TINIAN — Kammer Beach officially became Jones Beach after a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday morning.
The island’s municipal government and legislative delegation have renamed the popular site to honor the life and memory of pioneering businessman Kenneth Thomas Jones Jr.
“We are dedicating one of the most frequented public places on Tinian in honor of a man who has made tremendous contributions to our community,” said Mayor Edwin P. Aldan in his remarks.
“I was a young boy when Mr. Ken Jones established himself on Tinian,” said Aldan, “but I will never forget how generous of a man he was.”
Aldan said Jones’s farm had “everything from horses to cows and pigs to chickens and ducks.”
“He employed majority of the people on Tinian to work on the farm and it was the main source of income for most families. It was already such a big help of him to employ many people on Tinian, but he went even further as to teach our people how to farm and raise animals,” the mayor said.
“As the saying goes, ‘give a man a fish, animal, or plant and you feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish, hunt, or plant and you’ll feed him for a lifetime.’ That saying resonates with what Mr. Kenneth Jones did for our community,” Aldan added.
For his part, Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider said, “Younger generations may not remember the Jones family on island, but they played a huge part in turning Tinian into an agricultural powerhouse during the Trust Territory days.”
In the 1960s, Hofschneider said, Jones’s cattle ranch “was the biggest resident employer here on Tinian — it may have also been the source of the joke that Tinian has more cows than people.”
At the time, he said, “there were over 7,000 heads of cattle, including 1,000 milking cows, thousands of hogs, pineapple and many other crops on Tinian.”
He said, “These products were exported to Guam to supply the U.S. military and Jones & Guerrero Payless Supermarkets. It was during Ken Jones’s era that Tinian earned its nickname, the Breadbasket of the Marianas.”
He said 60 years later, Tinian’s culture of cattle ranching lives on.
“Our ranching community is about 30 families strong, families that — in the near future — could earn a living selling U.S. Department of Agriculture certified beef through the Tinian slaughterhouse,” Hofschneider said.
Triple J chairman Robert Jones, his family members, Triple J executives joined Tinian officials and community members at the dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Jones Beach sign.
“This is a big honor to the Jones family, particularly to [Kenneth’s] wife Elaine who cannot make it because of the coronavirus restrictions,” said Robert Jones, the brother of Kenneth Jones who passed away in 2008 at the age of 90.
The Tinian Municipal Council also handed Robert Jones a plaque in appreciation of his commitment in expanding his business to the island.
Triple J held the grand opening of its Tinian Western Lodge, Hertz office, Bar-K-Diner, Bar-K-Drive-In and Bar-K-Take-Away on Friday.
Triple J chairman and chief executive officer Robert Jones and family members pose with Tinian Mayor Edwin P. Aldan and other officials at the newly installed Jones Beach sign.
Photo by Bryan Manabat
