Cane Bay includes estates 26, 27, & 28 in St. Croix’s Northside B Quarter. Based on appearances on historic maps, the windmill was likely built in the 19th century. An inscription stone indicates a construction date of 1820. The windmill is in good condition. Cane Bay estate was likely named for its proximity to Cane Bay.
Cane Bay indicates how locations near the north shore in Northside B quarter provided earlier access for sugar cultivation compared to more elevated locations. No settlement is indicated through the 1750s. An animal mill first appears on the second Beck printing, which appears on all the annotated maps using this base map. On the 1766 map that uses the first printing of the Beck map, an animal mill appears hand drawn.
The 1799 Oxholm depicts an animal mill, while the 1856 Parsons maps indicates a windmill at Cane Bay. The 1921 topographic map indicates windmill ruins at 59 feet elevation, with the top specified at 85 feet, at Cane Bay.
The 1760s annotated Beck maps all attribute ownership to Cornelius Hendricksen and the 1790s manuscript copies of Beck attribute ownership to Hendricksen. The 1766 unsigned manuscript copy of Beck attributes ownership to Thomas Kirvan.
McGuire geographic dictionary of the Virgin Islands (p.47) notes the transposition of Great Cane Bay by estate La Vallee to the east with Little Cane Bay in what is now Cane Bay. Mentions the later merger with estates Northstar and Prosperity.