Visitor centre opens at Copper Mine

Virgin Copper began constructing a mine on the eastern shore of Virgin Gorda in 1838.

At the time, the United Kingdom-based company employed 174 people, some of whom were Virgin Islanders.

Those workers would go on to build an engine house, a chimney house, mine shafts and dwellings next to the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

However, Virgin Copper’s operation, which needed to ship mined materials back to the UK, would not prove fruitful: Work stopped on March 25, 1842, because the mine’s output paid for barely one third of its costs.

This history and much more can be learned walking through the National Parks Trust’s new Copper Mine National Park Visitor Centre, which overlooks the isolated Copper Mine ruins.

Interpretation panels dot the new building’s walls, describing the mine’s ill-fated past and more recent restoration efforts. The history segments are broken up by vibrant paintings of the mine from Virgin Islands artists Joseph Hodge and Christine Taylor.

The space officially opened Friday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that included musical performances from some of the territory’s schoolchildren and speeches from government officials.

See the Feb. 2, 2017 edition for full coverage.

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