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Archaeologists, biologist, park rangers and historians spoke about Taino archeology at Salt River, the history of the Estate Bethlehem sugar factory, coral bleaching and preserving the St. Croix Lizard at a symposium held by the V.I. National Guard Thursday at UVI's Great Hall. Estate Bethlehem, the audience learned, was a very old community before the sugar mill came. "We found probably 100 house posts during our survey," said David Hayes, an archaeologist with the St. Croix Landmark Society. "These are from old, handmade houses. When Africans were first brought here, they built themselves wattle-and-daub structures to live in, a traditional housing form found all around the world. They buried the posts into the ground, where we are finding their remains today." Many graves were also found. "All these rectangles you see are graves," Hayes said, pointing to a map projected onto the wall during his PowerPoint display. "As you can see, there are a lot of them." The graves were first discovered during initial excavations by the National Guard to build a helicopter landing pad, Hayes said. The graves are those of enslaved and free blacks. Major Clifford Crooke of the V.I. National Guard said the graves are "treated as a sacred site within our compound." While most of the buildings at Estate Bethlehem are relatively newer sugar-mill buildings, two 18th Century buildings still stand. "Look at the brick work here," Hayes said, displaying a photo. "Remember, these finely done European-style 18th Century structures were built either by slave labor or free black tradesmen, not by Europeans." Sugar was a rich business at the end of the 18th century, Hayes said. "Not as rich as 100 years earlier," he said. "But still very lucrative. ... St. Croix or Santa Cruz sugar was particularly prized. There is a statement in historic records: 'As English merchants, we prefer to ship from Santa Cruz with Danish merchants.' Records are inaccurate. Going by the official records, in one year, 1804, the sugar crop tripled. I'd like to see that in the real world." Hayes touched on more recent history, too. "If you look at this brick, it says 'Ortiz' on it," Hayes said. "The Ortiz family owned the house that once stood there. We know they extensively modernized it by 1965. But a year later, the federal government forced everyone off the land. Many of the former homeowners wound up in the territory's first housing projects." Kendall Petersen of Farmers in Action spoke briefly about that organization's work to restore parts of the property and its importance to the history of St. Croix.
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