Chris- focus of severalEuropean attempts to settle St.
tiansted and declared, as the Croix. The ensuing frequent change of ownership by
printed proclamation would force of arms typified European struggles to domi-
Danish
say:"All unfree in the —
nate the New World in which the West Indies were
West Indies are from today considered pivotal. European settlers built partly
free. " Planters and some mili-
atop earlier American Indian settlements on Salt
tary men were furious. Von River Bay's west shore. Fledgling plantations grew
Scholten returned to Den-
cotton, indigo, tobacco, sugar, and staple crops.
mark to face trial and was
stripped of his duties but was
Today's only surviving structural evidence of this
turbulent period of Virgin Islands history is the tri-
later cleared of blame. Despite
attempts to protect him, Bud- angular earthwork fortification at Salt River Bay.
dhoe was deported to Trini- The English started it in 1641. The Dutch completed
dad and left penniless. it the next year. The French called it Fort Flamand

("the Flemish Fort") and later Fort Sale ("the Salt

Fort," although probably for an island governor
named du Sal). It is the only fort of its type from
this period known to survive in the West Indies, and
perhaps in the Americas.
After the mid- 1660s the settlement at Salt River

98
Bay was relocated to St. Croix's northeast coast har- Next pages: This truck garden
with piped-in, drip irriga-
bor area then named Bassin ("the Harbor"). This its

tion system exemplifies St.

later became the town of Christiansted after Danish
Croix s drive togrow more of
colonization began in 1734. However, from the mid-
the food to be consumed here,
1700s well into the 1800s the Salt River Bay area
despite undependable rainfall.
continued to play a significant economic role on St. The island has had no large-
Croix. Nearby sugar plantations used the bay as an scale agriculture since the
unofficial port— that is, for smuggling sugar, rum, demise of sugar. A strain of
and molasses. In the 1780s the Danish West Indian beef cattle, Senepol, developed
government felt compelled to build a small cannon here in the 1930s is exported
battery and customs house on the bay's west shore as far away as Australia. The

to reduce its revenue losses from this illegal activity. red-brown cattle are heat- and
drought-tolerant.
Salt River Bay's significance as a protected natur-
al area today rivals its vast cultural significance.
Lining the shores of the bay is one of the largest
remaining mangrove forests in the Virgin Islands.
Mangroves provide a transitional niche between the
ecological worlds of land and water. And like most
such transitional niches, the mangrove forest har-
bors a surprisingly rich variety of life forms. In fact,
this 912-acre park and ecological preserve area is
home to 27 endangered or threatened plants and
animals. While small in area it is significant to the
total biodiversity of St. Croix and the Virgin Islands.
Distinctive prop roots make red mangroves look
like tall shrubs or small trees set on contorted stilts.
These tangled roots help stabilize shoreline condi-
tions and control sedimentation and erosion. Here
juvenile fish hide and grow so that they can move
out to the reefs and beyond as adults. With colorful
algae, sponges, anemones, barnacles, and oysters
encrusting its roots, the mangrove also provides
food for these juveniles. And so the mangrove for-
est serves as a nursery for the reefs and nearby sea-
grass beds. In doing so it also provides food for
herons, brown pelicans, and egrets and some large
fish such as snapper, barracuda, and tarpon.
As a protected natural area, Salt River Bay's
value and significance cannot be calculated based
on its size alone. This small area supports and influ-
ences multiple plant-and-animal communities far
beyond its human-drawn boundary.

99
*.*
.
.
SM

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1
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Part5

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West Beach Ed
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BUCK
NatJoi
'oundan
to/x
 Buck Island Reef:
Underwater Trail

Observation
. Point
9 Underwater
U C K1 ISLAND ^ and
Trail
n Moorings
Signal light
329ft
$.***'
^ 100m

Diedrichs "Hf
Point "H2'
<o Lagoon
Entrance
Channel

Buck Island Reef National

Monument was expanded
by 18,135 acres from fed-
eral submerged lands by
presidential proclamation
in 2001.
Buck Island: Quick Facts
Emergency must anchor off West Beach Size and Highest Point
For Buck Island Reef Na- and visit the underwater The national monument in-

tional Monument dial 911; trail by dinghy. Anchoring is cludes nearly 19,000 acres of
use Channel 16 Marine Ra- prohibited in the lagoon and federally owned submerged
dio; or call 340-773-1460 at the underwater trail: all lands. Buck Island itself is
from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. boats must pick up a moor- 6,000 feet long, a half-mile
ing. Back in town, remem- wide, and covers 176 terres-
Information ber that local custom and trial acres. The island's peak
Buck Island Reef National town ordinances require is 329 feet in elevation.
Monument, 2100 Church wearing a shirt or cover-up
St., #100, Christiansted, VI while in Christiansted. Bath- Recreation
00820-4611; 340-773-1460; or ing suits alone are not Snorkeling, swimming, sail-

[Link]/buis acceptable. ing, scuba diving (in the des-

ignated area only), hiking,
A National Park Service vis- Accessibility and birdwatching. A trail
itor center is at the entrance A concrete pier, used for over the island takes about
to Fort Christiansvaern. No operations and passenger 45 minutes to hike. Wear
entrance fee for the national drop-off and pick-up only, shoes and bring water.
monument, but most visitors gives wheelchairs access to
pay to visit it by a conces- the island's south shore. Overnight Stays
sion-operated boat tour. The Overnight stays are allowed
island is closed to visitors at Character on privately owned boats
sunset. Buck Island is uninhabited. anchored off West Beach,
The reef system is among within the monument's au-
Transportation the Caribbean's best. Reef, thorized boundary (two-
Concessioners offer half-day waters, and island are pro- week limit). No camping on
(three-hour) or full-day tected habitat for endan- Buck Island. A private boat
(five-hour) sail- or motor- gered and threatened marina 1.5 miles from Buck
boat trips to the park. Most wildlife. Island offers docking, fuel,
allow 60 minutes for snor- and bathing facilities.

keling the underwater trail. Popular Beaches and Reefs

For a list of concessioners West Beach offers swim- Safety
call 340-773-1460. Before ming and a place to practice Don't stand on or touch
taking your own boat, get snorkeling. The underwater coral. It breaks easily and
the regulations from the trail for snorkeling offers gives nasty scrapes and cuts.
National Park Service visi- spectacular reef viewing. Use sun protection. See the
tor center in Christiansted. Scuba diving is restricted to hazardous plant warnings
Vessels over 42 feet long the designated area only. on page 112.

Say hello to this small land

crab. It lives in crevices. Buck
Island has a similar ghost
crab that burrows in the sand
and runs sideways. Opposite:
Day-sailors practice-snorkel
at Buck Island's west beach
before sailing to the reef.

105
W:£M-
 -'ft.

'#,
 Of Sea Turtles and Corals

French grunts are night-feed- Compared to their 500-million-year-old cousins in

ing reef fish that can be seen the Indo-Pacific region, Caribbean coral reefs, at
by day congregating in large, 8,000 to 10,000 years old, are mere newborns. Nev-
mostly inactive schools. Their
ertheless, these many-colored, highly diverse com-
big eyes that see well in dim
munities might inspire humans to interact more co-
light give away their nocturnal
operatively. Perhaps this helps explain the natural
habits.
magnetism of Buck Island Reef National Monu-
Preceding pages: Many other ment for ardent seekers of marine recreation.
night-feeding species of reef Two-thirds of Buck Island is bordered by elkhorn
fish are red and also have big coral barrier reef. Thirty-foot-tall branching elkhorn
eyes, such as the squirrelfish coral formations lie scattered along the outside of
known as blackbar soldier- the forereef. They from the seabed as much as
rise
fish. By day you may find 40 feet below, reaching nearly to the water's surface.
hundreds packed together
Coral formations and their colorful reef fish resi-
resting in caves or under
dents are within grand view of snorkelers in the
ledges.
waters of this magical area. Not to be missed, the
underwater trail here is the destination of conces-
sioner-operated snorkel trips.
World-wide, coral reefs are sharply delimited by
conditions that include water temperature, depth,
and clarity, as the map and story on page 114 de-
scribe. In the U.S. Virgin Islands coral reefs are
threatened by development, road construction, and
overuse on the largest islands. Silt from runoff can
—
shade or coat corals reducing the amount of sun-
light they receive and disrupting feeding —
and so
weaken or kill them. This is not so much the case on
Buck Island, which is protected from development.
This underscores this national monument's impor-
tance as a protected natural area and sanctuary for
both terrestrial and marine species.
Buck Island and its surrounding, reef-supporting
waters became a national monument in 1961 by
presidential proclamation. The island, which is 6,000
feet long and a half-mile wide, had been previously
protected since 1948 by the Virgin Islands govern-
ment as a territorial park for recreation. Evidence
—
of human presence a significant midden of conch
shells found on the west shore —
dates back to about

109
 Underwater Life

Colors and themes in the underwater life of ing its egg nest from a hungry queen
the Virgin Islands are more vibrant than the angelfish— or even from you! In near-reef
most vivid human creations. Depending on shallows, trunkfish may be seen blowing
the time of day, these marine galleries con- jets of water to uncover prey. Other preda-
stantly change. Snorkelers find this experi- tors are more cunning: the lizardfish stalks
ence beyond description. More than 400 prey by remaining absolutely motionless,
species of reef fish populate the nearshore camouflaged to match the bottom, until it
waters of these parks. (No one knows how strikes with lightning speed. Take the time
many invertebrate species there are.) You to observe the underwater world, and it will
might observe a feisty damselfish defend- pay you dividends of appreciation. Pause

Underwater Trails

Self-guiding snorkeling trails are provided

at Trunk Bay in Virgin Islands National Park
on St. John and end of Buck
at the east
Island Reef National Monument. The trails
aremarked by underwater signs that iden-
tify life. Several dive shops on St.
coral reef
John and St. Croix rent snorkel and scuba
gear and run trips to offshore reefs. For
many people, coming face to face with the
&£>», stunning colors of the world of the coral
Basket Starfish reef can be utterly astonishing.

Most snorkelers reach Buck Island Reef

National Monument's underwater trail via
boat trips offered by concessioners under
permit from the National Park Service.
Maximum water depth in the grottoes there
ranges from 12 to 30 feet. Always snorkel
with a companion for safety.

Spiny Sea Urchin

'**i\ vase Sponges
 1

above a resting tiger grouper or parrotfish, left, top) are night-time species snorkelers
and you may spot a cleaning goby groom- are not apt to see. There is a great deal of

ing the fish's side— or even its gaping noise in the underwater world, too. It's not
mouth. Marvel at the spiny sea urchin. Its only wave noise and on the
surf crashing
feeding strategy is a crucial balancing fac- reef but the scraping noise ofsnapping
tor on the reef. Without such grazers as shrimp and parrotfish grazing on the
urchins, parrotfish, surgeonfish, and others, corals.
the living corals could be smothered by
algae. Much of the reef world lies beyond
the snorkeler's sight. Basket starfish (far

Queen Angelfish Parrotfish

jm&M&W'^B

%M
iflH? fr v
1

7
Sergeant Major Damselfish (male) protecting eggs French Angelfish

-- KT-&

Tiger Grouper
 A.D. 300. Igneri and Arawak peoples used the
island as a fishing camp. The Igneri had moved up
the Antillean archipelago from South America
some 300 years before the date of this site.
When Buck Island became a territorial park in
1948, it had been very sparsely settled, but not un-
used, since the mid-1700s. After Denmark bought
St. Croix from France in 1733, one Diedrich, town
clerk of Christiansted, leased Buck Island from the
Danish crown. With six to 12 slaves Diedrich oper-
ated a small plantation on the island. Primarily they
One of the crew with Chris- harvested the island's lignum vitae trees. The lum-
topher Columbus in 1493 ber was sold to Europe and to other West Indian
died from the effects of a islands. Apparently, most trees had been cut down
Carib arrow tipped with the on Buck Island by the 1770s.
sap of the small, yellowish- From the 1790s until the 1850s there was a small,
green and apple-like fruit of specialized settlement on Buck Island, whose resi-
the manchineel tree. Sap, dents maintained a signal station on the mountain
leaves, bark, and fruit are poi-
peak. Signals guided incoming vessels to avoid mis-
sonous. The white sap will
haps on the reef system. Those signals were day-
cause a burn to the skin, and
time, line-of-sight devices. Near the same spot today,
taking refuge beneath a tree
in a rain storm can result in a an automated U.S. Coast Guard signal light requires

rash. Touching the eyes after no staffing to do the job.

hand contact with a manchi- Historically the reef occasionally took its toll. In
neel can cause swelling, irrita- 1803 the British slave ship General Abercrombie
tion, or temporary blindness. wrecked at Buck Island. The wreck happened just
after Denmark had completely stopped its own
—
African slave trade but not yet emancipated its
slaves. After a lengthy legal battle the shipwrecked
slaves were taken to the British Virgin Islands. Brit-
ain had not yet stopped its own slave trade, so the
slaves were promptly auctioned off in those islands.
In the 1600s the French had called this island Isle
Verte, or green island. The early Danes called it
—
Pockholz or Pocken Eyland named for the dark
green-leaved lignum vitae trees that covered much
of its slopes then. An error made in copying a map
altered that to read Bocken Eyland. That error,
reinforced by the presence of introduced goats, led
to the Anglicized name "Buck Island." The goats
had had free run of the island beginning in the mid-
1800s. It was a low-maintenance livestock operation.
The goats had no predators and could not get off
the island. Fencing was not needed.
With its forests gone this formerly tropical dry-
forest island began to be burned over periodically.
Burning improved the forage for the goats. The

112
 J

combined result was considerable environmental

change. In fact, we may never know what the origi-
nal plant-and-animal community was like. To allow
the island to restore itself to more natural condi-
tions, all of the remaining feral goats were killed or
removed from the island by the late 1940s by St.
Croix officials. Between 1965 and 1985, attempts
were made to rid Buck Island of the mongoose,
another exotic species. The mongoose preys on
eggs of both land-nesting birds and turtles. For
many years, up through 1980, mongooses and rats
consumed up to 100 percent of all sea-turtle eggs
or hatchlings on Buck Island. The mongoose now
appears all but gone from the island.
Efforts are underway to rid Buck Island of the
rat, another exotic animal. Rats were exported all
over the globe from their original range in northern
Europe, usually by accident as hitchhikers on sailing
ships. The problem persists today as many other ani-
mal species also get hauled about the world unbe-
knownst in cargo. In the days of sugar agriculture,
the rats caused havoc in Caribbean cane fields by
attacking the plants' root systems. The mongooses
were imported from India in 1882 to kill the rats.
However, mongooses are active by day and rats are
active by night, so the intended rat-control never
happened. Instead, in the ensuing ecological trag-
edy, mongooses wiped out at least one species of
lizard and many species of ground-nesting birds.
Mongooses also all but negated sea turtle breeding
success for many years until recently.
With the feral goats now gone and humans no
longer setting occasional fires to improve their for-
age, trees have begun to recover Buck Island. The
original character of its former lignum vitae forest is
by no means reestablished, however. Dominant in
the beach forest is the manchineel tree, which is
hazardous to the touch (see photo on page 112).
Buck Island's uplands forest cover also includes
frangipani, turpentine, Jamaican caper, manjack,
Ginger Thomas, and water mampoo trees. Much of
the island's plant life can either scratch or cause
some skin irritation, so beware if you go hiking on
the island. Manchineel fruit is poisonous, and its
bark, leaves, and sap can cause a chemical burn on
contact, including blindness. There are organ pipe
and turk's cap cactuses on the island's eastern end.

Continued on page 120 11

 Coral Reefs
Coral reefs have been likened to a metrop- than-human life. Another suggests that the
olis with apartment complexes, transporta- coral reef "may be the most industrious,
tion systems, and multitudes of citizens liv- pulsating, driven environment on Earth." It

ing amongst limestone-cement walls built has few rivals for biological diversity. On
over many centuries. Millions of tiny ani- the total global stage, coral reefs may sup-
mals, coral polyps, build the reef structure port one third of all fish species and per-
by erecting around themselves exterior haps, altogether, a half-million animal spe-
limestone skeletons. Over many millennia cies. Coral reefs are equated— for richness
living corals together build what one writer of life forms and global significance— with
calls the largest structures built by other- tropical rainforests. Yet all this diversity

Delicate corals need warm, clear water to

stay healthy. Sediments or big changes in
temperature can kill them. So can dragged
anchors, the touch of human hands, or
storms and waves. World-wide, 95 percent
of reefs are damaged by pollution, anchors,
dynamiting, or overfishing — including with
cyanide poison. New coral diseases of not-
yet-known origins also threaten reef health.

Silt washing down from road or house con-

struction smothers the coral reef. Nutrient-
rich runoff from sewage or agriculture, and
the destruction of coastal wetlands and
mangroves affect coral reefs, too. The U.S.
Departments of Commerce and the Interior
coordinate the U.S. Coral Reef Initiative.
The goal is to save these limited but richly

significant areas.

Worldwide coral reef distribution

Venus Sea Fan rising behind corals

inhabits a narrow band near the Equator and phosphates— to synthesize oxygen and
(see map diagram, facing page), and coral organic compounds that are used in turn
reefs cover only 360,000 square miles— less by the host polyp. Substantial coral reefs
area than Canada's British Columbia. And exist in 108 nations, but in 93 of those
all this richness builds on basic coopera- nations human actions have caused signifi-
tion, a symbiosis. Colonial organisms, cant reef deterioration. Can we cooperate
corals are made up of polyps that feed by in time to save the world's coral reefs?

trapping plankton in their tentacles. Inside

the polyp live algae of various hues that
consume the polyp waste— carbon dioxide

m
mWM

\
\Sfill?
Sea Whips
 Sea Turtles

Sea turtles have existed

150 million years, but all three cantly to the introduction of minutes ashore, a nesting
species found in the Virgin predators that the sea turtle, female hawksbill digs a hole
Islands, hawksbill (right), its eggs, and its hatchlings with her rear flippers in the
green (below), and leather- have no defenses against. upper beach, lays some 140
back are endangered. Sea While ashore, sea turtles fall eggs, covers them with sand,
turtles need to nest on sandy prey to human hunters or to and returns to the sea. The
shorelines, which contributes poachers— for their flesh, eggs will incubate for two
to their plight. First, natural shells, and eggs. And dogs, months. Mostly emerging at
beaches are fast disappear- mongooses, and rats prey on night, hatchlings race toward
ing because of development. their eggs and hatchlings. the water and an uncertain
Second, while on shore, tur- Night herons patrol beaches future. They swim out toward
tles are very vulnerable to hunting for hatchlings as they the open sea and drift among
predators. Coastal develop- scramble from their nest to rafts of seaweeds for several
 rge enough to
avoid most predators. How
they navigate the vast ocean
is not yet known. Buck Island
Reef National Monument's
protected beaches and coral
reefs, and the research done
here, have contributed to the
understanding of the hawks-
bill sea turtle in the east-

Caribbean. Protecting ci
— ral reef habitat and fc
irces is essential to t
tiles' survival.
 Endangered Species
Threats to biodiversity else- reat to native
where—habitat loss, exotic id animals in past
species, and overharvesting — they are refuges for Virgin centuries. Today the threats
also threaten it in the Virgin Islands tree boas, roseate are road-building, develop-
Islands. The ever-diminishing terns, and St. Croix ground ment, and competition from
space for wild plants and ani- lizards. Some species no exotics— plants and animals
mals here makes protected longer exist on the main from other areas introduced
natural areas ever more sig- islands because of rats, dogs, by people. The prickly ash
nificant. Parts of the Virgin cats, mongooses, and hu- and St. Thomas lidf lower, for
Islands provide refuge for mans. Clearing land to grow example, federally listed as
animals federally listed as sugar cane and cotton was endangered, still grow in
 l'lll[:-ill««]|»>
which limits road-building Croix makes Buck Island's
and development. Exotics least tern population even
have pushed some native more precious. Endangered
species into extinction. Mon- brown pelicans (photo) nest
gooses may have eradicated in their Buck Island rookery
the St. Croix ground lizard and feed in its near-shore
from that island. They elimi- waters. Exotic plants also
nated the ground dove, quail, threaten many native plant
and other ground-nesting species, thereby posing wh
birds. Recent loss of nesting knows what problems?

^ v\ '"
 Fortunately for the region's sea turtles, the vast
environmental alterations to Buck Island did not
seriously affect their using it. Hawksbill, leather-

back, and green sea turtles, species now protected

by federal law, migrate to Buck Island every two to
three years in summer. They nest in the shoreline
forests and on beaches — see pages 116-117. To pro-
tect the sea turtles' nesting activities, the island is
closed at sunset. As a further precaution all tent
Least terns are diving birds
poles, beach umbrellas, and stakes are prohibited
listed as a threatened species
in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
on all of the island's beaches.
From April through August, The National Park Service began studying sea tur-
they nest on Buck Island's tles here in 1975, and the studies continue today.
West Beach, sharing the area They have focused mainly on the nesting behavior
with visitors to the national and biology of the hawksbill turtle. Nesting female
monument. Can you find the hawksbills are tagged to find out how often they
camouflaged chick with this
come back to the same nesting site, how many nests
adult?
they lay, how successful their nesting and hatching
are, and what their nesting habitat needs are. Sea
The loss of beaches to devel-
turtle research carried out at Buck Island has pro-
opment has greatly reduced
nesting habitat for species vided valuable scientific data about the habits and
that nest on beaches. Beaches range of these endangered species. This information
not protected from distur- has enhanced prospects for their survival through-
bance during the nesting sea- out the Caribbean.
son have been hard-hit, too. The National Park Service also conducts fish and
The birds are harassed and fisheries censuses in the island's waters and moni-
their eggs often destroyed by
tors the nesting success of brown pelicans. Other
exotic predators or by people
natural resources research and monitoring activities
and illegal vehicle use on
center on beetles, exotic plants, native plant restora-
beaches.
tion, mongoose and rat control efforts, nesting by
least terns, and seasonal and migratory bird counts.
Hurricanes are a natural fact of Caribbean life.
They affect life underwater as well as on land. In
1989 Hurricane Hugo's 14 hours of 150-mile-per-
— —
hour winds gusting to 204 mph moved some of
the south forereef crest at Buck Island 90 feet land-
ward. The scouring and pounding from the storm
waves destroyed nearly all of this forereef and
cracked and weakened the reef substrate. Most of
the island's other reef areas weathered the storm,
however. Some of these were protected from the
effects of wave shock by the island's barrier reef
structure. In fact, one important ecological role of
coral reefs is to buffer shorelines by breaking the
phenomenal force of storm-driven waves.
In Hurricane Hugo's onslaught more than 80 per-
cent of Buck Island beach forest trees were killed

120
but left standing. Especially hard hit were the man-
chineel trees. The storm severely cut some shoreline
berms. Up to 10 feet of beach were lost to the sea in
some areas of the island. This beach erosion and the
toppling of trees affected turtle nesting. The criss-
crossed downed trees kept the turtles from reaching
the beach forest. There were more than double the
usual number of incomplete or unsuccessful turtle
nesting attempts. These obstacles forced many egg-
Roseate terns are listed as
laden turtles to nest in areas that were threatened endangered throughout the
by further beach erosion. Hurricanes are natural Caribbean. The U.S. Virgin
events, but it is possible that human-caused climate Islands now provide one of
change on a global scale may now be affecting the this tern's largest nesting

frequency and strength of hurricanes. areas.

In 2001 Buck Island Reef National Monument

was expanded by over 18,000 acres of federally
owned submerged lands, and the entire area of the
monument was made a no-take zone. In the words
of the presidential proclamation, there is to be "no
extractive use" within the national monument. The
expansion of this national monument and the cre-
ation of Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monu-
ment off St. John both resulted from an executive
order mandating the protection of coral reefs wher-
ever found within federally owned waters. That
mandate recognizes the worldwide threats to the
health of coral reef ecosystems, which are of great
value for biodiversity generally and serve as nurs-
eries for many species of fish and crustaceans.
Certainly, Buck Island proves the wisdom of
protecting natural areas. As sanctuaries for undis-
turbed natural processes, protected natural areas
perpetuate the warp and weave of the fabric of our
world. However, the threat of global climate change
also makes it clear that Buck Island and its reef, or
other national parklands, cannot be fully protected
exclusively within the confines of their own small
space on planet Earth. Nor can any other U.S. Vir-
gin Island. It will take a wider, more far-reaching
wisdom to perpetuate our planet's natural fabric.
Just as Buck Island is an island on Earth, so Earth
itself is like an island in our solar system. Ecologic-
ally, as one naturalist has said, no island is an island

entire of itself.

Ill
 —
Visiting the Parklands: Safety and Management Concerns

Safety for donkeys or livestock around the next

Don't sunburn ruin your Caribbean
let curve. Buckle-up for safety: it's the law!
stay. Protect against overexposure to tropi- Beware of donkeys (those that
feral
cal sunlight with sunscreen, hat, and shirt. have gone wild) on St. John. Unsuspecting
Sun rays are most intense between 10 a.m. humans may find them innocent-looking.
and 2 p.m. Remember: a hat does not pro- However, they can bite and kick and cause
tect your face and neck against sun rays grave injury. Do not approach or feed
reflected off the water surface. Watch tops them or any wild or feral animals.
of your feet and the tips of your ears, too. Beware of heavy surf. Where water
You may want to wear a T-shirt to protect deepens sharply offshore, large waves may
your back while snorkeling. break near the water's edge. Undertows
Any time of year, wearing cotton clothes may accompany large waves. Never swim
light in color and weight is recommended alone. Respect all warning notices they —
in daytime. In winter you may sometimes protect both you and these parks' natural
want a light jacket in late evening and and cultural features.
early morning. If you hike on St. John or Do not climb on the walls of historic
Buck Island, trousers can help protect you structures or ruins. They can be unstable,
against biting or stinging insects and plants and bodily injury can result.
with thorns or stickers. Temperatures Watch your step on hiking trails and
range in the low 70°s F to upper 80s don't become too distracted by the beauti-
December through April and somewhat ful scenery!
—
higher mid-80s to mid-90s May through — Hurricane season, June 1 to November
November. 30, usuallypeaks in September and Octo-
Increase your intake of nonalcoholic ber. Contact park visitor centers or a park
beverages in this tropical environment. ranger for information about storms —and
Doctors suggest eight glasses daily. taking shelter during serious storms.
Beware of unfamiliar plants. Some, such
as manchineel, are extremely poisonous Management Concerns
see page 112. Also toxic are lucky nut tree, Vehicle rentals are available on St. Croix,
poinsettia, oleander, and yucca or century St. John, and Thomas. Go for a vehicle
St.

plant. Mango may cause allergic reactions; with a trunk so you can lock valuables out
eat only a little at first. There are many of sight. Parking is limited in the Virgin
other hazardous plants on these islands. Islands. Rental vehicles may be needed to
Use repellent against biting insects. get to many places on St. Croix and St.

Take care of cuts, scrapes, and scratches John. In the main tourist season, reserve
right —
away in the tropics infection sets in rentals well ahead. Check with your insur-
quickly. And water does carry bacte-
salt ance agent about appropriate coverage.
ria. Slow to heal or inflamed? See a doctor Heed posted speed limits —there are nar-
right away! row shoulders, sharp curves, and limited
Drive on the left as required by Virgin visibility. Ask your rental agent about local
Islands law. American-made cars put the driving and parking regulations. Your dri-
driver on the shoulder-side of the road, ver's license from the U.S. mainland is

not toward the center. Practice in a park- good for 90 days in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
ing lot before taking to the road. Drive If your license is from elsewhere, you must
slowly and defensively, especially on twist- get a 30-day Virgin Islands operator's per-
ing roads. Outside urban areas watch out mit —check with a Virgin Islands Police

122
 Access to Information

Department Motor Vehicle Bureau at Emergency Phone Numbers

Golden Grove on St. Croix, Cruz Bay on Dial 911 on St. Thomas
St. John, or the Sub Base on St. Thomas. Dial 911 on St. Croix
Conserving water is essential. Don't let Dial 911 on St. John
water run while brushing teeth, shampoo- For hospital emergencies call:
ing, shaving, or showering. Wet down, turn 778-6311 on St. Croix
off water, soap up, then rinse off. Limit the 776-6400 (medical clinic) on St. John
number of toilet flushings. Ask at your 776-8311 on St. Thomas
lodging for more water-conservation tips.

Be aware of your personal safety and Telephone and Internet

take practical precautions to avoid crime. The "Quick Facts" page for each island
Contact the Virgin Islands Department of lists phone numbers and Internet sites for

Tourism for a list of safety tips. Ask park itsNational Park System areas. Find infor-
rangers and your lodging's staff about mation about the National Park Service
areas to avoid, especially at night. Do not and the more than 380 areas that make up
get into a car whose operator says it is a the National Park System at [Link]
taxi unless it is clearly marked as a taxi. on the Internet.
Taxis have domed tops; their license plates
begin with TP on St. Thomas, CP on St. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism
Croix, and JP on St. John. Do not leave [Link]/tourism
your belongings unattended and visible far P.O. Box 6400
up a beach while you swim, especially at St. Thomas, VI 00804-6400
more remote areas. 340-774-8784
Pets require a health certificate from a or
veterinarian to be admitted to the U.S. P.O. Box 4538
Virgin Islands. Contact the Virgin Islands Christiansted, VI 00822
Department of Tourism for requirements 340-773-0495
before you bring a pet.
Coral is very fragile and easily damaged Accessible Lodging
by anchors, human touch and feet, or flip- To research wheelchair-accessible lodging,
pers. Remember: "If it's not sand, don't ask the department of tourism for its

stand." "Rates" brochure. Find out which hotels

have accessible facilities. Call those hotels
and ask specific questions related to your
needs.

123
 Further Reading

Armchair Explorations MacLean, William P. Reptiles and

Anderson, John Lorenzo. Night of the Amphibians of the Virgin Islands, 1982.
Silent Drums (historical fiction about the Nellis, David W. Poisonous Plants and
1733 slave revolt on St. John), (1975) 1992. Animals of Florida and the Caribbean,
Bailey, Katharine R. and Gloria Bourne. 1997.
U.S. Virgin Islands: Jewels of the Carib- Nellis, David W. Seashore Plants of
bean, 1986 (1992). South Florida and the Caribbean, 1997.
Barlow, Virginia. The Nature of the Paiewonsky, Isidor. The Burning of a
Islands: Plantsand Animals of the Eastern Pirate Ship La Trompeuse in theHarbour
Caribbean, 1993. of St. Thomas, July 31, 1683, and Other
Benjamin, Guy. Me and My Beloved Tales, 1992.
Virgin, 1981. Parry, J.H., P.M. Sherlock, and Anthony
Benjamin, Guy. More Tales from Me and Maingot. A Short History of the West
My Beloved Virgin, 1983. Indies, 1987.
Brettell, Richard R. and Karen Zukow- Raffaele, Herbert A. A Guide to the
ski. Camille Pissarro in the Caribbean, Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Is-

1850-1855: Drawings from the Collection at lands, 1990.

Olana, 1996. Randall, John E. Caribbean Reef Fishes,
Brown, Susan. Victorian Frederiksted, third revised edition 1996.
1981. Robinson, Alan H. with Fritz Henle.
Damman, Arthur E. and David W. Virgin Islands National Park:The Story
Nellis. A Natural History Atlas to the Cays Behind the Scenery, 1914 (1982).
of the U.S. Virgin Islands, 1992. Rouse, Irving. The Tainos: Rise & De-
Glissant, Edouard and J. Michael Dash, cline of the People Who Greeted Colum-
translator. Caribbean Discourse: Selected bus, 1992 (1993).
Essays, 1992. Singer, Gerald. St. John Off the Beaten
Highfield, Arnold R. St. Croix 1493: An Track, 1996.
Encounter of Two Worlds, 1995. Taylor, Charles Edwin. Leaflets from the
Humann, Paul. Reef Coral Identification: Danish West Indies, 1888 (1970).
Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas, Including Thomas, Toni, Rudy G. O'Reilly Jr., and
Marine Plants, 1993. Olasee Davis. Traditional Medicinal Plants
Humann, Paul. Reef Creature Identifica- of St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John: A
tion: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas, 1990. Selection of 68 Plants, 1997.
Humann, Reef Fish Identification:
Paul. Tyson, George F. and Arnold R. High-

Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas, 1994. The Kamina Folk: Slavery

field, editors.

Jadan, Doris. A Guide to the Natural and Slave Life in the Danish West Indies,
History of St. John, 1985. 1994.
Knox, John Pary. A Historical Account Walcott, Derek. The Antilles: Fragments
of St. Thomas, W.I., 1852 (1970). of Epic Memory, The Nobel Lecture, 1992.
Kurlansky, Mark. A Continent of Islands: Williams, Eric. From Columbus to
Searching for the Caribbean Destiny, 1992. Castro: The History of the Caribbean 1492-
Lenihan, Daniel J. and John D. Brooks. 1969, 1984.
Underwater Wonders of the National
Parks: A Diving and Snorkeling Guide,
1998.
Lewisohn, Florence. St. Croix Under
Seven Flags, 1970.

124
Credits and Acknowledgements

Credits Steve Simonsen; century Rainbow/Dan McCoy;

lobster clawWolfgang Kaehler; 58-59 Tom Bean;
The National Park Service thanks all the
60 Steve Simonsen; 61 Bob Krist; 62-63 Karen
people who made the preparation and
Barnes/NPS except 63 booby Steve Simonsen; 66-
production of this handbook possible. 67 Steve Simonsen; 68-69 Richard Schlecht/NPS;
Thanks to the staffs of Christiansted 70-71 Mapes Monde; 71 market Henle Archive

National Historic Site and Virgin Islands Trust/Maria Henle Studio; 72-73 Bob Krist; 76
Carol Lee; 78-79 William F. Cissel; 80 Carol Lee; 82
National Park: Rafe Boulon, William F.
Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen; 83 Carol Lee; 84-85
Mindy deCesar, Zandy Hillis-Starr,
Cissel, Richard Schlecht/NPS; 86-87 Steve Simonsen; 88-89
Don Near, Paul Thomas, and Chuck [Link] Landmarks Society; 90 Richard Schlecht/
Weikert. Ricardo E. Alegria, Arnold R. NPS; 91 Peale Collection, Independence National
Historical Park, Philadelphia; 92-93 Rigsarkivet,
Highfield, and Gilbert A. Sprauve were
Copenhagen; 93 inset William F. Cissel; 94-95 town
consultants for the Richard Schlecht illus-
plan Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen; photos Carol Lee;
trations. Picture researchwas by Linda 96-97 children Mapes Monde; 97 Sunday Market
Sykes. Thanks to other supporting offices William 98 William F. Cissel; 100-101 Cary
F. Cissel;

at Harpers Ferry Center. This handbook Wolinsky/Tony Stone Images; 104 Bob Krist; 105
Steven Krasemann/Photo Researchers; 106-108
was prepared by the staff of the Division
Steve Simonsen; 110 basket starfish Charles
of Publications, Harpers Ferry Center, Seaborn/Odyssey, urchin Doug Perrine/Innerspace
National Park Service: Angie Faulkner, Visions, sponge Al Grotel; 111 queen angelfish Al
designer; Tom Patterson and Lori Sim- Grotel; parrotfish Steve Simonsen; damselfish,
french angelfish, and grouper Doug Perrine/Inner-
mons, cartographers; and Ed Zahniser,
space Visions; trunkfish Charles V
Angelo/Photo
writer and editor.
Researchers; 114 Steve Simonsen; 115 brain Doug
Perrine/Innerspace Visions, elkhorn Steve Simon-
Picture Sources sen, whips Al Grotel, pillar Robert Frerck/Odyssey;

Photos and artwork not credited below 116-117 Marc Chamberlain/Tony Stone Images; 117
inset, Solvin Zankl; 118-119 George Lepp/Tony
are from the files of Christiansted Nation-
Stone Images; 120 Solvin Zankl; 121 Jorge Saliva.
al Historic Site, Virgin Islands National
Park, and the National Park Service. Most Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
materials may not be reproduced without U.S. Virgin Islands a guide to national parklands
:

written permission of their owners or in the United States Virgin Islands / produced by
the Division of Publications, National Park Service
copyright holders.
p. cm. - (National Park handbook series ; 157)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

Covers Steve Simonsen; inside covers Mapes Mon- ISBN 0-912627-68-9 (pbk.)
des; 2-3 Steve Simonsen; 4-5 Carol Lee; 6-7 Bob 1, National parks and reserves- Virgin Islands of
Krist; 10 Steve Simonsen; 11 Germanisches Na- the United States-Guidebooks. 2. Virgin Islands of
tional Museum, Nuremberg; 12-14 Steve Simonsen; the United States-History Guidebooks. I. United
20 Naru Innui; 21 Carol Lee; 22 Jordan Provost; 23 States. National Park Service. Division of Publica-
Carol Lee; 24-27 flags Flag Institute Enterprises tions. II. Handbook (United States. National Park
Ltd; 28-29 Steve Simonsen; 32 Carol Lee; 33 Rain- Service. Division of Publications) ; 157.
bow/William McCoy; 34-35 Werner Bertsch/Bruce
Coleman, Inc.; 36 Image Bank/Andre Gallant; 38 F2136 .U553 2001
William F. Cissel; 39 Culver Pictures; 40-41 Henle 917.297'2204-dc21
Archive Trust/Maria Henle Studio; 42 William F.
Cissel; 43 Image Bank/Marvin Newman; 44 Steve &GPO:1999-454-765/00003
Printed on recycled paper 2001.
Simonsen except schoolgirl Image Bank/Andre
Gallant; 45 Steve Simonsen except horses Bob
Krist; 48 Tom Bean; 50-51 Shari Erickson courtesy
of Wicker Wood & Shells Gallery, Cruz Bay, St.
John; 52 Franklin Viola/Comstock; 54-55 Tom
Bean; 56 tamarind Photo Researchers/Doug Millar;
calabash Don Hebert; kapok Minden Pictures/Jim
Brandenburg; 57 flamboyant and eyelash orchid

125
 U.S. Virgin Islands Index Numbers in italics refer to photographs,

Agriculture 64, 92 Christiansted: architecture Ethnicity 38, 41

Annaberg: school 25; sugar 82, 94-95; commerce 92-93, Ethnobotany 56
plantation 24, 44 97; establishment 26; harbor
Animals: 6-7, 15, 53, 55, 86, 83, 90, 92-93; National His- Farm 70-71
99,111,113,114-15,119,122; toric Site 27, 75; plantations Fish 58-59, 66-67, 86-87, 99,
extinct 118-19; food 53; hab- 25; tourism 45 106-8,109,110-11
itat 116-17; refuges 118-19. Christiansvaern, Fort: floor Fishermen 40
See also Coral reef plan 82; history 81, 83; site Food20,21,25,99, 100-101
Archeology 53, 84, 90-91 80; visitor center 77, 105 Forest: 54, 62, 99, 112; dam-
Architecture 38, 92-95 Cinnamon Bay: Beach 53; age to 120-21; Virgin Islands
Loop Trail 60 National Park 57
Ball court 84-85, 87 Climate 20, 22, 122 Frederiksted 26, 74, 90
Beach conditions 49, 58, Columbus: voyages 20, 23,
116, 120 24, 91, 112; Salt River Bay Ghana. See Guinea
Biological diversity 64, 65; 45, 85; St. Croix 81, 91, 98 Gold Coast 23
See also Coral reef Commerce 18-19, 26, 92-93 Great Thatch Island 65, 72-
Biosphere Reserve 26, 65 Coral 58-59; 66-67, 105, 115; 73
Birds: 62-63, 87, 118-19, 120, 123. See also Sea fan Guinea: 19, 69, 97; fowl 97
121 Coral reef: biological diver-
Blackbeard (Edward Teach) sity 23, 28-29, 114; character- Habitat 118-19
Tower 30-31, 39
38, 39; istics 99, 109; ecology 67, Hamilton, Alexander 91, 92
Bluebeard Castle 30-31, 38, 114-15, 120; fish 52, 56, 66- Handicraft 60, 61
39,42-43 67,106-7,108,109,110-11; Hassel Island 27, 33, 5S
British Virgin Islands 24, 65 NPS monitoring 66-67; Historians 23, 55, 66, 69
Buck Island Reef National photo covers, 52-53, 86-87, Hurricane 17, 90, 95, 120,
Monument: 2-3, 112; animal 114-15; shipwrecks 112; size 121, 122
life 110-11, 116-17, 120; 23,25-29,115
established 27, 105, 109; Cotton 56, 89, 92 Indian, American 55
expanded 27, 121; geological Cruise ships 27, 34-35, 37, 90 Indian, Carib: battles and
formation 22; history 112; Culture: blacks 70-71; events extermination 24, 81; canoe
map 75, 102-3; Observation 44; Igneri 24; Taino 90; tradi- 85; Christianity 98; as con-
Point 103; settlement 109, tions 20, 22-23 querors 20, 84; culture 22-
112; signal station 112; size 23, 83, 91; migration 18
105; tourism 105; transporta- Danish West India & Igneri 112
tion 45, 105; vegetation 112- Guinea Company 24, 92
13, 120; West Beach 102, Denmark: architecture 38; Labor 27, 88; union 27
104, 109, 120 Danish West Indies 18, 25, Leeward Islands 9, 20
Buddhoe (John Gottliff) 98 82, 90-97; slave trade 24, 97,
112 Magens Bay 31,40
Caribbean Sea: area and Maho Bay 14, 15
depth 11; map 8-9, 16-17, Ecology 60, 64, 113, 120; Mangrove 86-87, 99
18-19 coral reefs role 120; Salt Maps: 8-9; 16-19; 30-31; 46-
Carnival 4-5, 32, 33, 44 River Bay 86-87 47; 74-75, 102-103
Cays 58-59, 62, 63, 78-79, 93, Economy 37, 88-89, 90 Markets: Christiansted 97;
118 Education 22, 26 St. John 70-77; St. Thomas
Charlotte Amalie 30-31, 37 Endangered species 87, 118- 20, 21; Slavery 24, 25
Children 36, 42, 44, 96-97 19 Mocko Jumbi 20, 44

126
National Park Service 23, St. John 72-73: cultural his- Taino (Arawak) 24, 64, 112;
120 tory 64-65; economy 64-65; 77; culture 49, 83, 84-85, 90;
Newspapers 26, 27, 91 earthquakes 22; ferry 41; food producers 53, 54; histo-
geology 22; health clinic 49; ry 55; settlement 22-23, 81,
Painting 50-51, 84-85, 88-89, history 24-27; map 46-47; 84-85; slavery 20, 85, 98
92-93 plantation 89; population 23, Tourist information 11, 33,
Panama Canal 18 53-54; size 49; slave revolt 49, 77, 105, 122-23
Piracy 25, 38 53, 64-65, 68-69; sugar pro- Trade routes 18-19, 112
Plantation economy 90. See duction 24, 53; terrain 53; Transportation 45, 77
also Sugar: plantation tourism 39, 49 Truck garden 99, 700-707
Plants 53, 57, 113, 118-19; St. Thomas: animals 33; Trunk Bay & Cay 58-59, 110
diversity 54, 66, 99; extinct architecture 38; commerce
1 18-19; photos 55, 56-57; 78- 26; cruise ships 27; culture Underwater life 770-77
79; toxic 112, 113, 122 20; ethnicity 38-39; geology United States: Coral Reef
Polyps, coral 114-115 22; government 26; history Initiative 114; flag 27, 81, 90;
Population 24-25, 26, 36 24-27, 37, 39; map 30-31; Navy 27; Virgin Islands pur-
Puerto Rico 11, 23, 98 population 23; plantation 89; chase 18, 26, 92
recreation 33; shopping 37,
Ram Head 48, 55 38; terrain 33; trade 37, 38; Virgin Islands: biological
Recreation 2-5, 12-13, 39, tourism 33 diversity 15; climate 11, 16;
44-45,49,77,109,110,122. Salt River Bay National components 15; culture 20;
See also Water sports Historical Park and Ecologi- forest 54, 56; geology 24;
Reef Bay Trail 60, 64 cal Preserve 20, 27, 45, 74; government commercial
Religion 44, 45, 93 Columbus 85; ecology 86-87; policies 20, 24-27; history 98;
Rockefellers 24, 60, 64, 65 fort 20, 98; population 23, location 11, 15, 20; name ori-
Rolex Regatta 12-13, 15 81, 84; settlement 98-99; gin 98; population 23, 84;
Rum 18, 89, 92 sugar plantation 99 U.S. purchase 26, 39, 83, 92
Sea fan 66-67, 114 Virgin Islands Coral Reef
Safety tips 33, 49, 77, 105, Sea turtle 66, 87, 113, 776- National Monument 27, 49,
112, 113, 122-23 77; 120, 121 53, 64, 65, 121;map 46-47
Sailing 12-13 Settlement, European 24-27, Virgin Islands National
St. Croix: architecture 82, 85,56,98 Park: Biosphere Reserve 26,
94-95, 100-101; Carib Indi- Slavery 70-71: Buck Island 65; dedication 26; ecology
ans 20, 91, 98; Christiansted 112; Denmark 24, 97, 112; 60, 64; map 46-47; origin 60;
National Historic Site 27; emancipations 26, 83; Great plants 118-19; size 65; snor-
Christiansted settlement 99; Britain 112; markets 24-25; keling 110. See also Hassel
Columbus 91; culture 81; revolts 24, 26, 55, 64, 68-69, Island; St. Thomas; Tourism
economy 27, 82-83; food 81, 90; population 25, 26; St. Visitor Centers 30-31, 46-47,
production 99; foreign con- Croix 25, 96-97; St. John 53, 49, 74-75, 77, 105
trol 81; geology 22; history 64-64; schools 25; Taino 84,
24-27; 81-83; 90-91; 98-99; 85; trade 18-19, 24, 25, 96 Water sports 2-3, 10, 28-29,
map 74-75; population size Species, endangered 118-20 45, 49, 77, 704, 105, 109, HO-
23; slavery 25, 96-97; sugar Sugar: industry 82-83, 88, 90; 11
production 22, 27, 81, 89; plantation 24, 44, 53, 56, 60, West Indies (Antilles) 15,
Taino 22; tourism 39, 45, 77; 88-89, 99; production 22, 24, 20, 99; map 9
windmill and tower 76. See 25, 26, 27, 53, 81; trade 18, Windmill 24, 76, 88-89, 90
also Taino (Arawak) 81,92 Windward Islands 9, 20

127
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior

The mission of the Department of the Interior is to pro-

tect and provide access to our nation's natural and cultural
heritage and to honor our trust responsibilities to tribes.
The National Park Service preserves unimpaired the nat-
ural and cultural resources and values of the National
Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration
of this and future generations. The National Park Service
cooperates with partners to extend the benefits of natural
and cultural resource conservation and outdoor recreation
throughout this country and the world.
 Buck Island Reef National Monument
Christiansted National Historic Site
Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve
Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument
Virgin Islands National Park

W* 7
*\

Its beaches, azure blue waters, and coral reefs are

"out of this world," but the U.S. Virgin Islands are
real places and home people with real histories.
to
Five National Park System sites help these Carib-
bean islands preserve both the marvels of nature
R and their rich human stories. Island-by-island
"Quick Facts" travel tips and full-color maps,
original illustrations, historical artwork, educa-
tional features, and more than 80 souvenir-quality
color photographs make this handbook an essen-
tial travel tool.

Jibra j&am

I [Link]