Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
Drake's Seat
This is where Sir Francis Drake is said to have looked out over the sea and
charted the best routes through the Virgin Islands.
Continue left onto Route 35. The road will veer northwest. Follow it all the way to:
6
Magens Bay Beach
Magens Bay is hailed as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Here
you can rent Sunfish sailboats, glass-bottom paddle boats, and sailboards.
Lounge chairs, changing facilities, showers, lockers, and picnic tables are also
available.
Finish up your tour at
Magens Bay Bar & Grill,
Magens Bay Beach
(
&
340/777-6270
), an ideal place for light meals on this heart-shaped beach.
You can order sandwiches, salads, pizza by the slice, soft drinks, and beer and
other alcoholic beverages. It's open daily 9:30am to 5pm.
3
WATER ISLAND
lore & history
To the native residents of St. Thomas,
Water Island remains a land of legend
and lore, having been settled by the
Arawak Indians in the early 15th cen-
tury. In the days of Caribbean piracy,
as evoked by Disney's
Pirates of the
Caribbean
movies, the island was used
for both anchorage and fresh water, as
pirates found numerous freshwater
ponds here. Islanders on St. Thomas
claim that millions of dollars in pirate
treasure remain buried on Water
Island, but so far no one has dug it up.
An old leather trunk was once discov-
ered, but it was empty except for one
gold doubloon.
When European colonization arrived
in the late 17th century, many Danes
tried to use the island for raising cows
and goats. White plantation owners and
colonists shunned the island because of
its arid land, so unlike the rest of the
Caribbean, Water Island was farmed by
nonwhite plantation owners. These were
freed men of color who operated the
plantations, like Jean Renaud, a free
mulatto who owned the entire island in
1769, working it with 18 slaves.
In 1944, the United States bought the
island for $10,000. The military began
planning Fort Segarra here but the war
ended before it could be built. Traces of
“the fort that never was” can still be
seen today.
In 1950, the Department of the Inte-
rior leased the island to Water Phillips, a
developer, for $3,000 annually. He built
homes and a 100-room hotel. Popular in
the 1950s, the hotel then became the
setting for Herman Wouk's 1965 novel,
Don't Stop the Carnival.
That novel
remains even today one of the best-sell-
ing novels ever written with a Caribbean
setting. Incidentally, native residents of
St. Croix claim that the novel was based
on a hotel being built in the harbor of
Christiansted. The novel was turned into
a short-lived musical by Jimmy Buffet in
1997. In 1989, Hurricane Hugo severely
damaged the hotel, and it was shut
down. It lies dormant today. The lease
Phillips signed ran out 3 years later, and
in 1996, Water Island was transferred to
the federal government, in whose hands
it remains today.
At present (and likely to remain so
for a long time to come), no foundations
have been poured on Water Island.
Nothing has been inaugurated. The cost
of developing roads, irrigation, and sew-
age lines in this eco-sensitive environ-
ment is a daunting challenge and a
dream that, for the immediate future,
remains too expensive an undertaking.
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