May 2, 2004 – For John Garrison, whose passion is securing land for public use, it doesn't get much better than preserving a spot where Columbus landed.
Expanding the Salt River Bay National Park on St. Croix, he sees as a personal victory. This is where, in 1493, American Indians shed first blood trying to repel Columbus.
Visitors will share in Garrison's and the Trust for Public Land's success Monday, as they get their first, unobstructed look at the bay on the island's south side. A visitors' center and an observation tower, on the 8.5 acres of hilltop land overlooking the park, are open. Salt River Park is the only place on U.S. land where Columbus landed.
"This was the key piece we've been working on for years," he said.
The 1,015-acre national park was created in 1992, but the only public land overlooking the site was a desolate parking lot, Garrison said.
In late March, Congress and the National Parks Service bought Peter and Joan Kumpitch's hilltop home for $2.2 million, well below market price, and renovated it into a visitors' center, Garrison said.
Garrison said the Kumpitches were eager to sell their land and two-story, 5,800-square-foot house to the national park rather than to a private developer. He said the Trust for Public Lands put up money to secure the sale, while Congress deliberated the purchase.
"At a time of shrinking budgets and concerns about funding, we were able to do something that happens very rarely, that is to expand a national park," said Alan Front, the trust's senior vice president.
Since 1999, Trust for Public Land has helped secure more than 100 acres of land for the park, which also contains some of the largest remaining mangrove forests in the Virgin Islands, as well as coral reefs and a submarine canyon.
The trust is lobbying Congress to buy a 1,400-acre cattle ranch on St. Croix and create yet another park. The proposal passed through the House last month and is being considered by the Senate.
The Virgin Islands' most notable national park is on St. John, where nearly two-thirds of land is protected forest. Garrison lived on St. John for 18 years before signing on as project manager with the San Francisco-based, non-profit Trust. He now lives in Florida.
Garrison said an unnamed donor recently gave the trust $4 million to buy three acres of beachfront land and acquire partial ownership of another 375 acres on St. John.
Designating land for preservation and preventing development has become a hot issue in the Virgin Islands.
To the jubilation of some residents, the territorial Senate passed a bill last month designating money to buy land adjacent to Vessup Bay on St. Thomas by eminent domain. A Miami-based developer has plans to build a hotel there.
The governor is considering the bill.
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