50 Fun Facts About Virgin Islands

Which road rule sets the U.S. Virgin Islands apart from every state and other territory of the United States?

Driving on the left is the rule in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the only American jurisdiction that does it. Most cars come from the mainland, so the steering wheel sits on the left too.

Christopher Columbus named the Virgin Islands in 1493 after which martyr and her legendary 11,000 maiden companions?

Saint Ursula and her 11,000 virgin followers gave the islands their name, which was soon shortened to the Virgins. Columbus sighted the chain on his second voyage across the Atlantic.

Which wartime fear drove the United States to buy the Danish West Indies, now the U.S. Virgin Islands, in 1917?

A German submarine base in the Caribbean was the scenario that worried Washington during World War I. Denmark accepted $25 million in gold for its three main islands.

William Thornton, born on Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands, designed which famous Washington landmark?

The U.S. Capitol was designed by William Thornton, who was a physician, inventor and painter as well as an architect. He was born into a Quaker community as heir to sugar plantations.

NBA star Tim Duncan grew up on St. Croix training for which sport before Hurricane Hugo pushed him toward basketball?

Swimming was Tim Duncan's first sport, and he hoped to reach the 1992 Olympics. Hugo destroyed the only Olympic-sized pool on St. Croix, and a fear of sharks ended his ocean training.

Which Virgin Gorda beach draws visitors with giant granite boulders that form tunnels, arches and grottoes?

The Baths formed from granite that cooled far underground and eroded into boulders up to 40 feet long. Much of the rest of the Virgin Islands was built by volcanoes instead.

Which British Virgin Islands pirate haunt reputedly inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's novel about Long John Silver?

Norman Island is one of several islands reputed to have inspired Treasure Island. Its water-level caves still draw snorkelers, and some visitors arrive hoping to find buried loot.

Which private retreat in the British Virgin Islands is owned entirely by Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson?

Necker Island belongs to Richard Branson, who also owns nearby Mosquito Island. Barack and Michelle Obama have stayed there as his guests.

Which philanthropist donated his extensive St. John landholdings in 1956 to help create Virgin Islands National Park?

Laurance Rockefeller gave the land on condition that it be protected from future development. The park now preserves about 60% of St. John.

Which rum cocktail topped with grated nutmeg was created at a beach bar on Jost Van Dyke in the 1970s?

Painkiller blends rum with pineapple juice, orange juice and cream of coconut. Pusser's Rum later trademarked both the name and the recipe.

In the 1917 deal for the U.S. Virgin Islands, America agreed not to object to Danish control of which other territory?

Greenland was Denmark's price beyond the gold: Washington promised not to object to Danish interests covering the whole of it. The United States had held a claim based on Arctic explorations.

In British Virgin Islands legend, which pirate marooned his crew on Dead Chest Island with only cutlasses and rum?

Blackbeard stars in the tale, but its earliest known tellings date from the 20th century. It is almost certainly folklore spun from a pirate song in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

Which St. Croix beach, a nesting refuge for leatherback turtles, appears in the last scene of The Shawshank Redemption?

Sandy Point is a national wildlife refuge at the southwest corner of St. Croix. Its two miles of sand are ideal for leatherbacks, the endangered species the refuge chiefly protects.

The wreck of RMS Rhone off Salt Island in the British Virgin Islands appears in which 1970s diving thriller?

The Deep used the wreck for diving scenes with Jacqueline Bisset. The Royal Mail steamer went down in an 1867 hurricane that killed 123 people, and it is now a popular Caribbean dive site.

Which St. Croix headland, marked by the Millennium Monument sundial, is the easternmost spot of the United States?

Point Udall is named for Stewart Udall, a former Secretary of the Interior. The westernmost spot of the United States, in Guam, carries the same name in honor of his brother Mo.

Which leader of the American Revolution spent boyhood years on St. Croix, clerking for a Christiansted trading firm?

Alexander Hamilton clerked for the export-import house of Beekman and Cruger after losing both parents. In 1772 local businessmen paid for him to continue his education in New York.

Which Catholic military order ruled St. Croix from 1651 to 1664 in the name of France's King Louis XIV?

Knights of Malta ran the island for thirteen years before it passed to the French West India Company. Denmark's own trading company then bought St. Croix from France in 1733.

What kind of reptile found on Virgin Gorda ranks among the smallest land vertebrates on Earth?

A gecko called the Virgin Islands dwarf sphaero takes the honor, and it is nearly as small as a U.S. dime. A biologist first collected it on a dry, wooded hillside in 1964.

The women who led the 1878 Fireburn labor revolt on St. Croix are honored in the Virgin Islands under which title?

Queens is the title given to Mary Thomas, Agnes Salomon and Mathilda McBean for leading the uprising. All three were sentenced to prison and shipped to Copenhagen to serve part of their terms.

Facing a mass rebellion on St. Croix in July 1848, what did Governor-General Peter von Scholten proclaim?

Freedom for all slaves in the Danish West Indies was his answer to the revolt. Back in Denmark a court stripped him of his office and pension, until the supreme court cleared him in 1852.

Which low-lying coral island in the British Virgin Islands takes its name from the Spanish for flooded land?

Anegada rises only about 28 feet above the sea, while its volcanic neighbours are mountainous. Its 18-mile Horseshoe Reef has caused hundreds of shipwrecks.

Which Tortola summit, cloaked in semi-rainforest, is the highest point in the whole Virgin Islands archipelago?

Mount Sage reaches 1,716 feet. The forest around it became the first national park in the British Virgin Islands in 1964, on land acquired from private farmers.

Which bird fills the centre of the U.S. Virgin Islands flag, between the letters V and I?

An eagle modelled on the national coat of arms fills the flag, but it grips three arrows rather than thirteen. They stand for St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John.

Which currency has been official in the British Virgin Islands since 1959, despite the territory's ties to London?

U.S. dollar adoption followed the territory's close economic links with the neighbouring American islands. The same money is therefore used on both sides of the border.

What are mocko jumbies, the masked and costumed figures seen at carnival parades in the U.S. Virgin Islands?

Stilt dancers of this kind trace back to West African traditions brought to the Caribbean by enslaved people. Many say the name comes from a term for a healer or guardian spirit.

Which rum brand has been made on St. Croix since 1760 and managed by the Nelthropp family for eight generations?

Cruzan comes from a distillery once known as Estate Diamond, which has operated for more than 250 years. The Nelthropps stayed in charge through several changes of corporate owner.

The so-called Spanish Virgin Islands, just west of St. Thomas, are governed today as part of which neighbor?

Puerto Rico runs the two islands as municipalities. They stayed Spanish until the war of 1898, long after their eastern neighbours had passed to Denmark and Britain.

Which Elizabethan sea captain gives his name to the channel separating Tortola from the smaller islands to its south?

Sir Francis Drake anchored off Virgin Gorda in 1585 before his raid on Santo Domingo. He passed through again in 1595 on his last voyage, during which he died.

Which March 31 holiday in the U.S. Virgin Islands recalls the day in 1917 when the Danish flag came down for good?

Transfer Day recalls a ceremony timed to the minute: the Danish flag came down at 4:48 p.m. and the American one went up at 4:53. Islanders mark it with parades and reenactments.

Fungi, a Virgin Islands staple usually eaten with boiled fish or saltfish, is made chiefly from which ingredient?

Cornmeal is boiled with okra until thick to make the dish, which is pronounced foon-gee. Despite the spelling, no mushrooms are involved.

Which St. John beach in Virgin Islands National Park offers snorkelers a marked underwater trail over its reef?

Trunk Bay takes its name from the leatherback turtle, which islanders call a trunk. The beach also has a lifeguard, showers and a snack bar.

Project Tektite kept four scientists in Great Lameshur Bay, St. John, for 58 days in 1969, living where?

On the seabed, in a habitat capsule, the four aquanauts set a world record for saturation diving by a single team. A later Tektite mission had an all-female crew.

The Akwamu rebels who seized most of St. John for months from 1733 came from which present-day African country?

Ghana was the homeland of the 150 Akwamu who rose up in November 1733. Planters regained control only after French and Swiss troops arrived from Martinique the next spring.

Peter Holmberg won the first Olympic medal for the U.S. Virgin Islands, a 1988 silver, in which sport?

Sailing brought the medal: Holmberg, who was born on St. Thomas, took silver in the Finn class at the Seoul Games.

Which Category 5 hurricane made landfall on Virgin Gorda in September 2017, devastating the British Virgin Islands?

Irma caused catastrophic damage across the territory. On Jost Van Dyke the 298 residents ran their own recovery from a local bar that had the only big working refrigerator and generators.

Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands is thought to be named after a 17th-century man of which trade?

A Dutch privateer, Joost van Dyk, is the likely namesake. He was an early settler and former pirate who used the island's harbours as a hideout.

Which birds lived by the thousands on British Virgin Islands salt ponds in the 1830s but were hunted out by 1950?

Flamingos were hunted there for food and feathers through the 19th and early 20th centuries. They have since been re-established, and by 2016 the flock had grown to about 200 birds.

Which Impressionist painter, a father figure to Cézanne and Gauguin, was born in Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas?

Camille Pissarro was born there in 1830, when the island was a Danish colony. As the oldest of the group, he has been called the dean of the Impressionist painters.

Which star of the sitcom Cheers was born on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1955?

Kelsey Grammer played Frasier Crane for two decades across Cheers and its spin-off. That matched James Arness's long run as Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke.

St. Croix's largest festival, a carnival with the word Crucian in its name, is built around which holiday?

Christmas anchors the island's biggest party, which runs through late December and into early January. The next-largest event is an agricultural and food fair in mid-February.

The British Virgin Islands government draws its largest share of revenue from licence fees on which kind of business?

Offshore companies pay the fees, which is why financial services matter even more to the territory than tourism. It ranks among the world's leading offshore financial centres.

Which industrial plant on St. Croix, one of the world's biggest of its kind, opened in 1966 and closed in 2012?

An oil refinery run by Hess, later known as Hovensa, employed 1,200 residents and 950 contractors. A restart in 2021 lasted only months before unsafe emissions shut it again.

Which folk style, played by scratch bands on gourds and washboards, is the official music of the U.S. Virgin Islands?

Quelbe is a form of topical folk song that began with individuals singing at informal gatherings, celebrations and festivals. The bands improvise their instruments from everyday objects.

Road Town, capital of the British Virgin Islands, takes its name from a nautical term for which feature?

An open anchorage, less sheltered than a harbour but easy for ships to reach, is what sailors call the roads. The town sits on horseshoe-shaped Road Harbour on the south coast of Tortola.

The main British Virgin Islands airport sits not on Tortola but on which neighbor, linked to it by a bridge?

Beef Island lies just east of Tortola, and the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge joins the two. The airport there is named after Terrance B. Lettsome.

Which president created Buck Island Reef National Monument off St. Croix, later greatly expanded by Bill Clinton?

John F. Kennedy created the monument in 1961. Most of it lies underwater, where an elkhorn coral barrier reef wraps two thirds of the island and snorkelers follow a marked trail.

Kyron McMaster won the British Virgin Islands' first Commonwealth Games medal, a 2018 gold, in which event?

400 m hurdles gold came again for McMaster at Birmingham in 2022. A year later his silver in Budapest was the territory's first medal at the World Championships.

Which state of the Holy Roman Empire leased part of St. Thomas from the Danes in 1685 for its slave trade?

Brandenburg needed a Caribbean foothold to support the slave trade run from its colonies in West Africa, so its navy director rented part of the island from the Danish West India Company.

Which power is withheld from the delegate whom the U.S. Virgin Islands elect to the House of Representatives?

Voting on the floor is the one thing the delegate cannot do, though joining debates and voting in committee are allowed. The islands have elected a delegate to Congress since 1972.

Hikers on the Reef Bay Trail in Virgin Islands National Park pass which relics attributed to the Taíno people?

Rock carvings sit above a reflecting pool there, and some were once read as symbols for water. Their makers cannot be confirmed, though pre-Columbian islanders are the leading theory.