Best of Mike #168

This is a story that I should have written, when it was fresh in my mind.... because I realize that I have lost a lot of the details, in the years since is was told to me.

The gentleman in this pixture is holding in his hands a copy of the United States Declaration of Independence.... one of the original signed copies.

I am afraid that I have forgotten his name but he is well into his 80s.... and for maybe 50 of those years, it has been his responsibility to keep this document. 

And, to bring it for display on the tours that he conducts of the old fort on St Eustasius.

As the story goes.... part of the process for declaring your independence, as a country, is to get other countries to recognize your claim.

So America, created a number of copies of that original Declaration of Independence, for that purpose.... for some reason I want to say 6.

One of those copies was in the possession of the Captain of an American warship. On the day that the declaration was made.... that ship was in the harbor of the island of St. Eustasius. So the Captain presented that document to the Governor as part of America's efforts to legitimize their claim.

Some years ago, the document had begun to darken with age.... to the point where it was becoming unreadable. 

So, this gentleman made a photocopy. The photocopy is mounted in the front of this frame. 

The original, which you are seeing here, he taped to the back of the frame.... so we could be sure that he was not making this up.