Pågat coastline, Guam

photo by: Jack/Flickr/CC by NC-ND 2.0

11 Most Endangered Historic Places

Pågat

  • Location: Yigo, Guam

The island of Guam, the westernmost United States territory in the Pacific, is home to the Chamorro people who maintain a thriving culture dating back thousands of years.

A Spanish colony from 1668 until its surrender to the U.S. in 1898, Guam and the neighboring Northern Mariana Islands retain a unique concentration of resources that are central to the cultural identity of the Chamorro.

Dating to 700 A.D., Pågat, one of Guam's most treasured cultural sites, contains remains of prehistoric structural stone foundations, known as lattes, freshwater caves, medicinal plants, as well as stone mortars, pottery and tools of the Chamorro people. One of the island's last remaining and best preserved Chamorro settlements, Pågat is revered by native people who continue to perform thousand year-old traditional cultural practices at the site, and serves as a popular destination for hikers, tourists, and students who are drawn to the area's serpentine beachfront forest and sparkling underwater caves.

Pågat was included on the Trust's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list for 2010.

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