The "Island Tales of Soualiga" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Heading into Philipsburg to see if I can catch a Little League baseball game before I have to head home to Pennsylvania in a few days.  I arrived at the capital city of the Dutch side of St. Maarten from the west end while driving on Sucker Garden Road.  I entered the roundabout and travel toward the east on Walter Nisbeth Road until I reach the next roundabout.  It is here that I have to bear right to the baseball stadium or continue straight on Pondfill Road to the west end of Philipsburg.  On most roundabouts on the island are displayed monuments depicting historical or memorable statues of events or people on the island.  The last roundabout I encountered before the stadium turnoff has a monument titled "The Salt Pickers."  Interesting name for the beautiful grouping of five coal black statues that grace the circle at the roundabout on Walter Nisbeth Road (Pondfill Road) and D.A. Peterson Street-Soualiga Blvd.  It is also right along the Great Salt Pond that runs parallel to the city of Philipsburg.  On one of our first visits to St. Maarten's capital city, Carol and I parked along the Great Salt Pond and walked the three blocks to the boardwalk along Great Bay Beach.  As I parked the car I saw white crystals gathered along the edge the salt pond.  Picked a few of them up to examine them and at the time didn't associate them with the name of the pond.  Duh!  After putting them down I noticed a smell on my fingers and after a quick taste of one of my fingers realized that it was salt I had just picked up from around the edge of the pond.  The name of the boulevard should also have given me the clue that I needed at the time, since Soualiga means the "Land of Salt."  The history of the island of Sint Maarten/Sint Martin is centered on the salt industry.  The Dutch originally settled in the southern half of the island in order to work the deposits that were found in three large salt pans.  Enough salt that if provided hundreds of boat loads of salt for the mother land each year.  The largest and most productive of the salt pans was the Great Salt Pond in Philipsburg.  A Dutchman named William Beukelzoon determined that could use salt to preserve herring that was caught on the seas and when the Dutch discovered Sint Maarten the problem of where to obtain the salt was solved.  The original salt pickers life was a slave-like existence.  It all began in 1631 when the workers had to harvest the salt with shovels and then transport it to the waterfront to be loaded onto boats.  The Dutch eventually stopped production of salt in  1949 and, thus, the salt industry came to an end.  Salt was still harvested until the 1960s, but with very low productivity.  Finally in 1994 one of the ponds was filled in so that the

 airport could be built.  Recently three skeletons where found buried along the edge of the Great Salt Pond under Zoutsteeg (Salt Street).  They were identified as people from Africa who were buried in a crude grave site and probably had been on the island to harvest the salt.  I still have a few of the salt crystals that I picked up that day along the salt pond.  Have them in a Ma Doudou rum bottle with sand from some of the beaches of the island.  Carol was worried that if it were discovered in our luggage at the airport, I would be accused of drug trafficking.  Never happened and if they had found the salt crystals, all they would have to do is moisten their fingers, touch it and taste it to know it was salt.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.