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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesPark Service to Unveil Castle Nugent Historic Site Study

Park Service to Unveil Castle Nugent Historic Site Study

Ruins at Castle Nugent.The National Park Service will hold an open house Thursday in Christiansted, providing copies of a recently completed study on the feasibility of making Castle Nugent Farms a unit of the National Park System, as well as answering questions and getting public feedback.

"This is the final step in the study that has taken over three years," National Park Superintendent Joel Tutein said Friday. A bill sponsored by Delegate Donna Christensen to establish Castle Nugent on St. Croix as a National Historic Site under the management of the National Park Service has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is now before the U.S. Senate, Tutein said.

The Park Service is taking comments on the study through Sept. 15, he said. The study is available online and residents may comment online there as well. However, those who come to the open house next Thursday will be able to directly question and speak with Park Service representatives involved with the study.

"This is a great opportunity for people to come out, get the study and see why the property has national significance," Tutein said. "To become a unit of the National Park System, you have to show that you meet the criteria for national significance and Castle Nugent met all of them."

A bill introduced to Congress by Christensen first submitted legislation for a feasibility study — a prerequisite for becoming a park — back in 2006. But the Gasperi family, one of the main landowners in the area, first broached the idea at least as far back as 2003.

In 2006, Congress directed the Secretary of the Interior to undertake a study of Castle Nugent Farms on the island of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. The Castle Nugent Farms Study Act (Public Law 109-317, October 11, 2006) directs the Secretary to study the suitability and feasibility of designating Castle Nugent Farms as a unit of the National Park System, and for other purposes.

The proposed park site abuts the parcel by Great Pond slated for the Golden Gaming casino development and is roughly bordered by the Howard M. Wall Boy Scout Camp, Estate Fareham and Manchenil Bay, just west of Ha’Penny Beach. Inland, it runs as far as Lowrys Hill and Laprey Valley. The bill says it will include associated submerged lands out to the three-mile territorial limit.

The Castle Nugent property has a long agricultural history dating back to the 1730s, when the Danish estate house, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was constructed. For the past several decades, the property has been used to raise Senepol cattle. Senepol are a breed developed on St. Croix and prized for their resilience in tropical climes. Christensen’s bill would help ensure continued rearing of Senepol cattle with a provision that guarantees a continued relationship with the University of the Virgin Islands to support ongoing scientific research of the cattle.

The open house will be from 1:30 to 6 p.m. in Christiansted in the Danish West India Guinea Company Warehouse (Old Post Office Building) at 2100 Church Street, no. 100. For more information, call 773-1460.

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