The Virgin Islands National Park is a United States National Park, covering approximately 60% of the island of St. John in the United States Virgin Islands, over 5,500 acres of adjacent ocean, plus nearly all of Hassel Island, just off the Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas harbor. It became the 29th U.S. national park on August 2, 1956.
St. John is the complex history of civilizations (both free and enslaved) that utilized the land and the sea for survival, dating back more than a thousand years.
The United States purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917. The islands were managed by the U.S. Navy until 1931, at which time the Territory of the Virgin Islands was formed. Today the Territory is administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Territorial government of the Virgin Islands.
