The "Salt Life" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Sitting on the deck having a breakfast of croissants and juice.  Could do this every day without any trouble.  Matter of fact we have done this every day so far while on vacation in paradise.  Reading in a few of the brochures that we picked up at the airport about the importance of salt to the beginnings of St. Martin/Sint Maarten.  

Arawak tribe gathered along the water.

Seems the Arawak Indians settled on the island around 800 AD after arriving from the Orinoco River basin of South America.  They named the island "Sualouiga" which means Land of Salt based on the abundant salt-pans and salty water that they found.  Centuries later the aggressive, cannibalistic Amazonian Carib Indians settled on the island and named it "Soualiga" or Salt Island after the island's prevalent mineral resource.  This tribe came from North America and is what the entire Caribbean is so named after.  Then, according to island legend, on November 11, 1493, Christopher Columbus claimed the island for Spain and he then named it St. Maarten from the religious day of St. Martin of Tours.  He allegedly did this without setting foot on the island.  Then in 1631 the Dutch settled on the island so it could be a mid-point between their other two territories in Brazil and Nieue Amsterdam (New York).  They then began mining for the abundant salt on the island.  After 16 alterations of power and boundary changes between various nations, the island was divided between the Dutch and the French with the Treaty of Paris in 1815.  The island's rapid growth of agriculture and production of sugar brought slaves to the island and eventually the French abolished this practice in 1848.  15 years later the Dutch followed the French lead and abolished slavery forever on the island.  But, salt will forever be one of the main reasons why different countries found St. Martin/Sint Maarten to be so enticing and worth fighting to retain.  

The Great Salt Pond in Philipsburg as it appeared long ago.

The salt was mined primarily on three parts of the island being The Great Salt Pond in Philipsburg on the Dutch side of the island and The Orient Pond and Grand Case Salt Pond, both on the French side.  About a year ago I wrote a story about how the salt was mined and you can access that story by clicking on the St. Martin/Sint Maarten link at the beginning of my blog.  Eventually the resource of salt became too expensive to produce due to evaporation, pollution and loss of salt due to washing and poor crystallization.  Carol and I have traveled to Philipsburg many times and have parked along the banks of the Great Salt Pond.  You can still harvest salt pieces if you walk along the banks of the pond, but the pond is slowly being filled in to allow more space for expansion and development.  What once was so important to the survival of the inhabitants of the island is now a forgotten commodity.  I guess that's called progress!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.