§410tt Findings

Summary

Congress finds the Salt River Bay area on the north central coast of St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands, is both historically and naturally important. People may have lived there as far back as 2000 B.C., and the site shows all major cultural periods in the islands. It holds the only known ceremonial ball court in the Lesser Antilles, village middens, and burial sites that help explain life before Columbus, and it is the only known place where members of Columbus’s expeditions set foot on what is now United States territory. It also has Spanish, French, Dutch, English, and Danish settlement sites, including Fort Sale, one of the few remaining earthwork forts in the Western Hemisphere. Congress also finds Salt River Bay offers a strong chance to preserve and explain Caribbean history and culture. It has been a national natural landmark since February 1980 and was nominated as a nationally significant wildlife habitat. The area contains the largest remaining mangrove forest in the United States Virgin Islands and many marine and land ecosystems. Congress says the site should be kept unimpaired for current and future generations and is worthy of a comprehensive preservation effort in partnership between the Federal Government and the Government of the United States Virgin Islands.