Excavation Begins at Planned Second Interment Site for Cinnamon Bay Remains

Centuries-old human remains found at Cinnamon Bay are now one step closer to being properly reinterred.

Virgin Islands National Park Archaeologist Ken Wild and his interns earlier this month began digging a second pit where the remains will be buried.

The remains are likely those of men, women and children who died in a cholera epidemic. They could have lived during the 1680s to the 1800s, which is when the Cinnamon Bay plantation was in operation.

“There is a good possibility they were not enslaved, because after Emancipation, there was a cholera epidemic there that caused 21 deaths in a week’s time,” said Wild.