Baker Island Light

United States Minor Possessions – Pacific Ocean

Howland Island NWR
Howland Island NWR

Along with six other islands, the island was administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex.  In January 2009, that entity was upgraded to the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument by President George W. Bush.

Brown Boobies in Flight
Brown Boobies in Flight

The island habitat has suffered from the presence from multiple invasive exotic species.  Black rats were introduced in 1854 and eradicated in 1938 by feral cats introduced the year before.  The cats proved to be destructive to bird species, and the cats were eliminated by 1985.  Pacific crabgrass continues to compete with local plants.

Local Flora
Local Flora

Public entry to the island is only by special use permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and it is generally restricted to scientists and educators.  Representatives from the agency visit the island on average once every two years, often coordinating transportation with amateur radio operators or the U.S. Coast Guard to defray the high cost of logistical support.

Brown Boobies
Brown Boobies

Earhart Light :

Colonists, sent to the island in the mid-1930s to establish possession claims by the United States, built the Earhart Light, named after Amelia Earhart, as a day beacon or navigational landmark.  It is shaped somewhat like a short lighthouse.  It was constructed of white sandstone with painted black bands and a black top meant to be visible several miles out to sea during daylight hours.  It is located near the boat landing at the middle of the west coast by the former site of Itascatown.  The beacon was partially destroyed during early World War II by the Japanese attacks, but it was rebuilt in the early 1960s by men from the U.S. Coast Guard ship Blackhaw.

Earhart Light
Earhart Light

By 2000, the beacon was reported to be crumbling and it had not been repainted in decades.

Ann Pellegreno overflew the island in 1967, and Linda Finch did so in 1997, during memorial circumnavigation flights to commemorate Earhart’s 1937 world flight.  No landings were attempted but both Pellegreno and Finch flew low enough to drop a wreath on the island.

Howland Island Light
Howland Island Light

Jarvis Island

Introduction:

Jarvis Island, formerly known as Bunker Island, or Bunker’s Shoal, is an uninhabited 1 3⁄4-square-mile coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands.  It is an unincorporated, unorganized territory of the United States, administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States Department of the Interior as part of the National Wildlife Refuge system.  Unlike most coral atolls, the lagoon on Jarvis is wholly dry.

Jarvis Island Location
Jarvis Island Location

Geography and Ecology:

While a few offshore anchorage spots are marked on maps, Jarvis Island has no ports or harbors, and swift currents are a hazard.  There is a boat landing area in the middle of the western shoreline near a crumbling day beacon, and another near the southwest corner of the island.  The center of Jarvis Island is a dried lagoon where deep guano deposits accumulated, which were mined for about 20 years during the nineteenth century.  The island has a tropical desert climate, with high daytime temperatures, constant wind, and strong sun.  Nights, however, are quite cool.  The ground is mostly sandy and reaches 23 feet at its highest point.  The low-lying coral island has long been noted as hard to sight from small ships and is surrounded by a narrow fringing reef.

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