The "Musings From A Lonely Man: Part II" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about the annual Anguilla Salt Festival.   Anguilla is a small island off the coast of the island of St. Martin/Sint Maarten (SXM) in the Caribbean.  Carol and I have visited the island several times on day trips when we were on vacation in SXM.  Made a visit with musician Bankie Banks on one visit, had a tour of a hydroponic farm with its developer Dr. Resh on another visit and visited the restaurant of Robert and Melinda Blanchard who were authors of "A Trip To The Beach and visited world-renown Shoal Bay East beach a few times.  But Anguilla is also known for it's annual salt festivals.  This years festival kicked off on Thursday, July 23 with an art, photo and product exhibit at the St. Gerald's Catholic Conference Centre in Wallblake, in the Valley.  Anguilla's salt ponds were once a major producer of salt and played a significant role in the island's livelihood.  Salt was harvested and exported throughout the Caribbean region with close to 90,000 barrels of salt exported from Anguilla in the 1700s and 1800s.  The Road Bay salt pond was the predominant source.  

Heading to the salt pond to harvest the salt.

Today it still produces salt though it is no longer harvested for expor- tation.  On July 25, beginning at 6:00 am, participants accom- panied a guide and they gathered their own salt.  The two-hour expedition was a valuable cultural experience and persons who participated left with not only a bucket of local salt, but an improved knowledge of Anguilla's first natural industry.  

Two of the participants display their salt.

It was much the same on the island of SXM.  The Arawaks named the island "Souliga" meaning Land of Salt.  In 1624 the Dutch moored on Sint Maarten for ship repairs discovered the Great Salt Pond.  It was an important discovery since now they had access to a supply of valuable goods.  In dry weather the salt yields were substantial.  The salt would be stored in locations in Philipsburg to protect it from the elements.  

Map shows the location of he salt pond on the right.

Another salt pond on the French side of the island in Grand Case was the largest producer on the French side.  The salt press, which was used to crush the salt, still stands along the street near the salt pond.  The pond would fill with salt water and when the sun would evaporate the water, salt crystals remained.  

The salt press sits along the road today.

Ships would pick up slaves in Africa, make passage to islands in the Caribbean and trade slaves for salt and sugar.  They would then head for the United States with their loads.  The production of salt on the Dutch side of the island stopped in 1949 with it being stopped on the French side in 1967.  The salt industry on both sides of the island preceded and outlived indigo, tobacco, sugar, cotton and every other effort undertaken on Sint Maarten/St. Martin.  The salt quantity and quality brought trade to the island and exchange with the outside world.  

The Great Bay salt pond can be seen on the right of this
photograph.  Part of the salt pond was turned into a dump.

In 1839 a report was written which tells of the original harvest of salt in 1789 in Great Bay, Philipsburg.  That date happened to be the same date that St. Martin's Fort Louis was completed which was constructed to help in the defense of the island.  The report was commissioned by the Commander of the Netherlands side of the island, Abraham Cannegieter as well as Richard Richardson.  The report told of the opening of the salt pond with close to six or seven thousand islanders, many who were laborers, standing along the banks of the salt pond with flags and colored handkerciefs fixed to small poles waving in the air.  The national flag was heisted at the fort in honor of the occasion.  At a specific time a gun was fired from the fort announcing that the pond might be entered for the collection of the salt.  By the end of the salt collection, it was said that over three million barrels were reaped with a value of thirty thousand guilders.  St. Martin's salt was awarded the Diploma de Grand Prix as the Best Product in the Brusel's Universal Exposition of 1910.  Today the salt ponds of St. Martin are just pools of water reflecting the sun and moon.  They now provide an ecosystem for wildlife.  Today, what is now known as the Sanitary Landfill on Pond Island in the Dutch city of Philipsburg has become known as "The Dump".  It exceeded it's limitations years ago and burns on a daily basis.  What can be done to stop the practice of toxic smoke being emanated from the dump.  Some time ago I wrote a story about my friend Barbara Cannegieter who led the charge to stop the pollution.  At first it seemed to be promising, but as of today I'm not sure just how much has been done to stop the air pollution.  Oh, for the days of the old salt ponds in Sint Maarten/St. Martin  and the ships lined up in the harbor to collect the salt for transport to other countries of the World.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.