ANNABERG HISTORIC TRAIL -

OVEN - Most of the estate's bread was baked in this oven. The baker filled the large chamber with wood and charcoal, then lighted it. When only the hot coals remained, he raked the embers through the grating into the ash box below. Dough in the hot oven soon sent the delicious aroma of baking bread through the air. Similar ovens are still seen on St. John at Coral Bay and Cruz Bay.

DUNGEON? - A chain and a pair of handcuffs were found fastened to a post in the left corner of this small chamber, making the rooms use as a VAULT or DUNGEON a good guess. The drawings of schooners and the street scene may well date back to Danish times.
The small trees along this part of the path are Sugar  Apples (Annona squamosa),  one of the plants available to the slaves for food. The sweet pulp is eaten raw.

Have you noticed the building materials? Native stone known as "Blue Bit" and other stones from down island were used in the construction. Rocks were set with a mortar consisting of sand, fresh water, and lime fired from sea shells and coral, and the scum skimmed from the "coppers."
Where arches and corners called for square or special shaped stones, both BRICK and CORAL were used. The bricks came into the area as ship ballast from Denmark and the brain coral was taken from offshore or brought in from the Bahamas. Coral, when taken from the sea, is relatively soft and easily cut to shape. When dry it becomes a very durable part of the building. Note the corals lining the doors, which may possibly be from the reef at Cinnamon Bay where erosion has recently occurred. Ecological backwash may take time, but it teaches us the logic of maintaining the integrity of our marine ecosystems. The Danes didn't know any better; WE DO!

STORAGE ROOM -This room and the one to the right were used to store sugar and to age rum before shipment to North American and European markets. To your right you can still see the faint plaster outline of two old cisterns; they probably held the molasses overflow from the cistern in the next room. Some of the molasses was used in making mash for rum. One mash was made of one part molasses, 5 parts water, and sometimes Cush cush (fine pieces of cane stocks). Most common mash, however, was made from the drippings and waste, as mentioned at Post No. 8. When this had fermented, it was taken to the still.

RUM STILL - This platform supported the factory's rum still. Here, above a slow fire, workers placed the fermented molasses in a copper still. Copper tubing led the alcohol vapors from the still to the cistern behind it. There, the coils or worms of copper, immersed in cool water, converted the vapors to rum. The raw rum, or "kill devil," was piped into casks located in the adjacent room. Normally, the rum was aged in the cask for several years before being sold. Why was rum called Kill Devil? Perhaps to appease the missionaries working on the Island!

LIME TREE - Limes came to the New World more than 400 years ago. The fruit, yellow when ripe, makes a refreshing drink, add a tangy flavoring. A tea, or tonic, can be prepared from the leaves. Lime trees now grow wild around old ruins on the Island.