About St. Croix
St. Croix History
Our "Twin Cities" are Frederiksted in the west and Christiansted in the east. The climate is subtropical, with average temperatures year-round in the 80s. Click Here to see what it is today! The Language is English and we use the US Dollar for currency. It is the largest of the three principal islands comprising the U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Croix's diversity is partly due to its size - 28 miles long and 7 miles wide. This tropical island is three times the size of nearby St. Thomas, and its terrain is uniquely diverse. A lush rainforest in the western mountains and undulating hills in the interior are a marked contrast to the spiny desert vegetation and dry, rocky red cliffs found on the eastern end. Year-round temperatures average 80 degrees during the day and 70 degrees at night; constant trade winds keep the island cool and pleasant. There is an excellent published guide for this island called "St. Croix This Week". The guide gives the schedule for the entire months activities including cruise ship arrivals. The guide is full of useful information including maps of the island and the two major cities. It also includes information on all the attractions of the island, history, local advertisements and reviews on many restaurants.
Now we'll give a little history . . .
Long before European settlers, St. Croix was named Ay Ay ("the river"), by the peaceful indigenous Taino and Arawak settlers, who set out on canoes around 2,500 years ago from northeast South America and inhabited the Caribbean islands. Later, the Carib tribes inhabited the island and gave it the name Cibuquiera, "the stony land," as the entire island was once an underwater mountainous coral reef creating today's limestone foundation. As you drive around the island, you can see the waves breaking off shore where the reef is alive and thriving. As you dive or snorkel around the island's North Shore, healthy corals are seen along "the wall" of mountainous reef extending deep into the Caribbean Sea.
Igneri pottery indicates settlers were present from 1 to 700 AD, followed by the Taino from 700 to 1425, then the Caribs in 1425. Christopher Columbus approached the island during his second voyage to the Caribbean on November 14, 1493 looking for fresh water in Salt River, and immediately was attacked by the Kalinago tribe living on the North Shore. He retreated, unable to settle here, and named the island Santa Cruz (Holy Cross), and calling Salt River Bay "Cabo de la Flecha" or Bay of the Arrow. Most of the native population was either dispersed or killed. By the end of the 16th century, the island was said to be uninhabited. Dutch and English settlers landed on the island in 1625, and in following years St. Croix, named by the French, was ruled by 7 nations, including the Dutch, English, French, Spanish, Knights of Malta, Danish, and the United States. Inhabitants of the island today are known as Crucians.
The Dutch and English were among the first to establish themselves on St. Croix; both powers had a presence on the island by 1625. The Dutch shared their settlement with a handful of French Huguenots from nearby St. Kitts. The two colonies coexisted without major incident until 1645, when the island's Dutch governor killed his English counterpart. A skirmish ensued between the two colonies during which the Dutch governor was mortally wounded. The English colonists extended a conciliatory invitation to his successor; however, upon his arrival at the colony, the Dutch official was arrested and publicly executed. The Dutch were forced to abandon their colony and retire to St. Eustatius and St. Maarten, while their French neighbors relocated to Guadeloupe. The English solidified their claim on St. Croix and remained unchallenged for the next four years.
In 1650, the English settlement was overrun by 1,200 Spanish colonists from Puerto Rico. Dutch forces from St. Eustatius tried unsuccessfully to recapture St. Croix. Later that year, Philippe de Lonvilliers Poincy, Governor of the French West Indies, claimed possession of St. Croix in the name of the French Crown. DePoincy, the leader of the Knights of Malta, then purchased the island from the French king in 1651 and directed a group of his fellow knights to colonize St. Croix. In 1653, he bestowed his private holdings in the West Indies to the order and sent one Chevalier de la Mothe to St. Croix with supplies. The unfortunate emissary met with a rather ignoble fate as he was apprehended and shackled by some 200 rebellious French colonists, who made off with his ship.
Two years later, a new governor was sent to restore order to the colony. The knights, however, unaccustomed to the rigors of managing plantations, failed to establish a viable economy on St. Croix. In 1665, the French West India Company bought all the islands owned by the Knights of Malta, and in 1674, the French king paid the company's debts, assuming ownership of all its holdings. Unable to turn the colony around, the king ordered its residents to relocate to Santo Domingo. Although still a French possession, St. Croix was abandoned save for a few squatters until well into the next century.
The Danish West India and Guinea Company bought the island from the French in 1733. Attracted by cheap land, planters, mostly English, flocked to St. Croix from neighboring islands. But the company's impending bankruptcy prompted the settlers to petition the Danish king for aid, and the island was made a Crown Colony in 1755. The Danish influence, more lasting than that of any other European power, is particularly evident today in the gingerbread architecture of Christiansted and Frederiksted.
The British recaptured St. Croix in 1807 and held the island during the Napoleonic Wars much to the relief of St. Croix's English planters, who had been chafing under trade restrictions imposed by the Danish Crown. But the island reverted to Denmark in 1815, and the next 30 years brought drought and widespread economic depression.
During the second half of the 18th century, the island enjoyed a period of enormous economic prosperity based on the cultivation of sugar, the production of rum, and the slave trade. The Danish West Indies served as a central slave marketplace in the region, and despite the protestations of the Danish Crown, St. Croix's planters relied heavily on slave labor. The Danish government declared slavery illegal in 1792 but assisted planters in acquiring slaves during a "transition" period; the slave trade was abolished in 1803. However, St. Croix's slaves would not achieve independence until July 3, 1848, when Governor-General Peter von Scholten roused from his bed in the wee hours of the morning by the news of a slave insurrection ordered their immediate emancipation.
Each October 1 (Contract Day) workers were allowed to leave their plantations and enter into new contracts with plantation owners, leading to little to no improvement of their living and working conditions. On October 1, 1878, workers gathered on island to protest low wages and poor living conditions. A revolt was led by Queen Mary, Queen Agnes, and Queen Matilda leading to the historic "Fireburn" event where the three Queens organized across the island of St. Croix and set over 50 plantations and the town of Frederiksted on fire.
The three women were sentenced to jail, and served their terms in Denmark. A folk song from the 1880s, entitled "Queen Mary", was written about Mary's role in the riot. In 2004, historian Wayne James uncovered Danish documents, including photographs of the prison where the women served their sentences, a storybook they wrote, and "a host of other historically significant documents and photos." According to him, these documents reveal the existence of a fourth "queen," Susanna Abramsen, who was known as "Bottom Belly."
During the second half of the 19th century, St. Croix suffered a series of natural disasters including a fire in Christiansted, an earthquake and tidal wave and two hurricanes that exacerbated the colony's woes. Our beautiful island is still recovering from Hurricane Maria and Irma in 2017. We call St. Croix the "nature island" as there are many nature adventures to discover from horseback riding, hiking, diving and snorkeling, kayaking, sailing, and more!