Point Udall Can You Really See Forever?
- Mark Dworkin
- Mar 22
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 25
The inscription on the Millennium Monument at Point Udall, a sundial which stands at the Easternmost point of the United States, on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, reads: “Since the dawn of consciousness, time has been measured by the movement of the Sun. This marker, in the year 2000, is a continuum between all who have come before and all who are yet to come.”
The ceremony for the marker took place as the sun rose on the first day of 2000, the dawning of a new millennium.
There is little doubt that “a continuum between all” is a beautiful thought, albeit an idealistic one, perhaps borne during an age of innocence and hope at the turn of the century, only a scant two and half decades ago. Still, it seems to ring particularly hollow during this age of mass shootings, saber rattling despots, and daily threats of nuclear annihilation via World War III.
Nevertheless, if you talk to some of the local Crucians who have visited Point Udall, they may very well agree with one visitor: “It is a place of natural beauty. You can see forever from Point Udall.”
It is indeed true that when you look across the clear blue waters of the Caribbean Ocean from Point Udall you could easily fall into a euphoric state of mind that does not at all resemble one you would fall into while visiting a U.S. city and gazing down one of its highrise canyons. At Point Udall you may in fact deceive yourself into believing you are in fact seeing forever…wherever forever might be. You might find yourself conjuring up all sorts of philosophical thoughts. Is there a forever? Can I see forever if it does exist? Can I reach out and touch it? Such thoughts might be just enough to satisfy your stay at Point Udall. You may feel refreshed and compelled to take on your world in wondrous new ways. You may also deeply ponder the great expanse of time and the “continuum between us all.”
So just think how endlessly inspiring it would be to live close by the Millennium Monument. To get up every morning just before the sun makes its appearance and walk along the long road that leads to the jagged stone path up to the monument. You stand amidst those tall, grey triangular shaped stones, staring out across those true blue waters, realizing you are one of the first, in perhaps the greatest, most powerful country in the world, to watch the greatest power in the solar system rise slowly above the ocean’s horizon. And you suddenly find yourself gazing out across the waters to a place called forever. What an incredibly comforting way to start your day. On an inspirational scale of one to ten, it’s a twelve and a half, completely off the charts.
But what if, on one of those lovely mornings, you decide to take your thinking process a step further, or more accurately, a step downward. You begin to think about what lies beneath those clear blue waters? What about the beauty of the undersea world, with all its myriad of sea creatures, the millions and billions of fish and marine mammals, of all shapes and sorts…can they see forever? Are they feeling the same magnificent feeling of power and clarity as you?
Well, maybe not. Because the facts are that since the Millennium Monument was erected there have been approximately 181 oil spills amounting to 196,000 metric tons of oil spilled out and lying beneath or on the surface of the oceans. There are approximately 1.8 trillion pieces of trash beneath that clear blue surface that have formed giant floating garbage patches in oceans all across the world. There are approximately 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic lying hidden beneath the surface of the ocean, including both macro and microplastic. This is equivalent to about 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile. And by 2050, the experts tell us, ocean plastic will outweigh all the fish in the ocean.
But herein lies the central question, when we are seeing “forever” do we really care about all those disturbing little facts about the throw-aways and messy spills of modern society. Should “forever” really be bothered to concern itself with all those billions and trillions of pounds of imperishable plastic, hundreds of thousands of tons of indissoluble oil, permanent giant patches of garbage as big as the state of Texas floating wherever it may? Should “forever” be bothered or even disturbed by such eco-catastrophes, such threats to human existence? Because “forever” is, well, it is forever. It can never go away. It can never perish…Or can it?
There is an unmistakable feeling of ultimate power and splendor when you are actually standing at Point Udall. In many ways it is indescribable. You’re standing out on a point, surrounded by the great waters of the ocean, your view stretching out to the horizon. You either feel as if you’re Master of the Universe, or the humblest of beings put on this God given earth. You see and feel the big picture of life…Or do you?
The Millennium Monument was designed by Bill Rich, a Virgin Islander. Point Udall was named after Stewart Udall in 1969, who was the United States Secretary of the Interior under President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Not coincidentally, the Westernmost point of the United States by travel, which is Guam, is also called Point Udall, in honor of Stewart Udall’s brother, Congressman Morris “Mo” Udall.
On the one hand, Stewart Udall oversaw the addition of four national parks, six national monuments, eight national seashores and lakeshores, nine recreational areas, twenty historic sites, and fifty-six national wildlife refuges. He played key roles in enacting environmental laws such as the Clear Air, Water Quality and Clean Water Restoration Acts, the Wilderness Act of 1964, the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, the Land and Water Conservation Fund of 1965, the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965, the National Trail System Act of 1968, and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968.
On the other hand, his brother was a mixed bag of achievements. During his term in Congress, Mo Udall fought for environmental protection and expansion of the National Park System, which led to the ushering in of legislation that absorbed 8 million acres into the federal wilderness system across 20 states. Yet his defense of a planned dam-and-reservoir project in Arizona that threatened to inundate key wilderness areas, including a hydroelectric dam that threatened to flood parts of the Grand Canyon, brought a great deal of resistance from the nation’s leading conservation organization, The Sierra Club. Udall’s bitter fight with them led to their loss of tax-exempt status, which many have blamed on Udall’s persistent complaints to the Internal Revenue Service. Fortunately, for the environmentalists the project was eventually abandoned, replaced by coal-fired power plants that Congressman Udall believed were more polluting than the dam he was backing.
Nevertheless, when Mo Udall died in 1998, then President Bill Clinton issued a statement: “He was a devoted steward of the land that God gave us and was responsible for the preservation of some of our most important wilderness areas. It is fitting that the Easternmost point of the United States, in the Virgin Islands, and the Westernmost point, in Guam, are both named Point Udall.”
A tale of two men. The significance of two points of symbolic importance to the United States. On the surface we can see forever. Beneath those same waters we see the ugliness of man’s footprint.
