Move On With The Fountain Cavern

It is so long since the Anguilla Government set out to develop the Fountain Cavern as the island’s premier tourist attraction, and conservation project, that the time of the decision is lost to memory except perhaps on paper somewhere.

What is known is that several acres of land were purchased for the development of a national park with the Fountain as the grand centerpiece. In addition detailed design plans were drawn up to create lighted passageways and other facilities for visitors to the cavern, once used by the Amerindians as a ceremonial place of worship. Shops and boutiques were also to have been part of the plans for the surrounding land.

The Fountain, in its natural state, has always been a place of attraction and wonder to locals and visitors alike, but was eventually closed off. This was to prevent unscrupulous persons from continuing to hack off and take away carved portions of rock and remove other artifacts. It is understood that there may have even been some unauthorized digging there for relics of what may have been the Golden Age.
Very little has been heard over the years about the development plans for the Fountain. It was only two or three years ago that it was reported that the British Government had taken steps to have the cavern nominated as a World Heritage site.

The current information that a high-profile workshop is to be held here later this month in connection with the nomination of the site, and the drafting of a document to that effect, is long in coming but is welcome news. However, in an island where there is a need for more places of interest and attraction for the growing up-market tourist industry, the slow approach to the development of the Fountain National Park is an agonising experience.
Probably if the Anguilla Government had the money and expertise available, the project would have already been up and running.

In the mind’s eye, the development of the Fountain Cavern is seen in the light of Harrison’s Cave in Barbados. That is a place of astounding attraction and beauty to thousands of visitors each year, who carry away lasting memories and mementos. The returns to the Barbados economy in terms of revenue from visitor fees, as well as publicity, are very high.

We need to go a great step further than nominating the Fountain Cavern as a World Heritage Site. The Anguilla Government and the National Trust must not relax their efforts in pursuit of bringing about the tangible development of the area. The benefits are important both to the preservation of the island’s historical and cultural heritage and as a contributing factor to the development of the tourism industry.

It will be a pleasure one day to add the developed and preserved Fountain Cavern to the active list of places of interest and attraction in Anguilla. The benefits of its development will eventually outstrip the cost to take it to that level.