Virgin Islands National Park United States

Legendary

Scuba dive and snorkel with sea turtles or enjoy a hike through the parks tropical rainforest.

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In the 1950s, Laurance Rockefeller, a wealthy businessman, came to the small Caribbean island of St. John and judged it too stunning to be covered with buildings. He therefore acquired roughly 5,000 acres there, which was close to 60 percent of the island’s total area.

Afterward, he donated it. His only requirement was that the land remain permanently shielded from development.

The U.S. government agreed. On August 2, 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower enacted the law that established Virgin Islands National Park.

St. John is among the three principal islands of the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea. The park includes about 60 percent of the island, nearly all of the small Hassel Island, and more than 5,500 acres of ocean.

Long before any of this, people were already living here. The Taíno, recognized as the island’s earliest known inhabitants, etched symbols into rocks beside a pool along what is now the Reef Bay Trail.

Most of these petroglyphs date to roughly 1000 to 1490. A few may be older still.

During the late 1600s, Danish settlers came and started clearing land for sugar plantations. They compelled enslaved Africans to perform the strenuous labor in the sweltering fields and mills.

More than 100 plantation ruins still remain scattered throughout the park. The largest, Annaberg, still contains its stone windmill, sugar factory, and the modest quarters where enslaved people lived.

In 1733, enslaved people on St. John revolted against the plantation owners. This was one of the earliest major slave uprisings in the Americas, and they controlled the island for around six months.

A trail near Annaberg, known as the Road to Freedom Trail, now commemorates those who escaped slavery from the island. In 1917, the United States purchased the islands from Denmark.

For many visitors, the main draw is the water. The park’s beaches are frequently ranked among the world’s most beautiful, and coral reefs lie just offshore.

At Trunk Bay, snorkel the Underwater Trail, where seafloor signs explain the fish and coral around you. On the north shore, examine the stone remains of Annaberg Sugar Plantation. Or hike the Reef Bay Trail to the Taíno petroglyphs, carved beside a pool in the rainforest.

Sources: Wikipedia, WorldAtlas, and International Parks.