St Croix In The US Virgin Islands
Posted by Owen Jones in Uncategorized, tags: caribbean, happiness, history, holiday, luxury, other, outdoor, recreation, sea, travel, Uncategorized, USA, vacation, virgin islandsSaint Croix is the largest of the US Virgin Islands, which lie 1730 miles east south east of Miami and 93 miles west of Puerto Rico. This sector of the Virgin Islands has belonged to the United States since 1917 when they were acquired from the Danish government for $25m in gold to safeguard American shores from German U-boat attack.
At the time, it was feared that Germany would subjugate the islands and construct submarine pens there in order to attack American supply shipping, which was essential to the allies in Europe during the First World War.
The US Virgin islands is a cluster of about 60 chiefly unpopulated islands, the four biggest of which are called St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John and Water Island. (By the way, ‘Saint’ is pronounced in the English manner). The Islands’ inhabitants, however, have other names for these four which are Twin City, Rock City, Love City and Small City respectively.
Christopher Columbus landed there on November 14th, 1493, but there is evidence of human habitation on the island going back to 5000 BC. In fact, the Arawaks and the Caribs made up the islands’ populace, before the Europeans arrived.
Possession of St Croix and the other Virgin Islands changed a lot over the subsequent centuries, but it became infamous to many people as Santa Cruz, which is its Spanish name. As Santa Cruz, St Croix featured prominently in 17th and 18th century stories of pirates and buccaneers on the Spanish Main.
In fact, after Spain first took control of the island, it changed hands seven times; having been Spanish, British, French, Maltese, Dutch, Danish and now American. The inhabitants of the US Virgin Islands are now US citizens and carry US passports. They also use the US dollar and US laws.
St Croix was an agricultural powerhouse in the Caribbean until the 1960’s when the local government determined it was time to industrialize. The island is now home to HOVENSA, one of the largest oil refineries in the world.
There is also a sizeable distillery, the Cruzan Rum Distillery, which used to make rum from sugar cane grown on the island. Sugar cane, or its extract, molasses are now imported from the Dominican Republic to make Southern Comfort and Cruzan Rum. Diageo is arranging to build a distillery there too in order to produce Captain Morgan Rum.
Inhabitants of the island call themselves Crucians. However, there is a great deal of debate about what constitutes a ‘real Crucian’. Many say that a Crucian is someone who was born and raised on St Croix, while others claim that descendants of the slaves that the Danes brought over in 16th and 17th Centuries are the only true Crucians.
Many Crucians can trace their ancestry back to Puerto Rico or other Virgin islands as the sugar cane industry attracted a lot of migrant workers in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. There was also an influx of down-islanders (ie from other Caribbean islands), as the locals say, after the industrialization of St Croix in the US Virgin Islands in the 1960’s and 1970’s as tourism and oil became more central to the economy.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with St Croix Virgin Islands. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.
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