§410tt Findings

Summary

Congress says the Salt River Bay area on St. Croix must be protected because it is very important for history and nature. People may have lived there as early as 2000 B.C., and it includes sites from all major cultural periods in the islands. It has rare archaeological sites, including the only known ceremonial ball court in the Lesser Antilles, village middens, and burial grounds, and it is the only recorded place where members of Columbus’s expeditions set foot on what is now U.S. territory. The area also holds Spanish, French, Dutch, English, and Danish settlement remains, including Fort Sale, one of the few surviving earthwork fortifications in the Western Hemisphere. It became a national natural landmark in February 1980 and was nominated to be acquired as nationally significant wildlife habitat. The bay has the largest remaining mangrove forest in the United States Virgin Islands and many tropical ecosystems that should be kept safe for people now and in the future. Congress says preserving it should be done together by the Federal Government and the Government of the United States Virgin Islands.