March 4, 2004 – After three years of negotiations, the former home of Dr. Peter Kumpitch and his wife, Joan, on a hillside at Salt River Bay National Historic Park and Ecological Preserve now belongs to the park.
On March 1, the park bought the property from the Trust for Public Land, a not-for-profit entity that assists agencies such as parks in securing land. The Trust for Public Land had closed on the deal with Kumpitch, a St. Croix ophthalmologist, on Jan. 7.
The park plans to use the house as a visitor center. Park Superintendent Joel Tutein said the money to develop it will come in the federal government's fiscal year 2005 budget. For the time being, "we're going to do the best with what we've got," he said.
Although the 5,800-square-foot house is in good condition, the park must make some modifications before it can open the doors to the public, Tutein said. The visitor center will need to conform to the federal mandates of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The park paid $2.2 million for the house and the 8.5 acres of land on which it sits. The path to the purchase took several twists and turns. Tutein said it started when Kumpitch offered to sell the property to the park. However, as it did not fall within the park's official boundaries, an act of Congress was required to get it included.
The Trust for Public Land negotiated a contract with the Kumpitches to keep the property off the open market. Then, the money the park thought it had for the purchase got cut from the fiscal year 2004 budget.
The park began to lobby hard to find the money. Then came a series of visits by National Park Service director Fran Mainella, Interior Secretary Gale Norton and other federal officials. Tutein and other park personnel were able to convince them to push for reprogramming money from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund that was slated for other parks to pay for the Salt River purchase. On Dec. 18, 2003, Congress approved moving the money around.
Tutein said the V.I. National Park on St. John lost $900,000 as a result of that reshuffling, and the rest of the money came from mainland parks. He said that those parks had planned to use the money to buy land but did not have willing sellers lined up.
Delegate Donna M. Christensen, a ranking member of the National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands Subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives, was a prime mover in making the project happen. She says the visitor center will allow the park to do a better job of monitoring activities in the area.
The acquisition "provides a welcome addition to our tourism product," Christensen said. "The benefits to the people of the Virgin Islands are not just cultural and educational, but of economic value."
The Salt River Bay National Historic Park and Ecological Preserve has been a national park holding since 1992. To date, however, it has had no facilities for interpreting the historical and natural significance of the area to visitors. That's where the Kumpitch house, once renovated, will come in.
The park is the only location in the United States where members of Christopher Columbus' crew landed. They skirmished with the Carib Indians in 1493 during the explorer's second voyage of exploration across the Atlantic. It was the first documented encounter between Europeans and the pre-Columbian Amerindian population.
According to the Trust for Public Land, Columbus recorded the visit in his log book.
Salt River Bay National Historic Park and Ecological Preserve contains the remains of the only ceremonial ball court discovered in the Lesser Antilles, as well as burial grounds and village middens. The site also has an earthworks fortification built by the Dutch in the 1600s.
The park also is of value for its natural history; it is home to numerous animal species living on land and in the sea.
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