Indian groups had been living on Vieques for thousands of years before the Spanish arrived in 1493. (Christopher Columbus landed in Puerto Rico during his second voyage.) Around 1980 some of the oldest human remains ever found in the Caribbean were discovered near the cluster of huge volcanic boulders pictured to the left. The burial site was dated to 2000 BC!

The island’s rich history continued during the years when the Europeans were colonizing the Caribbean. This era came to an end in 1898 when the Spanish withdrew at the conclusion of the Spanish–American War. Fort Conde de Mirasol, which sits on a hill overlooking the island’s main town of Isabel II, was built by the Spaniards in the 1840’s. It turned out to be the last fort built by the Europeans anywhere in the “New World”.

More interesting to me however is the story of the U.S. Navy’s involvement on Vieques over the past 65 years. In 1939 the Navy began by acquiring 27,000 acres on the island. At the time, land ownership was so concentrated that 71% of the island was controlled by just two sugar plantations. For the most part sugarcane workers and their families lived on land that they didn’t actually own. Families built simple houses on land assigned to them by the plantation owners. This concentration of ownership meant that the Navy, with their almost unlimited checkbook and influence, could practically buy the island outright. These transactions could happen quietly with little or no oversight, and by 1940 the Navy had purchased a large portion of the island. In 1941 they recieved legislative approval to begin building a large naval base at Roosevelt Roads on the main island, and smaller installations on Vieques and Culebra.

The Navy planners envisioned taking over the entire island of Vieques. (I think they may have wanted Culebra as well.) Their justification was two-fold. First, they said they needed a location to practice landing troops on a beach. This was plausible given the massive landings that would soon occur in France, Italy and on islands throughout the Pacific. Secondly, with the war in Europe apparently going Germany’s way, it looked like a real possibility that England might fall. The Navy had a plan to protect Britain’s naval fleet by bringing it to Puerto Rico.

Whatever the merits of their case, their proposal to relocate the island’s entire population of over 10,000 people to the island of Saint Croix was a stunning development locally. Apparently Eleanor Roosevelt became interested in the islander’s plight, and she persuaded her husband to modify the Navy’s request. The eventual compromise was that everyone on Vieques was forced to move to the center of the island. (By compromise I don’t mean to imply that the islanders had much say in the matter. The negotiating was primarily between the Roosevelt administration and the Navy.) The Navy then took possession of the western third of the island, and the Marines took the eastern third.

Over the next fifty years the military’s interest in the island, and their rationale for needing the island, tended to shift with the times. (Imagine the public relations disaster if the Navy simply admitted that they wanted a warm place for winter get-a-ways.) During the Cuban missile crisis the Navy dusted off their plan to take over the entire island and approached the Kennedy administration with an updated request. (The Life Magazine photo above was taken during a landing exercise in 1960.)