St. Maarten
Museum
The St. Maarten National Heritage Foundation and
Museum was started in 1973 to promote, preserve and study all
aspects of the culture, history and natural environment of the
island and its surroundings and strives to organize, explore,
affiliate and give to the community and our visitors all the
island has to offer. Exhibitions include; geology,
pre-Columbian, plantation period, flora and fauna, Fort
Amsterdam, salt industry, HMS Proselyte, slavery and
emancipation, Hurricane Luis, national heroes and migration
period. Their history begins with the arrival of the Arawaks,
the first humans to come and live on the island, coming here
from the Orinoco basin in Venezuela, and archaeological
discoveries place their arrival sometime between 600 to 1200 AD,
and would live by fishing and harvesting the wild fruits that
grow here. The early humans would use shells and stones as
tools, and for transportation between the islands, they used
canoes they made, but were called pirogues. Their housing would
be temporary settlements or permanent housing in villages like
the Hope Estate on the French side and temporary quarters like
those at Cupecoy on the Dutch side. These Amerindians were very
spiritual people that believed in the power of supernatural
beings that surrounded them at all times.
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