The memorandum of understanding outlines how they will work together during the next five years. Most of the land on Hassel Island belongs to the National Park, with other parts owned privately or by the V.I. Port Authority.

"This is a new chapter in the history of Hassel Island," Frederick said. "It's a gem over there. All it needs is a little dusting off to bring it back to its brilliance again."

He promised to attend the monthly board meetings of the trust, a nonprofit organization that numbers about 125 members.

The next step likely will be to clear away debris from the island's shores and vegetation from its historic structures, which are overgrown with brush, Frederick told The Daily News after the signing. Park officials and trust leaders will begin in August to decide which areas to tackle first.

Hassel Island's history is rich, particularly in marine, military and commercial activity.

During the 1800s, when St. Thomas already was among the busiest ports in the Caribbean, Hassel Island's Creque Marine Railway contained a bustling ship repair business that used a steam boiler and chains to draw ships out of the water and onto rails for fixing.

The marine railway is considered one of the territory's most significant historical artifacts, but decades of neglect, battering storms and overgrown plants have left it crumbling.

Elsewhere on the island, the stone remnants of Fort Willoughby, built by the Danes in 1779; the Cowell's Battery gun platform, built by the British Army in 1801; and the Garrison House magazine, built during the second British occupation of St. Thomas in 1840, attest to the land's significance. Hassel Island is believed to contain at least 11 important archaeological sites.

In recent years, however, the island has been the subject of controversy and never-fully-realized attempts to make it attractive and accessible to tourists and locals.

Communications company Atlantic Tele-Network requested permission in 2003 to install a 93-foot-high cell phone tower on Signal Hill, the site of a 1940s U.S. Army barracks. ATN offered in return to sponsor historic preservation work at the site.

That portion of the island that belongs to the Port Authority, which allowed a dirt road that had overgrown to hiking-trail condition to be re-cut into the hillside.

Both the highly visible road and and prospect of the communications tower prompted public criticism, which led to Port Authority Executive Director Darlan Brin's decision not to bring the second request before the agency's governing board for consideration.

Community activist Edward Harmon Killebrew, who told The Daily News this week that he has been fascinated by Hassel Island since living there in the 1970s, had organized the road-cutting and pitched the communications tower idea to several companies as a means of funding historic restoration work.

Killebrew has been conducting historic tours of Hassel Island for the past year and a half, but he said Thursday that business has been sporadic.

A member of both the St. Thomas Historical Trust and the Friends of the V.I. National Park, he noted that the Friends tried several years ago to begin restoration on the island - but they ultimately were unable to keep up momentum before brush grew back over the exposed historic sites.

The Friends in 2002 received more than $60,000 in donations of goods and services from the territory for restoration on the Creque Marine Railway, for instance, and organized volunteers to clear weeds and small trees from its steam house and other structures.

The Friends found Hassel Island's needs too monumental to handle alone, development director Karen Brady acknowledged Wednesday, but the group would still like to participate in projects there.

"There's just too much work over there for the Friends of the Park," Brady said. "We don't want to take it on ourselves. We'd love if another group were to take the lead, but we certainly want a seat at the table. We'd love to be part of a team that opens up Hassel Island to tourists and to the local public."

The historic trust's memorandum of understanding specifies that it will be the lead organization on island projects. Local developer Alton Adams Jr. has chaired the trust's Hassel Island committee for three years and has been meeting with V.I. National Park officials for more than a year on the issue.

The trust's fundraising committee will be developing creative ideas on how to garner money for Hassel Island, the trust's education co-chair, Felipe Ayala, said. For now, the license plate sales and donations that generally support the organization will go toward work there as well.

Killebrew expressed cautious optimism.

"I'm excited, don't get me wrong. If that's what it takes, a big publicity push, to make it happen, that's fine," he said. "But you've got to watch that you don't put yourself out there and then don't get it accomplished. There's been a lot of talk and I just hope they're ready to meet not only the physical goals but also the financial goals."