The Book ‘The Diary of a St. Martin Salt Checker’ was presented to His Excellency Governor Eugene B. Holiday at his office by its author Mr. Will Johnson together with Mrs. Carolyn Buncamper on January 25, 2013.
The book is based on the 1927 Diary of Mr. Albert Buncamper which was entrusted to author and historian Mr. Will Johnson by Ms. Bernadette Buncamper the granddaughter of Mr. Albert Buncamper. Through the book the author highlights the importance of the salt industry at the time the diary was written as well as of the transportation available during that era to transport salt and provide for travel between the islands.
In the foreword to the book Governor Holiday wrote: "The book offers the people of St. Martin a glimpse into the last of the Glory days of the Salt Era and the Great Salt Pond. This book is, as a result, a valuable source of information on life on St. Martin in the first half of the twentieth century and more specifically in 1927. Mr. Albert Buncamper, through his diary, immortalized a defined period of his life and family and that of the people he came into contact with in the serene setting of the Philipsburg of yesteryear".
Governor Holiday thanked Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Carolyn Buncamper, the great-granddaughter of Albert Buncamper for the book and complimented the author with presenting, as stated on the cover, a fresh perspective of the old St. Martin in the footprints of the salt industry as well as for adding to the growing body of literature about our island’s history which is invaluable as we develop our island nation.