Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve

It preserves upland watersheds, mangrove forests, and estuarine and marine environments that support threatened and endangered species.

The park also preserves prehistoric and colonial-era archeological sites including the only existing example of a ball court in the US Virgin Islands.

This area's blend of sea and land holds some of the largest remaining mangrove forests in the Virgin Islands, as well as coral reefs and a submarine canyon.

Salt River Bay's natural history, its vitally important ecosystem of mangroves, estuary, coral reefs, and submarine canyon, has witnessed thousands of years of human endeavor.

Every major period of human habitation in the Virgin Islands is represented: several South American Indian cultures, the 1493 encounter with Columbus, Spanish extermination of the Caribs, attempts at colonization by a succession of European nations, and enslaved West Africans and their descendants.

A nearby village was occupied by Taíno people who had recently been enslaved by invading Carib forces, and Columbus' men took some of the women and children with them when they set out to return to the ship.

[2] This was the first recorded fight by the Spanish with the New World native population, and they named the site Cabo de la Flecha (Cape of the Arrow).

[5] Every year thousands of people flock to see the glowing water of the Bio Bay that's created by a micro-organism, the dinoflagellate Pyrodinium bahamense.

The National Park Service and its partner institutions completed a study of the bioluminescence phenomenon in the Mangrove Lagoon in Spring 2014.