Pioneers in Paradise
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Photo courtesy of Karen Horton

University of Maine art major Amy Crosby talks about her engineering fieldwork.

For me, the trip to the Virgin Islands was an eye-opening experience.

Taken from subzero weather to a tropical paradise in the matter of a day was a dream come true. The history, nightlife, overwhelming beauty, heart-stopping taxi rides, local people, wildlife, and the experiences with my classmates and people we worked with are all part of experiences I will never forget.

But most important, we had come to do a job — an endeavor bigger than any of us anticipated. I wasn't prepared for the difficulties of measuring ruins that, from the photographs, seemed such a simple task back in Maine. Little did I know we were pioneers.

There were no textbooks or directions telling us what to do, what to measure, where to store our information or how to analyze it.

As an art major, I particularly came to appreciate the photography aspect of the project. Everyone had a different task to do in order to gain the information we needed to create our model.

It took a week alone to tackle the jungle with machetes just so we could wrap a tape measure around a wall, all the while being careful not to tumble the crumbling structure.

Knowing the history they carried, it was disheartening to see the ruins in such disrepair. It also was an awesome responsibility, knowing that we are the best hope for preserving these ruins — if not structurally, at least digitally.

The greatest part of this project: knowing we're making a difference. The press hiked all the way into our site to see what was going on; tourists were full of questions about how they could help. Everyone we met was genuinely grateful for our efforts to preserve a piece of the island's history.