Dear Editor,
The other day, I got an email message from Rafael Encarnacion, the director of radio operations for our local PBS and NPR radio stations in the Virgin Islands. I was invited to be on former Sen. Neville James’ show to discuss Maroon Country, the newly established Maroon Sanctuary Territorial Park of the Virgin Islands.
While I was on Neville’s radio show, I got the thinking there is a lot to learn by the Virgin Islands public about Maroon Country geography. With that being said, I will discuss the Great Northeast Central of Maroon Country in a series of articles documenting historically where the refuges of runaway slaves known as maroons lived in the northwestern and northeastern central part of the island. In the Great Northwest, Maroon Ridge is known historically as Maronberg, “which means hill or mountain” that extended not just in the northwest, but also to Mount Eagle, the highest peak on St. Croix.
The Maroon Country ridge rises more than 300 feet above sea level at Ham’s Bluff, where the historic lighthouse stands, then to almost 1,000 feet at Mount Stewart, and Bodkin Mill extending over 1,000 feet to Mount Eagle northeast central of the newly established Territorial Park System.
Over the years, I have written countless articles, promoted the area in a multitude of ways, and I’ve taken thousands of Virgin Island residents and visitors alike to explore the northwest’s and northeast central’s natural, cultural, historical, and marine resources showcasing the last intact tropical forest and turquoise coastal marine environments.
For years, I have fought politically and socially against unplanned development in the northwest and northeast central areas of St. Croix. It was a struggle every day, spiritually and mentally, to keep hope alive for the protection of a special place of Virgin Islands history.
During 1766 to 1767, Christian George Andreas Oldendorp, a Moravian missionary, gave one of the first accounts of Maroon communities in the northwest part of St. Croix around Maronberg (Maroon Ridge) and the flight from there to Puerto Rico.
In 1777, Oldendorp published his reported findings on slaves of the Danish West Indies and said, “A runaway Negro who remains away for three months is to have a foot cut off by the bailiff. And if he runs away again, he is to lose the other foot.” He went on to say, “In spite of the severity of this punishment, there are some daring Negroes who cannot be deterred from becoming maroons (this is the term used there for Negroes who run away) through the loss of a foot.”
However, it was the dense tropical forests of the northwest to Mount Eagle, with high cliffs, deep valleys, steep slopes, caves, and rugged coastlines that offered refuge for runaway enslaved Africans. The northwest and northeast central coastline to the summit of Mount Eagle and Blue Mountain were not surveyed until the 1750s or 1760s due to the Maroon’s occupation. They’d been fighting to survive for decades against the Danish government and planters of the surrounding areas of the dense tropical moist forest environment.
Estate NorthStar, northeast of Carambola Beach Resort, which is part of the ridge for Maroon Country, was also a periodic shelter for runaway slaves. The estate, located below Mount Eagle, lies in a basin gallery of moist tropical forest, with some species of trees reaching over 90 feet high. Streams gush down from NorthStar to the bay during long periods of rain. Few years ago, a federal program known as Forest Legacy, managed by the Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry, acquired over a hundred acres of Estate NorthStar to be part of the Territorial Park System of the Virgin Islands.
What is so interesting, the newly establish maroon park boarders Estate NorthStar with Estate Parasol, Estate Solitude, and Mount Eagle, which is part of Maroon Sanctuary Territorial Park System. With an established trail from Estate Parasol or Mount Eagle, one can hike to Estate NorthStar. In fact, Estate NorthStar also includes a coastal environment like that of northwest Maroon Country of northwest Estate Prosperity, Annaly Bay, Sweet Bottom Bay, Wills Bay, Wells Bay, Annaly Notch, and Annaly Cove Bay. These historic and sacred lands now belong to the people of the Virgin Islands as a park.
Nevertheless, the valley of Estate NorthStar is known for mangos (Mangifera indica), West-Indian almond (Terminalis catappa), West Indian locust or locally called “stinking toes” (Hymenaea courbaril), and guavaberry (Myrciaria floribunda). Estate NorthStar is also one of the sites where USDA Forest Service planted experimental mahogany trees in the 1950s.
This forest is rich in diversity, especially the upland forest along the ridge that connects to Maroon Country with plants and wildlife like the rare Bridled Quail-Dove (Geotrygon mystacea), deer (Odocoileus virginianus), large moths or Black Witch (Erebus odora), fresh water fish, and possible the Virgin Islands Screech Owl (Otus nupides), an endangered species. The owl in Estate NorthStar and Mount Eagle region was sighted almost 90 years ago in the area. During the month of August, you can see hundreds of solider crabs or hermit crabs (Coenobita clypeatus) migrating to the bay for their love-making ritual ceremony.
As thousands of mangos drop from trees at Estate NorthStar each year, you can see hundreds of solider crabs arriving to feast on the mangos. It is a sight to behold the migration of solider crabs eating mangos. Nevertheless, Estate NorthStar gives the appearance of a “rain forest’ with large hanging aerial roots. The forest is a multi-storied forest dominated by tall evergreens and deciduous trees that kiss the sky above.
In the second article of this series, I will continue to describe Estate NorthStar’s forest, history of land owners, and Maroon occupation in the Great Northeast Central of St. Croix.
St. Croix Source
Op-ed
