Virgin Islands

The words

1. Annaberg

   Enslaved Africans built and worked Annaberg’s sugar estate under Danish colonial rule. Its surviving factory, windmill, animal mill and living quarters show the machinery and human labor behind the sugar trade.

   Park Service: Plantations and reefs (opens a new tab)

2. Bananaquit

   The bananaquit is a small yellow-and-black bird with a bold white stripe above its eyes. On St. John it favors shrubbery, forest edges, gardens and other open areas.

   Did you know?

   A female bananaquit builds a nest with an entrance in the side; she sometimes makes several nests and sleeps in one.

   Park Service: Forest birds (opens a new tab)

3. Bordeaux

   Bordeaux Mountain rises 1,286 feet (392 m) above St. John. Its steep slopes belong to the park’s mountainous landscape, which includes both dry and moist forests alongside coastal and marine habitats.

   Park Service: Mountain and coastal habitats (opens a new tab)

4. Catherineberg

   Catherineberg’s windmill and boiling-house ruins preserve part of a Danish colonial sugar plantation. Enslaved workers produced sugar for export, linking the surviving masonry to the island’s history of forced labor.

   Park Service: Plantations and reefs (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Plantation landscapes (opens a new tab)

5. Cinnamon Bay

   Cinnamon Bay holds evidence of several periods of island life. Taino people settled here before Danish colonists established a plantation, where enslaved Africans were forced to work.

   Park Service: Plantation landscapes (opens a new tab)

6. Elkhorn

   Elkhorn coral forms broad, branching colonies that create shelter for reef fish and other organisms. The Park Service identifies elkhorn at Hawksnest, where juvenile fish use the spaces among its branches.

   Did you know?

   Broken pieces of elkhorn coral can attach to hard surfaces and grow into new colonies, one way this coral reproduces.

   NOAA: Elkhorn coral biology (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Coastal waters and Salt Pond (opens a new tab)

7. Emancipation

   Emancipation ended legal slavery in the Danish West Indies on July 3, 1848, after enslaved people demanded freedom at Frederiksted. St. John’s sugar production continued into the twentieth century.

   Virgin Islands: Emancipation history (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Plantation landscapes (opens a new tab)

8. Hawksbill

   Hawksbill sea turtles shelter along rocky ledges and coral reefs in the park’s waters. Their diet includes sponges and other invertebrates; harvesting their patterned shells historically caused severe population declines.

   Did you know?

   Female hawksbills return every two to three years to lay eggs on the beaches where they hatched.

   Park Service: Hawksbill turtles (opens a new tab)

9. Petroglyphs

   Images carved into a rock surface.

   The Reef Bay carvings are associated with Taino religious life. The Park Service interprets the faces as ancestral leaders whom living people sought to consult for guidance, rather than treating them as decoration.

   Park Service: Taino communities (opens a new tab)

10. Ram Head

    Ram Head is a rocky headland beyond Salt Pond Bay. A narrow trail climbs to its summit, opening views across the Caribbean and contrasting with the nearby beach below.

    Park Service: Salt Pond and Ram Head (opens a new tab)

11. Reef Bay

    Reef Bay’s forest contains the remains of four sugar estates. The trail passes through this former plantation landscape before reaching old factory buildings and steam-powered machinery near the shore.

    Park Service: Reef Bay’s forest and ruins (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Plantations and reefs (opens a new tab)

12. Salt Pond

    Salt Pond Bay’s seagrass beds support green turtles, southern stingrays and other marine life. Behind the southeastern shore lies the salt pond itself, a separate wetland connected to the coastal landscape.

    Did you know?

    At some times of year, sea salt forms around the pond’s edges, making its name visible in the landscape.

    Park Service: Coastal waters and Salt Pond (opens a new tab)

13. Sugar Mill

    The Reef Bay sugar factory combined older stone, brick and coral masonry with later metal equipment. Production continued into the early 1900s, long after slavery ended in the Danish West Indies.

    Did you know?

    The factory’s earlier animal-powered mill was replaced by steam power sometime after 1861; much of the engine remains.

    Park Service: Plantation landscapes (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Plantations and reefs (opens a new tab)

14. Taino

    Taino communities established villages at Cinnamon, Coral, Caneel and Lameshur bays. Their archaeological record includes farming, stone tools and ceremonial objects, showing a developed island culture distinct from its mainland ancestors.

    Park Service: Taino communities (opens a new tab)

15. Trunk Bay

    Trunk Bay combines a white-sand beach with an important archaeological record. Artifacts found here and at Cinnamon Bay helped researchers identify Taino cultural traditions on St. John.

    Park Service: Trunk Bay’s coastal setting (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Island archaeology (opens a new tab)