Baker Island Light

United States Minor Possessions – Pacific Ocean

United States Minor Possessions – Pacific Ocean:

The United States possesses an additional four equatorial islands in the Pacific in addition to those detailed under their unique flags.  The small island possessions do not have flags of their own but each island, while have things in common with each other, has its own unique history and story to tell.

Central Pacific Map Showing US Possessions
Central Pacific Map Showing US Possessions

Baker Island

Introduction:

Baker Island is an uninhabited atoll located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean about 1,920 miles southwest of Honolulu.  The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia.  Its nearest neighbor is Howland Island, 42 miles to the north-northwest; both have been claimed as territories of the United States since 1857, though the United Kingdom considered them part of the British Empire between 1897 and 1936.

Aerial View of Baker Island
Aerial View of Baker Island

The island covers 0.81 square mile with 3.0 miles of coastline.  The climate is equatorial, with little rainfall, constant wind, and strong sunshine.  The terrain is low-lying and sandy: a coral island surrounded by a narrow fringing reef with a depressed central area devoid of a lagoon with its highest point being 26 feet above sea level.

Baker Island from Satellite
Baker Island from Satellite

The island now forms the Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge and is an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the U.S. which vouches for its defense.  It is visited annually by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Description:

A cemetery and rubble from earlier settlements are located near the middle of the west coast, where the boat landing area is located.  There are no ports or harbors, with anchorage prohibited offshore.  The narrow fringing reef surrounding the island can be a maritime hazard, so there is a day beacon near the old village site.  Baker’s abandoned World War II runway, 5,463 feet long, is completely covered with vegetation and is un-serviceable.

Baker Island Light
Baker Island Light

The United States claims an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles and territorial sea of 12 nautical miles around Baker Island.

History:

Baker was discovered in 1818 by Captain Elisha Folger of the Nantucket whaling ship Equator, who called the island “New Nantucket”.  In August 1825 Baker was sighted by Captain Obed Starbuck of the Loper, also a Nantucket whaler.  The island is named for Michael Baker, who visited the island in 1834.  Other references state that he visited in 1832, and again on August 14, 1839, in the whaler Gideon Howland, to bury an American seaman.  Captain Baker claimed the island in 1855, then he sold his interest to a group who later formed the American Guano Company.

Baker Island Location
Baker Island Location

The United States took possession of the island in 1857, claiming it under the Guano Islands Act of 1856.  Its guano deposits were mined by the American Guano Company from 1859 to 1878.

Brown Noddies and Radio Masts
Brown Noddies and Radio Masts
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