Saint-Martin / Sint Maarten History
Around the island in 400 years

Going o adiscvery trip of Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten's historicaland natural sites means undertaking, within a few hours around the island, a visit of 4000 years' worth of a history still in the writing. As a starting point, let's make ours the Marigot Museum. in the various rooms of this museum, you can see displays of the fascinating archaeological collectins unearthed on the island and dating back over 2000 years, to the settlement of the first pre-ceramic populations come from south America. as you cross the city, an inescapable halt at the Market place, on the sea front ( on wednesdays and saturdays) , is a rich, colorful source of

inspiration for photographers.

Fort-louis, whose silhouette dominates the bay of Marigot, was built to protect the town from British invaders. One of the nicest streets in town rue de la République, is bordered by stately houses, showpieces of traditional creole architecture.Going North from Marigot, you will cross the Durat bridge, built by the population at about the same time as the fort. Going through Rambaud, he road will lead you past the village of Saint-louis, named after the sugar mill which was located there, but which has been aslo called Freetown by the natives, in memory of the land which was granted to freed slaves after abolition in 1848. on your right, a road climbs steeply to Paradise Peak, the highest point on the island at 424 m(1400 ft), where the original tropical forest still endures, crisscrossed by hicking trails.

Grand-Case, the culinary capital of the island, is still a quite village with the few remaining traditional cabins made of wattle and daub or wood. In the middle of the bay, Creole Rock seems to be protecting the serenity of this old fishermen's village, which flourished between 1840 and 1960, thanksto the salt marsh and cattle raising. On the hillside, above town, is hidden the Hope Estate archaeological Park, where teams of archaeologists have been digging, in order to revive the memory of the first Arawak populations who settled our island around 550 B.C., coming frm the Orinoco River delta, in South America. A reconstitued Amerindian house has been erected near a boulder with engravings on it which was a ceremonial center for the island's first habitants.

	After that, we reach the Atlantic shore, the "windward side", bordering the Marine and Littoral Natural Preserve, a sanctory for the fauna and flora of reefs, marshes and beach areas. quartier d'orléans ( french Quarter) was the first town established by french colonists, in the early 17th century. after crossing the land holdings of former sugar plants Belle Plaine an Belvedere Plantation, the road takes you by an unpressessing marker symbolysing the border: welcome to the Dutch side! Upon reaching the pass in the hill, you get a panoramic view of Great Bay and Philipsburg capital of the Dutch side, wich was named after the Governor John Philips, who came the island in the middle of the 18th century to organize the
development of the Duch colony. a few levees, low stone walls and ruins of a factory are the only remnders of the wealth brought by the salt harvested in the Great Salt Pond. Two forts, Fort Willem and Fort Amsterdam, protected the city; they are located on the hills overlooking the harbor.

A stop at the pass obove Cole Bay allows us to enjoy a mignificent sight: the Simpson Bay Lagoon, largest lagoon in the Caribbean, and shared by France and Holland since thr traety of 1648. The narrow southern shore is marked with a gray line: the runway of Princess juliana Airport, which was built in 1943, with the help of U.S.Marines.

On the West side is the peninsula of the Lowlands, a limestone plateau 25 million years old, where seven archaeological sites have been found, including Baie Rouge, site of the last known Amerindian village on Saint-Martin/Sint-Maarten, dating from 1550 A.D. Union Road, its name referring to the Union treaty of 1648, takes us to the border, marked here by an obelisk erected in 1948 to commemorate 300 years of peaceful coexistence between French and Dutch.

A little further, the road passes alongside the ruins of the Saint-Jean and Saint-Louis sugar millsbefore entering Marigot where the Doigt de Gant ("Glove's finger")was the northern and of the lagoon. This is but a sketchy visit. We've missed the Spring Sugar mill, the Trou de David, a spectacular site, the valley of Colombier, all the views offered by most hotels and the Marigot Museum.

Sources: Saint-Martin / Sint Maarten Nature
Le magazine de l'écotourisme N°5 2001

Military Works

During the conquest of the Americas by Old continent realms, the Caribbean islands were the theater of frequent battles. Saint-Martin/Sint-Maarten did not escape this possession frenzy and as early as 1631, the Dutch colonists had to build a small wooden fort on a peninsula at the Westernmost point of Great Bay. Learning of this installation, Spain sent soldiers on several boats in 1633 to attack the island and make it the strongest fortress east of Puerto-Rico. The fort was strengthened and the Dutch tried repeatedly to reconquer the island. The most famous of the attackers was Peter Stuyvesant, who lost a leg to a cannonball in front of Philipsburg.

A second fort was built on the heights of Pointe Blanche, date unknown, which is still called "old Spanish Fort". When the Spaniards abandoned the island in 1648, the Dutch named the first one"Fort Amsterdam". In 1801, the English erected Fort-Trigge as an outpost to fire at Fort Amsterdam. It was abandoned in 1846, but visitors of its meager vestiges enjoy the most beautiful viewpoint available over the bay of Philipsburg.

On the French side, king Louis XV assigned François Blondel, a military architect, to define fortification sites. He selected the site of the bay of Marigot to erect Fort-Louis, in honor of the king. A map dating back to 1666 also shows an installation project for two other batteries, on the Point of the Bluff and at the location of today's Sandy Ground bridge. There are no remnants of those and it is likely that these installations merely amounted to a few pieces of artillery hidden in the coastal rocks. Fort-Louis was completed in 1789 by Jean-Sébastien de Durat, Commander of the Isles of Saint-Martin & Saint-Barthélemy. This imposing fort, armed with 15 cannons defended the pier of the village of Marigot as well as its stores. It is nowadays the monument most visited on the island.

Sources: Saint-Martin / Sint Maarten Nature
Le magazine de l'écotourisme N°7 2003

The Archaeologie

Long before the first European colonists appeared, the Caribbean islands had been visited by Amerindians aboard dugouts which could carry up to a hundred men. These peoples, of Asian origin, had crossed the Bering Straits on foot during the last glacial age, more than 15 000 years ago, to scatter in North America and, later, all the way to Tierra del Fuego. The island of the Antillean arc were conquered about 5 000 B.C. In Saint-Martin/Sint-Maarten, the oldest signs of their settlements, near Grand Case pond, date back to 1 800 B.C.

Other Ciboney peoples succeeded them on Orient Bay in 800 B.C., followed by the first "potters/growers", who established their village on Hope Estate plateau in 500 B.C. Digs organized on this site over a ten-year period produced magnificent ceramics- decorated with geometrical shapes made by incision or painted tifs -tools and superd stones and shell adornments, all now visible at the Marigot Museum. This site was lived in, off and on, for over 1000 years. Other fishermen/hunter's villages were established on the seashore and, overall, more than thirty archaeological sites are now accounted for, representing a total of eight different cultural groups. But these figures will certainly be revised upward again in the future, as the latest archaeological excavation campaign has recently brought to light for new deposits. The site of "Pointe des Canonniers" extends over practically five acres and represents one of the island's vastest post-saloïde deposits, denoting the presence of a large village. The ceramics are identical in their forms and their decorations to those discovered on Orient Bay site, which is more of a tempory campsite close to a fishing area.

Other vestiges are shell and bone remnants of animals eten on the spot, stone or shell tools, two stone sculptured idols(Zemis) and a magnificent petroglyph on a limestone rock representing a human face, bringing to four the number of engraved rocks so far discovered on the islnd. Some distance from "Pointe des Canonniers", another site revealed layers of ash, flint and shells, mostly conch, which are presently in the process of being carbon 14-dates. Given the absence of pottery, this could be another very ancint pre-ceramic site.

Pinel Island, now in the nature preserve, was also probably used as a fishing camp by the precursors to the Arawak Indians. Recent searches revealed a small garbage dump containing white and red painted ceramics, stone shell equipment and food remnants. The presence of paintings and the shapes of reconstitued vases point to a very late saladoïd culture, the age of which should be confirmed by future datings. Every year, new discoveries help complete the chronology of the settlement of the island by Caribbean native populations. We have definitely not reached the end of our surprises as for the archaeological wealth of Saint-Martin/Sint-Maarten.

Sources: Saint-Martin / Sint Maarten Nature Le magazine de l'écotourisme N°7 2003

Les Musées de l'île

Musée de Marigot " Sur la trace des Arawaks"
Route de Sandy Ground - Tel/Fax: 05.90.29.22.84
E-mail: museestmartin@powerantilles.com
Ouvert/Open: 9h-13h / 15h-19h

Héritage House of Arts, à Mont Vernon, expose des poteries Arawaks, des peintures et des sculptures.

Le SINT MAARTEN MUSEUM se trouve à Philipsburg, Frontstreet. Ouvert du lundi au vendredi de 10h à 16h et le samedi de 10h à 12h.