US Army National Guard Cultural Resources Planning Level Survey - Virgin Islands

In October 1997, St. Louis District personnel visited the U.S. Virgin Islands Army National Guard (VIARNG) Headquarters in St. Croix and the U.S. Virgin Islands Division of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (VIDAHP) in St. Thomas to research archaeological and historic building survey work conducted on federally owned or supported National Guard facilities in the U.S. Virgin Islands. This document reports the history of cultural investigations on these VIARNG facilities, lists archaeological sites and historic buildings recorded within facility boundaries, and discusses historic contexts and predictive models. Three facilities were researched: Estate Bethlehem, Estate Ham's Bluff, and Estate Negro Bay. To date, cultural resources have been documented on one facility, Estate Bethlehem, where one archaeological site (12VAM1-1-173) and numerous historic buildings have been identified. The buildings have not received site numbers. Both the archaeological site and historic buildings are believed to be associated with the Estate Bethlehem Plantation ruins, which are directly south of the VIARNG property. The VIDAHP has deemed the site and buildings potentially eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, either as part of the entire plantation or as separate listings. A copper sauce pan or ladle fragment was collected from the archaeological site and is currently curated by the National Park Service at San Juan National Historic Site, Puerto Rico. The extent, nature, and location of archaeological collections recovered from work conducted on VIARNG facilities will be determined in the second phase of this project, to be completed during fiscal year 1999.