Celebrating One Hundred Years

Last week, the 25th of August, marked 100th birthday of the National Parks. I thought to celebrate I'd post some pictures of the Virgin Island National Park. Most of the *park* resides on the island of St. John which was established in 1956 when Laurence Rockefeller bought up about two thirds of the island and donated it to the National Park.

Annaberg, one of many sugar plantations on the island, was under cultivation by 1731. By the 1800 it was one of the largest sugar producers on the island. This picture was take some time after 1933.

(Source)

The windmill was added sometime between 1820-1830. 

Up to that point the horse mill was used to grind the cane. 

You can see a part of it in the above picture to the far left, what looks like a curved wall.

 The factory building where the cane juice was boiled down to make sugar, molasses, and eventually rum. The wall to the right is part of the horse mill.

Boiling vats inside the factory building. Just one of the large iron pots remains in place, in the center of this picture.

 Looking through a window of the factory building at the windmill. 

 Catherineberg. During the slave revolt of 1733, the slaves used Catherineberg as their headquarters.

 It is the only windmill on the island you can walk under. 

Reef Bay. The last operating sugar factory ended production in 1908.

It was one of two factories that used a steam engine for grinding cane.

Above Reef Bay on a gut (a water course that runs after it rains) there is a waterfall with pools. The pools have water in them most of the year. Carved into the rocks above one of the pools are these petrogylphs believed to have been put there by the Taino (Arawak) Indians, the first inhabitants of the St. John. There is evidence people lived on the island as early as 1st century AD. They were gone long before Columbus arrived in 1493.

Maho Bay, which includes left to right, Francis Bay, Lillie Maho in the middle, and Big Maho.

Cinnamon Bay, taken from the sea, and home of the National Park campground. 

The building on the beach is an old Danish warehouse

Trunk Bay, is one of the most photographed beaches in the world. I've posted about it many times. This is the beach my grandparents bought in 1928, and where my grandmother had her first guesthouse. It's where I learned to swim. Now part of the National Park, it's a favorite place for visitors to come. There's even an underwater snorkeling trail that follows part of the shoreline of Trunk Cay. (The island to the far left is Jost Van Dyke, a British island. Dead center is Whistling Cay. Behind it is Thatch Cay. Thatch Cay is also British. The point of land to the right of Whistling Cay is Mary Point, which forms part of Maho Bay.)

Hassel Island, St. Thomas.
In 1671 Denmark successfully colonized St. Thomas and by 1680 the port of Charlotte Amalie was a thriving free trade hub. During the American Revolution, powder, arms, and shot were sent to the Continental Army by way of St. Thomas.

To protect the harbor, Prince Frederik's Battery was built in 1788. It sits right at the entrance to the harbor. During the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark was friends with the "Little General." St. Thomas was such an important port that the British occupied Hassel Island, once between 1801-02 and again between 1806-15. Both times they expanded or build new batteries and forts. During the British occupation, Prince Frederik's Battery, acquired its present name, Fort Willoughby.




The British built the Garrison House which was also used for storing munitions. It's construction is unique, and as far as I know, the only one like it in the world.













It's the only building in the islands that has wooden windows  covered in copper.














Fort Christianvaern, St. Croix. Christiansted, where this fort is, was established in 1735 and became the capital of the Danish Virgin Islands in 1755.

I hope you've enjoyed this brief tour of the Virgin Islands National Park. If you can't visit this one, do take  take the time to visit a park near you. We are blessed to have these lands set aside for us in perpetuity.

Being Thankful

Today I'm thankful for, what else? National Parks.

Here are some Parks and Monuments I've visited (not including the Virgin Islands. :)

Yellowstone

Grand Titons
Grand Canyon
Yosemite
Petrified Forest
Saguaro National Park
Death Valley National Park
Golden Gate National Recreational Area
Muir Woods National Monument
Redwood National Park
Mesa Verde National Park
Everglades National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park
Fort Larned National Historic Site
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
White Sands National Monument
San Antonio Missions National Historic Park
Lincoln Memorial
National Mall
Jefferson Memorial
Washington Monument

There may be others...

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What are you thankful for today? Have you been to any parks or monuments? Do tell!

Annaberg, St. John

Between 1717 and 1718 the Danes colonized St. John and the first 20 planters began to grow sugarcane, cotton and other crops. By 1731, a mere 14 years later, Annaberg, which means Anna's Hill,  was under cultivation and there were over 100 other plantations on the island. There were approximately 200 whites and 1000 black slaves on the island. In 1733, there was a bloody revolt and the slaves held the island for six months. Rather than surrender, those who had not been captured, committed suicide.

By the 1800's Annaberg was one of St. John's largest producers of sugar.

Annaberg in the 1930's.

The windmill, used to crush sugarcane, is one of the tallest in the islands. It was built sometime in the 1820s or 30s. When I was kid, a family lived in it. They had built a second floor out of wood. Now-a-days the only things that live in it are the native wild honey bees.

During times when the wind was slack, they used the horse mill, which you can see in the older picture above. It is the large circular structure in the front left.

This is the boiling house, or factory building, where the sugarcane juice was boiled down.Sugar, molasses and rum were made from cane.

In the left foreground is an oven still used for demonstrations in baking bread.

See the hillside behind the building? Imagine it completely cleared and terraced. All the work, done by slaves.

The oven.

Inside the factory building were big iron vats where the juice was boiled. One of the vats is still in place. The fires beneath the vats were kept stoked from the other side of the wall.

This is where the fires were.

The sugar put into a cup of tea by a European lady, the molasses used by English cooks, the rum sipped by Aristocratic gentlemen, came from places like Annaberg.

One of the most interesting aspects of Annaberg is the little "dungeon." It's not a dark, dank hole, just a very small room built off behind the windmill. It has  a window through which a good breeze usually blows. But on its plastered walls, are etchings, probably carved into the plaster by slaves.

This one shows how Annaberg may once have looked. The buildings have wooden second stories.




                                                                                                                                                 

This barely visible etching, is of a sailing ship. Perhaps it's a trade ship, perhaps it's like one that brought slaves to the islands. It looks to me like that's a British Union Jack flying from the rigging.

What these drawings do for me is bring home with clarity that once a real live person was in that space.

In the 1950s a pair of manacles still hung from the wall. I saw them.

Below the horse mill, there are also remnants of slave huts. Besides working the plantation all day, slaves had to provide some portion of their own food on land set aside for them to cultivate.

It was thankless, back-breaking work.






Yet behind it all was the view of the ocean, the sky and the British Virgin Islands.

I have long wondered, sweating in the heat of a summer's day, if a slave did not look out across Sir Francis Drake Channel and breathe in the beauty.

When England freed its slaves, I just know, those still in bondage at Annaberg looked with longing across this channel at the island of Tortola.

Some left behind families and risked their lives to escape to freedom.


Happy Martin Luther King Day.

Black History Month - An Architectural Tour

With the discovery of the Virgin Islands by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493, these tiny islands were thrust onto the world stage. Because of St. Thomas’s natural deep-water harbor, the islands became a hub for world trade. Slaves, rum, molasses and sugar were only some of the things which passed through the port on their way to Europe, the United States and South America.

The islands were owned or occupied by several different countries over the course of the next several hundred years. By 1671 Denmark established a permanent settlement on St. Thomas. Two years later the first slave ship arrived carrying 103 Africans.

This plaque, in Royal Dane Mall on St. Thomas describes where some of material came from that was used in many of the buildings, not just on St. Thomas, but throughout the islands.

It reads: This is the oldest structure in Royal Dane Mall, build soon after 1831 with local stone and imported brick. Sailing ships from Europe and North America brought light cargoes of special food-stuffs and manufactured goods in exchange for a weightier export of sugar, molasses and run. The heavy ballast of brick and building materials needed on the outward journey could be sold on St. Thomas at a price - hence the variety of bricks observable throughout the alley. That these substantial warehouses have survived, hurricanes and earthquakes is a testimony to the skill of the West Indian craftsmen who built them.

This shows one of alleys in Royal Dane Mall with a warehouse on each side.

The Lutheran Church on St. Thomas was built in 1820.

Annaberg, on St. John, is an example of one of the many plantations. Construction of the plantation began in 1721 and was in operation until 1867. This picture shows the boiling house, where sugar cane juice was boiled down to make molasses, sugar and rum. In the left foreground is an oven used for baking bread.

Interior of the boiling house at Annaberg.


The oven at Annaberg, which is still used today in demonstrations.

The windmill at Annaberg was used to crush sugar cane. When the winds were low there was also a horse mill.


This picture in the dungeon was probably etched into the wall by slaves. It shows how Annaberg looked at the height of its operation.

This is the Enighed Estate House in Cruz Bay on St. John. The original structure that existed in 1803 was severely damaged in the 1837 hurricane, at which point it was renovated and expanded. In the early 1900’s it was partially destroyed by fire, and the estate began to deteriorate. In 1982 after being completely renovated this fine example of a Danish West Indian estate house was dedicated as the Elaine Sprauve Library and Museum.



This is a picture of a typical building on Main Street in Charlotte Amalia, St. Thomas. What make this building unique is that in 1830 the Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro was born here. Camille Pissarro went to school in France when he was eleven years old. He returned at the age of 17. In July of 1848, after a slave revolt on the island of St. Croix, he witnessed the emancipation of the slaves. His experiences developed strong beliefs in individual liberty which he carried with him throughout his life. His paintings reflect his love for the common man and pay tribute to peasants, laborers and the lower classes.





During the Napoleonic Wars, Britain took over Hassel Island which is in the harbor of Charlotte Amalia. While they were there they designed and build a small fort, garrison and munitions building. The munitions building is particularly interesting as it is the only building of it’s kind in the world, designed to wick away heat and keep gunpowder from exploding.

This picture shows one of the windows which were sheathed in copper.



Another window, still attached. Notice how thick the walls are.

This is a nice example of brick, stone and plaster work.

When one looks at the many buildings and ruins of plantations, estate houses, warehouses and forts, one can easily forget that the majority of these fine buildings, which have withstood hurricanes and earthquakes, were built with slave labor.