Story

Storyteller: Dr. Justin Dunnavant, National Geographic Storyteller

The Kapok Tree at Estate Mount Victory served as a historic herbal shrine and was tended by local medicine man John Dubois during the 1940s and 1950s. He was said to dispense herbs and performed cures at the base of the tree. After Dubois’ time, the shrine fell into disrepair but was rehabilitated in the 1990s. By the early 2000s, it incorporated Christian elements alongside other symbols, such as a figurine of the Biblical figure Lazarus. 

Kapok trees, also known as silk cotton trees, hold historic importance in St. Croix through their longstanding use by Indigenous and African communities for practical and medicinal purposes. The lightweight, buoyant wood served in crafting canoes and tools, while the fibers stuffed pillow and cushions. In St. Croix and nearby Trinidad, leaves were applied in baths to ease fatigue or as poultices for sore feet and sprains, underscoring the tree’s vital role in traditional healing and daily life. Spiritually, the branches of these trees have also been said to serve as a home for ancestral spirits.