A handful of red Canavalia nitida seeds, rarely found in the V.I. and on right, a detailed drawing of the Locust tree (Hymanea courbaril). It is a multi–purpose tree—its pods are edible, the sap produces a natural medicine, and the wood makes admirable timber. There were a succession of inland

(Assembled from David Knight’s 1/17/09 Handouts, his Timeline Notes on Estate Botany Bay, and Trek Dialogue, Summarized by Robin Swank) Occasionally the SJHS sojourns far afield of St. John. On this Saturday, fifty members and guests journeyed to the far west end of St. Thomas to Estate Botany Bay, a

In December SJHS members joined Rudolph ‘Pimpy’ Thomas, Reggie Callwood, and Elroy Sprauve for on-site history lessons about two of our spiritual and architectural gems on St. John, the Bethany Moravian Church and the Nazareth Lutheran Church. BETHANY MORAVIAN CHURCH AND MISSION HOUSE According to The St John Drum in

Condensed from “A History of Botany Bay” by David W. Knight (2001) Table of Contents The Prehistoric Presence at Botany Bay The Botany Bay Plantation Early European Settlement at Botany Bay The West End Plantation Consolidation on St. Thomas’s Far West End The Bathazar Caspar Busch Plantation, 1703 – 1745

  It was front page news on December 21, 1937, the local Daily News in fact, when Peter and Elsa Dohm and family arrived in their 10 meter yawl, Rest More, after a three year voyage. When the voyage began, Anna was four months old. Thus begins a family album covering

Naval Floating Dry Dock (LSD), the U.S.S. Hermitage, carrying the ‘Habitat’ and other support materials and elements arrives in Lameshur Bay, January 1969. Forty years ago next month, February 15th, 1969, the underwater program known as Tektite I was just beginning, right here on St. John — just off the

(Original in Danish, translation courtesy of Nina York.) (This is an excerpt from an unpublished book of 176 typewritten pages, compiled by an employee of the Danish West Indies National Bank in the early 1900s.  As a retiree, he wrote his memoirs of the years in the Danish West Indian

Steve Simonsen—Photographer, Publisher[1], Producer, and our Speaker (Presented by Steve Simonsen, summarized by Robin Swank) A standing-room–only crowd of over 100 Members and guests greeted Steve Simonsen at lovely Bethany Church Hall for the first Membership meeting of the season. Steve presented four films and four series of ’stills’ to

(Excerpted by permission from Archaeology and Geoinformatics-Case Studies from the Caribbean, edited by Basil A. Reid. The University of Alabama Press, Copyright 2008,  By Douglas V. Armstrong, Mark W Hauser, David W Knight, and Stephan Lenik) The steep and rugged landscape of St. John along with its irregular rainfall made

As I write this on a very wet and cool October night, another drenching tropical wave is passing over us. After 23 inches of rain in the past two months, this begins to seem normal. I can again hear the gut roaring in the distance, and I can anticipate another

(Translated from an article in Gads Danske Maqasin, March 1914, by Leif Calundann Larsen. Olaf Linck [1874-1958] was a prominent Danish journalist and novelist. Members may recall his article “Christmas Eve Aboard the Ingolf” which appeared in our December 2007 newsletter.) During my second journey to the West Indies in

  (By Dr. Robert W. Nicholls,  Summarized by Robin Swank) Yet another reason to attend our St. John 4th of July Carnival parade! At our April membership meeting, Dr. Robert Nicholls told us the history of some of the characters parading at Carnival. He urged us to think of the