About St.Kitts
Experience first hand the dynamic history of St. Kitts. Explore the 38-acre Brimstone Hill Fortress, snorkel over the scattered cannon and timbers of a 250-year-old wreck and discover sugar plantations — some crumbling back to nature and some beautifully restored. You don’t have to go far or try hard before the layers of history begin to peel away in front of you. From virgin reefs swarming with colorful fish to wild tropical rainforests teeming with wildlife, St. Kitts is a Caribbean destination like no other and it’s just waiting to be discovered by you!
A Quick History
St. Kitts’ history is punctuated by fierce battles for control of the island. A few hundred years ago Indian tribes fought among each other and later, the French and British battled for supremacy through the 17th and 18th centuries before St. Kitts and Nevis eventually became independent in 1983.
Like other islands in the Lesser Antilles, St. Kitts was first inhabited by successive Indian groups from South America on their way to the Greater Antilles and Bahamas.
The Arawaks were the first known residents and the first to realize the benefits of the island’s rich volcanic soil. In the 15th century Carib Indians, skilled in boatbuilding and navigation, spread through the Lesser Antilles from the Orinoco River area of Venezuela and displaced the Arawaks.
The recorded history of St. Kitts starts in 1493, when Christopher Columbus landed on the island during his second voyage to the New World. The island was named St. Christopher after the explorer himself. This may have come as news to the Caribs who knew the island as "Liamuiga," or fertile island, but the Caribs’ culture and traditions were soon overwhelmed by the new colonizers.
The first Europeans to inhabit the island were French Huguenots who fled religious persecution to settle in Dieppe Bay in the late 1500s. Evidence of the Huguenots can still be seen in the island’s oldest existing stone foundation, which today supports the Golden Lemon Inn.
In 1623, Sir Thomas Warner established the island’s first colonial outpost for the English at the town of Old Road. St. Kitts then became known as England’s "Mother Colony," a strategic springboard for expansion in the area. Shortly thereafter the French established a colony of their own, and for a few years the Europeans coexisted peacefully.
The National Flower: The Royal Poinciana
In 1626, in a short-lived moment of cooperation, the English and French combined forces to massacre the Carib Indians in a deep ravine that has since become known as Bloody Point. The blood has long washed away, but evidence of the Caribs can still be found in the ancient petroglyphs etched into the stone canyon’s walls.
The French gained control of the island in 1664, but lost it back to the British in 1713 in the Peace of Utrecht. In 1782, the French besieged the British garrison at Brimstone Hill Fortress, extracting a hard-fought victory. They lost the island back to the British again in the Treaty of Paris the following year.
The painstakingly-preserved Brimstone Hill Fortress still bristles with cannon emplacements 800 feet above the coast and serves as a lasting reminder of the power struggle for St. Kitts. Known as the Gibraltar of the West Indies, the stronghold was built with slave labor and British military engineering over the better part of a century.
Sugar City
Tobacco, cotton and indigo have all been cultivated here, but the introduction of sugar cane in the early 17th century would prove to fundamentally change the island forever. By the mid-17th century, a few thousand Europeans were engaged in a plantation-style agricultural system based on slave labor from Africa.
The remnants of more than 70 plantations still dot the hillsides. The plantations are easily identifiable by their telltale stone smokestacks and egg-shaped windmill bases.
Slaves were officially emancipated in 1834, but many freed slaves continued to work on the same sugar plantations, so the sugar-based economy did not decline as rapidly as elsewhere in the West Indies.
In 1912, the government started work on the Central Sugar Factory and laid a network of narrow-gauge railroad tracks around the island for the transport of sugar cane for central processing. Today, visitors can see the island from the Caribbean’s only Scenic Railway, which runs along the same tracks that once hauled sugar cane from the fields to the factory for processing.
St. Kitts, its sister island Nevis and nearby Anguilla all became one administrative unit under the British Commonwealth in 1883. In 1967, the three-island unit was granted a measure of statehood under the Commonwealth, but Anguilla revolted and reverted to Crown Colony status in 1971.
On September 19, 1983, the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis was formally granted independence. In 1998, a referendum narrowly failed to grant Nevis autonomy. A new premier was elected in Nevis in 2006 and the twin federation is now focusing on developing and maintaining closer relationships.
Although tourism revenues surpassed the ailing sugar industry in 1987, sugar production, propped up by a variety of subsidies in its later decades, continued uninterrupted from the mid-17th century through 2005.
Wild St. Kitts
Abundant rainfall, rich volcanic soil and dense tropical rainforests support a host of flora, fauna and wildlife.
One of the island’s most famous residents is the Green Monkey, also known as the Vervet Monkey. Originally imported from Africa by the French as pets, the island’s Vervet population is estimated to be double the human population. Lacking a prehensile tail for climbing, Vervets can be seen scampering around the rainforests and along the mostly uninhabited South East Peninsula, where a few have been known to frequent the bar at Turtle Beach.
Another notable immigrant species is the mongoose, which the British brought in from Jamaica in the late 19th century to clear the cane fields of snakes. The plan worked and today there isn’t a snake on the island. However there still are centipedes, which can grow as long as your foot.
The national bird is the Brown Pelican, but most visitors spend more time pointing up at the pterodactyl-like Frigate Birds that soar above the coast and swoop down to steal food from other birds.
Bamboo, wild coffee, sage, mango, papayas and silk cotton all grow wild on the island. Breadfruit trees, with their potato-like starchy fruits, were first brought to the island as a cheap food source for slaves and still grow all over. Christophene, a tropical squash known in other parts of the world as Chayote, also grows locally and is featured on many local menus.
The national flower, Royal Poincianas, and colorful Birds of Paradise are among the many flowers that can be uncovered across the island. The Royal Poinciana is a flowering tree native to Madagascar and was named after Monsieur de Poincy, the first French Governor of St. Kitts who introduced the tree to the island.
Geography and Climate
St. Kitts is part of an archipelago that rose up from the fault line between the Atlantic and Caribbean tectonic plates about 50 million years ago. It’s really a relatively young island in geologic terms.
The 68-square-mile island is shaped like a drumstick - long and roughly oval in shape with a long peninsula extending like a handle to the southeast. The island is 23 miles long and 5 miles across at its widest point. Three volcanic centers run down the middle of the island. The largest is Mt. Liamuiga (Lee-yam-WEE-ga), which is 3,792 feet high at the crest of its massive crater.
Much of the coastline is made up of rocky cliffs, although beaches abound in Frigate Bay and along the South East Peninsula.
The climate is classified as tropical marine, and steady northeast trade winds keep the average temperature at 80 degrees and the humidity at a comfortable 75 to 80 percent. Rainfall averages 40 inches a year along the coast and up to 150 inches a year in the mountains. There is a reliable wet period from August to September and a dry period from January through April, although rain showers often don’t last for more than 20 minutes. Hurricanes are rare. The last major hurricanes to hit the island were Georges in 1998 and Lenny in 1999.
St. Kitts Today
St. Kitts has embarked on great changes. Signs of development are everywhere and include spectacular new villa and hotel developments, golf courses and an upgraded cruise ship pier filled with shopping opportunities.
Spend a little time here and while you will see remnants of the island’s past and its sugar heritage, you will also see that St. Kitts is beginning a new chapter in its history. St Kitts is the perfect year-round destination to enjoy colorful Caribbean flavor with contemporary luxury conveniences.
