Laurance Rockefeller helped turn 5,000 St John acres into a US national park

What if one of America’s most beautiful national parks began with a wealthy conservationist simply looking at an undeveloped island from a boat? In 1952, Laurance Rockefeller sailed past St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands and was struck by its untouched landscape. At the time, the island had no proper roads, cars, electricity or dock, according to the National Park Service. Rockefeller believed the island’s natural beauty was worth preserving before development transformed it. Over the following four years, his conservation organisation, Jackson Hole Preserve, acquired approximately 5,000 acres of St. John and transferred the land to the federal government. That donation became the foundation for Virgin Islands National Park, which Congress established in 1956. The National Park Service credits Rockefeller’s land donation as a major factor in the creation of the park.A chance encounterWhen Rockefeller first approached St. John in 1952, the island was still largely undeveloped.