General · EdgepediaSeptember 17, 20264 min read

Virgin Islands National Park

Virgin Islands National Park is a United States national park on the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, established in 1956 and covering more than half of the island together with surrounding waters.¹ It protects coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, and some of the last remaining native tropical dry rain forest in the Caribbean.¹

Key fact	Detail
Location	St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands; also 128 acres on Hassel Island in Charlotte Amalie Harbor, St. Thomas¹
Established	Authorized August 2, 1956; opened December 1, 1956 as the 29th site in the national park system¹^•²
Land and water	7,259 acres of terrestrial and shoreline habitat plus 5,650 acres of adjacent submerged lands; the NPS manages almost 58 percent of St. John's land area and more than 18,000 acres of offshore underwater habitat¹
Associated unit	Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument, established 2001, protects an additional 12,708 acres of submerged lands¹
UNESCO designation	International Biosphere Reserve, 1976; one of only 30 biosphere reserves worldwide containing both marine and terrestrial ecosystems¹
Wildlife	Approximately 130 bird species, 400 reef-associated fish species, 17 species of whales and dolphins, 13 reptile species, and more than 45 stony coral species¹
Highest point	Bordeaux Mountain, 1,286 feet, with average slopes of 30 percent³

Establishment and the Rockefeller role

Congress authorized the park by the Act of August 2, 1956.¹^•⁴ In 1956 the Rockefeller Brothers Fund gave $1 million to Jackson Hole Preserve, Inc., an organization founded by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to develop a large tract on St. John for national park purposes. RBF trustee Laurance Rockefeller already owned the Caneel Bay Estate on the island and sought to expand environmental preservation there. The park opened on December 1, 1956, becoming the 29th site in the national park system, and in 1960 Laurance Rockefeller donated the Caneel Bay Resort to Jackson Hole Preserve, Inc., and in 1962 the park's boundary was expanded to include 5,650 acres of adjacent submerged lands.²^•⁹

Natural resources

The park contains most terrestrial ecosystem types within the Lesser Antilles, including the largest and most intact dry tropical forests remaining in the Caribbean.¹ Habitats range from rhodolith beds and patch reefs 40 to 50 meters below mean sea level to the island's highest elevations at 390 meters in moist tropical forest; terrestrial areas are dominated by dry tropical forests and woodlands, with moist forests, shrublands, mangroves, salt ponds, and beaches.⁵ The land is mountainous, with average slopes of 30 percent, and Bordeaux Mountain, 1,286 feet high, plunges sharply to the sea.³

In 1976 UNESCO designated the park an International Biosphere Reserve, and it was one of the first protected areas in the world to receive that designation; of the hundreds of biosphere reserves worldwide, it is one of only 30 containing both marine and terrestrial ecosystems.¹ A number of marine and terrestrial species within the park and monument are federally listed as endangered or threatened.¹

Cultural history

The Virgin Islands have been inhabited for at least 3,000 years, beginning with hunter-gatherers of the Archaic Period, and settlement ended with the development of the Taino culture, the pre-Columbian people present when Columbus explored the New World. Park museum collections include artifacts dating as far back as 840 BC.¹ Ruins of many of the 109 plantations that existed on the island during sugar production lie within the park boundary; two of them, the Reef Bay Sugar Factory and the Annaberg Plantation, are heavily visited, and the park uses them to interpret European economic expansion and the enslavement of Africans.¹ The Reef Bay Trail, one of the most iconic hikes in the USVI, spans 4 miles from forest to a remote beach, passing petroglyphs carved by ancient Taino people, colonial stonework, and remains of the Reef Bay Sugar Mill.⁶

Visiting

The park's beaches, coral reefs, historic ruins, and hiking trails support swimming, snorkeling and scuba diving, sailing, kayaking and windsurfing, camping, hiking, bird watching, and archaeology.⁷ The only fee inside the park is at Trunk Bay, where a per-person charge covers the beach and a marked underwater snorkel trail that was the first of its kind in the world.⁸ The park has more than 20 hiking trails.⁸

References

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026