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Baker Island<\/h2>\nIntroduction:<\/h3>\n
Baker Island is an uninhabited atoll located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean<\/a> about 1,920 miles southwest of Honolulu<\/a>. \u00a0The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii<\/a> and Australia<\/a>. \u00a0Its 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<\/a> considered them part of the British Empire<\/a> between 1897 and 1936.<\/p>\n The island covers 0.81 square mile with 3.0 miles of coastline.\u00a0 The climate is equatorial, with little rainfall, constant wind, and strong sunshine. \u00a0The 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.<\/p>\n The island now forms the Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge<\/a> and is an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the U.S<\/a>. which vouches for its defense. \u00a0It is visited annually by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.<\/a><\/p>\n A cemetery and rubble from earlier settlements are located near the middle of the west coast, where the boat landing area is located. \u00a0There are no ports or harbors, with anchorage prohibited offshore. \u00a0The narrow fringing reef surrounding the island can be a maritime hazard, so there is a day beacon near the old village site. \u00a0Baker’s abandoned World War II runway, 5,463 feet long, is completely covered with vegetation and is un-serviceable.<\/p>\n The United States claims an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles and territorial sea of 12 nautical miles around Baker Island.<\/p>\n Baker was discovered in 1818 by Captain Elisha Folger of the Nantucket<\/a> whaling ship Equator, who called the island “New Nantucket”. \u00a0In August 1825 Baker was sighted by Captain Obed Starbuck<\/a> of the Loper, also a Nantucket whaler. \u00a0The island is named for Michael Baker, who visited the island in 1834.\u00a0 Other references state that he visited in 1832, and again on August 14, 1839, in the whaler Gideon Howland, to bury an American seaman.\u00a0 Captain Baker claimed the island in 1855, then he sold his interest to a group who later formed the American Guano<\/a> Company.<\/p>\n The United States took possession of the island in 1857, claiming it under the Guano Islands Act of 1856<\/a>.\u00a0 Its guano deposits were mined by the American Guano Company from 1859 to 1878.<\/p>\n On 7 December 1886, the American Guano Company sold all its rights to the British firm John T. Arundel and Company<\/a>, which made the island its headquarters for guano digging operations in the Pacific from 1886 to 1891. \u00a0Arundel applied in 1897 to the British Colonial Office<\/a> for a license to work the island on the presumption that the USA had abandoned their claim. \u00a0The United Kingdom then considered Baker Island to be a British territory, although they never formally annexed it. \u00a0The United States raised the question at the beginning of the 1920s and after some diplomatic exchanges, they launched in 1935 the American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project<\/a> and issued on May 1936 Executive Order 7358 to clarify their sovereignty.<\/p>\n This short-lived attempt at colonization, via the American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project, began when American colonists arrived aboard the USCGC Itasca<\/a>, the same vessel that brought colonists to neighboring Howland Island, on April 3, 1935. \u00a0They built a lighthouse and substantial dwellings, and they attempted to grow various plants. \u00a0The settlement was named Meyerton, after Captain H.A. Meyer of the United States Army, who helped establish the camps in 1935. \u00a0One sad-looking clump of coconut palms was jokingly called King-Doyle Park after two well-known citizens of Hawaii who visited on the Taney in 1938. \u00a0This clump was the best on the island, planted near a water seep, but the dry climate and seabirds, eager for anything upon which to perch, did not give the trees or shrubs much of a chance to survive.\u00a0 King-Doyle Park was later adopted as a geographic name by the USGS. \u00a0Its population was four American civilians, all of whom were evacuated in 1942 after Japanese air and naval attacks. \u00a0During World War II it was occupied by the U.S. military.<\/p>\n On August 11, 1943, a US Army defense force arrived on Baker Island as part of the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign<\/a>. \u00a0In September 1943 a 5,463-foot airfield was opened and was subsequently used as a staging base by Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberator bombers<\/a> for attacks on Mili Atoll<\/a>.\u00a0 The 45th Fighter Squadron<\/a> operating P-40 fighters<\/a> operated from the airfield from September 1 – November 27, 1943. \u00a0By January 1, 1944 the airfield was abandoned.<\/p>\n LORAN radio navigation station<\/a> Baker was a radio operations base in operation from September 1944 to July 1946. \u00a0The station unit number was 91 and the radio call sign was NRN-1.<\/p>\n Baker has no natural fresh water sources. \u00a0It is treeless, with sparse vegetation consisting of four kinds of grass, prostrate vines and low-growing shrubs. \u00a0The island is primarily a nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds, and marine wildlife.<\/p>\n Several varieties of shorebirds and other species inhabit the island and nearby waters, some considered endangered. \u00a0The ruddy turnstone<\/a>, bar-tailed godwit<\/a>, sanderling<\/a> and Pacific golden plover<\/a> are considered species of least concern. \u00a0The bristle-thighed curlew<\/a> is considered vulnerable on the national conservation priority scheme. \u00a0Green turtles<\/a> and hawksbill turtles<\/a>, both critically endangered, can be found along the reef.<\/p>\n Seabird species such as the lesser frigatebird<\/a>, brown noddy<\/a> and sooty tern<\/a> use the island for nesting and roosting. \u00a0The island is also believed to be a rest stop for arctic-breeding shorebirds.<\/p>\n On June 27, 1974, Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton<\/a> created Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge which was expanded in 2009 to add submerged lands within 12 nautical miles of the island. \u00a0The refuge now includes 531 acres of land and 410,184 acres of water.\u00a0 Baker, along with six other islands, was administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex<\/a>. \u00a0In January 2009, that entity was re-designated the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument<\/a> by President George W. Bush<\/a>.<\/p>\n Environmental challenges include abandoned military debris from World War II<\/a> and illegal fishing offshore.\u00a0 Invasive exotics introduced by human activity, including cockroaches and coconut palms, have also displaced native wildlife. \u00a0Feral cats, first introduced in 1937, were eradicated in 1965.<\/p>\n 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. \u00a0Representatives from the agency visit the island on average once every two years, usually coordinating transportation with a NOAA<\/a> vessel.<\/p>\n Debris from past human occupation is scattered throughout the island and in offshore waters. \u00a0Most is from the U.S. military occupation of the island from 1942 to 1946. \u00a0The most noticeable remnant is the 5,400-by-150-foot airstrip. \u00a0It is completely overgrown with vegetation and unusable.\u00a0 In the northeast section, apparently the main camp area, are the remains of several buildings and heavy equipment. \u00a0Five wooden antenna poles about 40 feet in height remain standing in the camp.<\/p>\n Debris from several crashed airplanes and large equipment such as bulldozers is scattered around the island. \u00a0Numerous bulldozer excavations containing the remnants of metal, fuel and water drums are scattered about the north central portion and northern edge of the island. \u00a0The Navy reported the loss of 11 landing craft in the surf during World War II.<\/p>\n Howland Island is an uninhabited coral island located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, about 1,700 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu. \u00a0The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia and is an unincorporated, unorganized territory of the United States.<\/p>\n Geographically, together with Baker Island it forms part of the Phoenix Islands<\/a>.\u00a0 It covers 1,112 acres with 4 miles of coastline. \u00a0The island has an elongated plantain-shape on a north\u2013south axis. \u00a0There is no lagoon.<\/p>\n Howland Island National Wildlife Refug<\/a>e consists of the entire island and the surrounding 32,074 acres of submerged land. \u00a0The island is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an insular area under the U.S. Department of the Interior<\/a> and is part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.<\/p>\n The atoll has no economic activity. \u00a0It is perhaps best known as the island Amelia Earhart<\/a> was searching for but never reached when her airplane disappeared on July 2, 1937, during her planned round-the-world flight. \u00a0Airstrips constructed to accommodate her planned stopover were subsequently damaged, were not maintained and gradually disappeared. \u00a0There are no harbors or docks. \u00a0The fringing reefs may pose a maritime hazard. \u00a0There is a boat landing area along the middle of the sandy beach on the west coast, as well as a crumbling day beacon. \u00a0The island is visited every two years by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.<\/p>\n The U.S. claims an Exclusive Economic Zone<\/a> of 200 nautical miles and a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles around the island.<\/p>\n The climate is equatorial, with little rainfall and intense sunshine. \u00a0Temperatures are moderated somewhat by a constant wind from the east. \u00a0The terrain is low-lying and sandy: a coral island surrounded by a narrow fringing reef with a slightly raised central area. \u00a0The highest point is about twenty feet above sea level.<\/p>\n There are no natural fresh water resources.\u00a0 The landscape features scattered grasses along with prostrate vines and low-growing pisonia trees<\/a> and shrubs. \u00a0A 1942 eyewitness description spoke of “a low grove of dead and decaying kou trees<\/a>” on a very shallow hill at the island’s center. \u00a0In 2000, a visitor accompanying a scientific expedition reported seeing “a flat bulldozed plain of coral sand, without a single tree” and some traces of building ruins from colonization or World War II building efforts, though it was all wood and stone ruins covered in flora and fauna that continues to grow on this island to this day.\u00a0 Howland is primarily a nesting, roosting and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds and marine wildlife.<\/p>\n Sparse remnants of trails and other artifacts indicate a sporadic early Polynesian<\/a> presence. \u00a0A canoe, a blue bead, pieces of bamboo, and other relics of early settlers have been found.\u00a0 The island’s prehistoric settlement may have begun about 1000 BC when eastern Melanesians<\/a> traveled north and may have extended down to Rawaki<\/a>, Kanton<\/a>, Manra <\/a>and Orona<\/a> of the Phoenix Islands, 300 to 430 miles southeast. \u00a0K.P. Emery, an ethnologist for Honolulu’s Bernice P. Bishop Museum<\/a>, indicated that settlers on Manra Island were apparently of two distinct groups, one Polynesian and the other Micronesian, hence the same might have been true on Howland Island, though no proof of this has been found.<\/p>\n The difficult life on these isolated islands along with unreliable fresh water supplies may have led to the dereliction or extinction of the settlements, much the same as other islands in the area.<\/p>\n Captain George B. Worth of the Nantucket whaler Oeno sighted Howland around 1822 and called it Worth Island.\u00a0 Daniel MacKenzie of the American whaler Minerva Smith was unaware of Worth’s sighting when he charted the island in 1828 and named it after his ship’s owners on December 1, 1828. \u00a0Howland Island was at last named on September 9, 1842 after a lookout who sighted it from the whaleship Isabella under Captain Geo. E. Netcher of New Bedford.<\/p>\n Howland Island was uninhabited when the United States took possession of it under the Guano Islands Act of 1856. \u00a0The island was a known navigation hazard for many decades and several ships were wrecked there. \u00a0Its guano deposits were mined by American companies from about 1857 until October 1878, although not without controversy.<\/p>\n Captain Geo. E. Netcher of the Isabella informed Captain Taylor of its discovery. \u00a0As Taylor had discovered another guano island in the Indian Ocean, they agreed to share the benefits of the guano on the two islands. \u00a0Taylor put Netcher in communication with Alfred G. Benson, president of the American Guano Company, which was incorporated in 1857.\u00a0 Other entrepreneurs were approached as George and Matthew Howland, who later became members of the United States Guano Company, engaged Mr. Stetson to visit the Island on the ship Rousseau under Captain Pope. \u00a0Mr. Stetson arrived on the Island in 1854 and described it as being occupied by birds and a plague of rats.<\/p>\n The American Guano Company established claims in respect to Baker Island and Jarvis Island which was recognized under the U.S. Guano Islands Act of 1856. \u00a0Benson tried to interest the American Guano Company in the Howland Island deposits; however the company directors considered they already had sufficient deposits. \u00a0In October 1857 the American Guano Company sent Benson’s son Arthur to Baker and Jarvis Islands to survey the guano deposits. \u00a0He also visited Howland Island and took samples of the guano. \u00a0Subsequently, Alfred G. Benson resigned from the American Guano Company and together with Netcher, Taylor and George W. Benson formed the United States Guano Company to exploit the guano on Howland Island, with this claim being recognized under the U.S. Guano Islands Act of 1856.<\/p>\n However, when the United States Guano Company dispatched a vessel in 1859 to mine the guano they found that Howland Island was already occupied by men sent there by the American Guano Company. \u00a0The companies ended up in New York state court, with the American Guano Company arguing that United States Guano Company had in effect abandoned the island, since the continual possession and actual occupation required for ownership by the Guano Islands Act did not occur. \u00a0The end result was that both companies were allowed to mine the guano deposits, which were substantially depleted by October 1878.<\/p>\n In the late 19th century there were British claims on the island, as well as attempts at setting up mining. \u00a0John T. Arundel and Company, a British firm using laborers from the Cook Islands and Niue, occupied the island from 1886 to 1891.<\/p>\n To clarify American sovereignty, Executive Order 7368 was issued on May 13, 1936.<\/p>\n In 1935, colonists from the American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project arrived on the island to establish a permanent U.S. presence in the Central Pacific. \u00a0It began with a rotating group of four alumni and students from the Kamehameha School for Boys<\/a>, a private school in Honolulu. \u00a0Although the recruits had signed on as part of a scientific expedition and expected to spend their three-month assignment collecting botanical and biological samples, once out to sea they were told, “Your names will go down in history” and that the islands would become “famous air bases in a route that will connect Australia with California<\/a>“.<\/p>\n The settlement was named Itascatown after the USCGC Itasca that brought the colonists to Howland and made regular cruises between the other equatorial islands during that era. \u00a0Itascatown was a line of a half-dozen small wood-framed structures and tents near the beach on the island’s western side. \u00a0The fledgling colonists were given large stocks of canned food, water, and other supplies including a gasoline-powered refrigerator, radio equipment, complete medical kits and, characteristic of that era, vast quantities of cigarettes. \u00a0Fishing provided much-needed variety for their diet. \u00a0Most of the colonists’ endeavors involved making hourly weather observations and gradually developing a rudimentary infrastructure on the island, including the clearing of a landing strip for airplanes.\u00a0 Similar colonization projects were started on nearby Baker Island, Jarvis Island and two other islands.<\/p>\n Ground was cleared for a rudimentary aircraft landing area during the mid-1930s, in anticipation that the island might eventually become a stopover for commercial trans-Pacific air routes and also to further U.S. territorial claims in the region against rival claims from Great Britain. \u00a0Howland Island was designated as a scheduled refueling stop for American pilot Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan<\/a> on their round-the-world flight in 1937. \u00a0Works Progress Administration (WPA)<\/a> funds were used by the Bureau of Air Commerce<\/a> to construct three graded, unpaved runways meant to accommodate Earhart’s twin-engined Lockheed Model 10 Electra<\/a>.<\/p>\n The facility was named Kamakaiwi Field after James Kamakaiwi, a young Hawaiian who arrived with the first group of four colonists. \u00a0He was selected as the group’s leader and he spent more than three years on Howland, far longer than the average recruit. \u00a0It has also been referred to as WPA Howland Airport.\u00a0 Earhart and Noonan took off from Lae<\/a>, New Guinea<\/a>, and their radio transmissions were picked up near the island when their aircraft reached the vicinity but they were never seen again.<\/p>\n A Japanese air attack on December 8, 1941 by 14 twin-engined Mitsubishi G3M “Nell” bombers<\/a> of Chitose K\u014dk\u016btai<\/a>, from Kwajalein islands<\/a>, killed two of the Kamehameha School colonists: Richard “Dicky” Kanani Whaley, and Joseph Kealoha Keli\u02bbhananui. \u00a0The raid came one day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and damaged the three airstrips of Kamakaiwi Field. \u00a0Two days later a Japanese submarine shelled what was left of the colony’s few buildings into ruins.\u00a0 A single bomber returned twice during the following weeks and dropped more bombs on the rubble of tiny Itascatown. \u00a0The two survivors were finally evacuated by the USS Helm<\/a>, a U.S. Navy destroyer, on January 31, 1942. \u00a0Howland was occupied by a battalion of the United States Marine Corps<\/a> in September 1943 and known as Howland Naval Air Station until May 1944.<\/p>\n All attempts at habitation were abandoned after 1944. \u00a0Colonization projects on the other four islands were also disrupted by the war and ended at this time.\u00a0 No aircraft is known to have ever landed there, although anchorages nearby could be used by float planes and flying boats during World War II. \u00a0For example, on July 10, 1944, a U.S. Navy Martin PBM-3-D Mariner flying boat<\/a>, piloted by William Hines, had an engine fire and made a forced landing in the ocean offshore of Howland. \u00a0Hines beached the aircraft and although it burned, the crew escaped unharmed, was rescued by the USCGC Balsam<\/a>, transferred to a sub chaser and taken to Canton Island.<\/p>\n On June 27, 1974, Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton created Howland Island National Wildlife Refuge which was expanded in 2009 to add submerged lands within 12 nautical miles of the island. \u00a0The refuge now includes 648 acres of land and 410,351 acres of water.<\/p>\n 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. \u00a0In January 2009, that entity was upgraded to the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument by President George W. Bush.<\/p>\n The island habitat has suffered from the presence from multiple invasive exotic species. \u00a0Black rats were introduced in 1854 and eradicated in 1938 by feral cats introduced the year before. \u00a0The cats proved to be destructive to bird species, and the cats were eliminated by 1985. \u00a0Pacific crabgrass continues to compete with local plants.<\/p>\n 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. \u00a0Representatives 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<\/a> to defray the high cost of logistical support.<\/p>\n Colonists, sent to the island in the mid-1930s to establish possession claims by the United States, built the Earhart Light<\/a>, named after Amelia Earhart, as a day beacon or navigational landmark. \u00a0It is shaped somewhat like a short lighthouse. \u00a0It 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. \u00a0It is located near the boat landing at the middle of the west coast by the former site of Itascatown. \u00a0The 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n By 2000, the beacon was reported to be crumbling and it had not been repainted in decades.<\/p>\n Ann Pellegreno<\/a> overflew the island in 1967, and Linda Finch<\/a> did so in 1997, during memorial circumnavigation flights to commemorate Earhart’s 1937 world flight. \u00a0No landings were attempted but both Pellegreno and Finch flew low enough to drop a wreath on the island.<\/p>\n Jarvis Island, formerly known as Bunker Island, or Bunker’s Shoal, is an uninhabited 1 3\u20444-square-mile coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands<\/a>.\u00a0 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<\/a> system.\u00a0 Unlike most coral atolls, the lagoon on Jarvis is wholly dry.<\/p>\n While a few offshore anchorage spots are marked on maps, Jarvis Island has no ports or harbors, and swift currents are a hazard. \u00a0There 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.\u00a0 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. \u00a0The island has a tropical desert climate, with high daytime temperatures, constant wind, and strong sun. \u00a0Nights, however, are quite cool. \u00a0The ground is mostly sandy and reaches 23 feet at its highest point. \u00a0The low-lying coral island has long been noted as hard to sight from small ships and is surrounded by a narrow fringing reef.<\/p>\n Jarvis Island is one of two United States territories that are in the southern hemisphere (the other is American Samoa<\/a>). \u00a0Located only 25 miles south of the equator, Jarvis has no known natural freshwater lens and scant rainfall.\u00a0 This creates a very bleak, flat landscape without any plants larger than shrubs.\u00a0 There is no evidence that the island has ever supported a self-sustaining human population. \u00a0Its sparse bunch grass, prostrate vines and low-growing shrubs are primarily a nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds, and marine wildlife.<\/p>\n The island’s first known sighting by Europeans was on August 21, 1821 by the British ship Eliza Francis owned by Edward, Thomas and William Jarvis and commanded by Captain Brown.<\/p>\n The US Exploring Expedition<\/a> surveyed the island in 1841.\u00a0 In March 1857 the island was claimed for the United States under the Guano Islands Act and formally annexed on February 27, 1858.<\/p>\n The American Guano Company, which was incorporated in 1857, established claims in respect of Baker Island and Jarvis Island which was recognized under the U.S. Guano Islands Act of 1856.\u00a0 Beginning in 1858, several support structures were built on Jarvis Island, along with a two-story, eight-room “superintendent’s house” featuring an observation cupola and wide veranda’s. \u00a0Tram tracks were laid down for bringing mined guano to the western shore.\u00a0 For the following twenty-one years, Jarvis was commercially mined for guano, sent to the United States as fertilizer, but the island was abruptly abandoned in 1879, leaving behind about a dozen buildings and 8,000 tons of mined guano.<\/p>\n New Zealand<\/a> entrepreneurs, including photographer Henry Winkelmann<\/a>, then made unsuccessful attempts to continue guano extraction on Jarvis, and the two-story house was sporadically inhabited during the early 1880s. \u00a0Squire Flockton was left alone on the island as caretaker for several months and committed suicide there in 1883, apparently from gin-fueled despair.\u00a0 His wooden grave marker was a carved plank which could be seen in the island’s tiny four-grave cemetery for decades.<\/p>\n John T. Arundel & Co. resumed mining guano from 1886 to 1899.\u00a0 The United Kingdom annexed the island on June 3, 1889. \u00a0Phosphate and copra entrepreneur John T. Arundel visited the island in 1909 on maiden voyage of the S.S. Ocean Queen and near the beach landing on the western shore members of the crew built a pyramidal day beacon made from slats of wood, which was painted white.\u00a0 The beacon was standing in 1935, and remained until at least 1942.<\/p>\n Jarvis Island was reclaimed by the United States government and colonized from March 26, 1935 onwards, under the American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project. \u00a0President Franklin D. Roosevelt<\/a> assigned administration of the island to the U.S. Department of the Interior on May 13, 1936.\u00a0 Starting out as a cluster of large, open tents pitched next to the still-standing white wooden day beacon, the Millersville settlement on the island’s western shore was named after a bureaucrat with the United States Department of Air Commerce. \u00a0The settlement grew into a group of shacks built mostly with wreckage from foundered ships, lumber was also used by Hawaiian colonists to build surfboards, but later, stone and wood dwellings were built and equipped with refrigeration, radio equipment, and a weather station.\u00a0 A crude aircraft landing area was cleared on the northeast side of the island, and a T-shaped marker which was intended to be seen from the air was made from gathered stones, but no airplane is known to have ever landed there.<\/p>\n At the beginning of World War II, an Imperial Japanese Navy<\/a> submarine surfaced off the west coast of the Island. \u00a0Believing that it was a U.S. Navy submarine which had come to fetch them, the four young colonists rushed down the steep western beach in front of Millersville towards the shore. \u00a0The submarine answered their waves with fire from its deck gun, but no one was hurt in the attack. \u00a0On February 7, 1942, the USCGC Taney<\/a> evacuated the colonists, then shelled and burned the dwellings. \u00a0The roughly cleared landing area on the island’s northeast end was later shelled by the Japanese, leaving crater holes.<\/p>\n Jarvis was visited by scientists during the International Geophysical Year<\/a> from July 1957 until November 1958. \u00a0In January 1958 all scattered building ruins from both the nineteenth century guano diggings and the 1935\u20131942 colonization attempt were swept away without a trace by a severe storm which lasted several days and was witnessed by the scientists. \u00a0When the IGY research project ended the island was abandoned again.\u00a0 By the early 1960s a few sheds, a century of accumulated trash, the scientists’ house from the late 1950s and a solid, short lighthouse-like day beacon built two decades before were the only signs of human habitation on Jarvis.<\/p>\n On June 27, 1974, Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton created Jarvis Island National Wildlife Refuge which was expanded in 2009 to add submerged lands within 12 nautical miles of the island. \u00a0The refuge now includes 1,273 acres of land and 428,580 acres of water.\u00a0 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. \u00a0In January 2009, that entity was upgraded to the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument by President George W. Bush.<\/p>\n A feral cat population, descendants of cats likely brought by colonists in the 1930s, wrought disruption to the island’s wildlife and vegetation. \u00a0These cats were removed through efforts which began in the mid-1960s and lasted until 1990 when they were completely eradicated.\u00a0 Nineteenth-century tram track remains can be seen in the dried lagoon bed at the island’s center and the late 1930s-era lighthouse-shaped day beacon still stands on the western shore at the site of Millersville.<\/p>\n Public entry to any one including US citizens on Jarvis Island requires a special-use permit and is generally restricted to scientists and educators. \u00a0The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the United States Coast Guard periodically visit Jarvis.<\/p>\n There is no airport on the island, nor does the island contain any large terminal or port. \u00a0There is a day beacon near the middle of the west coast. Some offshore anchorage is available.<\/p>\n Kingman Reef is a largely submerged, uninhabited triangular-shaped reef, 9.5 nautical miles east-west and 5 nautical miles north-south, located in the North Pacific Ocean, roughly halfway between the Hawaiian Islands and American Samoa.\u00a0 It is the northernmost of the Northern Line Islands<\/a> and lies 36 nautical miles northwest of the next closest island, and 930 nautical miles south of Honolulu.<\/p>\n The reef encloses a lagoon up to 270 feet deep in its western part.\u00a0 The total area within the outer rim of the reef is 29 square miles. \u00a0There are two small strips of dry land composed of coral rubble and giant clamshells on the eastern rim with areas of 2 and 1 acre having a coastline of 2 miles. \u00a0The highest point on the reef is less than 5 feet above sea level, which is wetted or awash most of the time, making Kingman Reef a maritime hazard. \u00a0It has no natural resources and supports no economic activity.<\/p>\n Kingman Reef has the status of an unincorporated territory of the United States, administered from Washington, D.C<\/a>. by the U.S. Department of Interior. \u00a0The atoll is closed to the public. \u00a0In January 2009, Kingman Reef was designated a marine national monument.<\/p>\n Kingman Reef was discovered by the American Captain Edmund Fanning<\/a> of the ship Betsey on June 14, 1798. \u00a0Captain W. E. Kingman described it on November 29, 1853. \u00a0Kingman Reef was claimed in 1860 by the United States Guano Company, under the name “Danger Reef”.\u00a0 This claim was made under by the Guano Islands Act of 1856 although there is no evidence that guano existed or was ever mined on Kingman Reef.<\/p>\n On December 29, 1934, the US Navy assumed jurisdiction over Kingman Reef.\u00a0 The lagoon was used in 1937 and 1938 as a halfway station between Hawai’i and American Samoa by Pan American Airways<\/a> flying boats (Sikorsky S-42B<\/a>).\u00a0 Pan Am wanted to expand flights into the Pacific and include Australia and New Zealand to their “Clipper” air routes. \u00a0In 1935 it was decided that the lagoon at Kingman Reef was suitable for overnight stops en-route from the U.S. to New Zealand via Samoa. \u00a0Kingman Reef became the stopover to and from Pago Pago<\/a>, American Samoa, located 1,600 miles further south. \u00a0A supply ship, the North Wind, was stationed at Kingman Reef to provide fuel, lodging, and meals. \u00a0The S42B Pan American Clipper II, piloted by Captain Edwin Musick<\/a>, landed at Kingman on its first flight on March 23, 1937. \u00a0Several successful flights followed, but the flight on January 11, 1938 ended in tragedy. \u00a0Shortly after the early morning take off from Pago Pago, bound for New Zealand, the Clipper exploded. \u00a0The right outboard engine had developed an oil leak and the plane burst into flames while dumping fuel; there were no survivors. \u00a0As a result of the tragedy, Pan Am ended flights to New Zealand via Kingman Reef and Pago Pago. \u00a0A new route was established in July 1940 by way of Canton Island and New Caledonia<\/a>.<\/p>\n On February 14, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8682 to create naval defenses areas in the central Pacific territories. \u00a0The proclamation established “Kingman Reef Naval Defensive Sea Area” which encompassed the territorial waters between the extreme high-water marks and the three-mile marine boundaries surrounding the atoll. \u00a0“Kingman Naval Airspace Reservation” was also established to restrict access to the airspace over the naval defense sea area. \u00a0Only U.S. government ships and aircraft were permitted to enter the naval defense areas at Kingman Reef unless authorized by the Secretary of the Navy.<\/p>\n Kingman Reef supports a vast variety of marine life. \u00a0Giant clams are abundant in the shallows, and there are approximately 38 genera and 130 species of stony corals present on the reef. \u00a0This is more than three times the species diversity of corals found in the main Hawaiian Islands. \u00a0The ecosystem of the reef and its subsequent food chain are known for the distinct quality of being primarily predator-based.\u00a0 The percentage of the total fish biomass on the reef is made up of 85% apex predators, creating a high level of competition for food and nutrients among local organisms \u2014 particularly sharks, jacks, and other carnivores. \u00a0The threatened green sea turtles that frequent nearby Palmyra Atoll<\/a> travel to Kingman Reef to forage and bask on the coral rubble spits at low tide.<\/p>\n However, above sea level, the reef is usually barren of macro-organisms. \u00a0Mainly constructed of dead and dried coral skeletons, providing only calcite as a source of nutrients, the small and narrow strips of dry land are only habitable by a handful of species for short periods of time. \u00a0Most flora which begin to grow above water \u2014 primarily coconut palms \u2014 die out quickly due to the fierce tides and lack of resources necessary to sustain plant life.<\/p>\n On September 1, 2000, the Navy relinquished its control over Kingman Reef to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. \u00a0On January 18, 2001 Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt<\/a> created the Kingman Reef National Wildlife Refuge<\/a> during his final days in office with Secretary’s Order 3223. \u00a0It is composed of the emergent coral rubble spits and all waters out to 12 nautical miles. \u00a0While there are only 3 acres of land, 483,754 acres of water area is included in the Refuge.\u00a0 Along with six other islands, the reef was administered as part of the Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex. \u00a0In January 2009, that entity was upgraded to the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument by President George W. Bush.<\/p>\n![\"Aerial](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Aerial-View-of-Baker-Island-300x180.gif\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Baker](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Baker-Island-from-Satellite-300x212.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Description:<\/h3>\n
![\"Baker](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Baker-Island-Light-225x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
History:<\/h3>\n
![\"Baker](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Baker-Island-Location-300x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Brown](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Brown-Noddies-and-Radio-Masts-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Masked](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Maked-Booby-on-Gravestone-300x216.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Landing](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Landing-Craft-Wreckage-on-Baker-Island-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Flora and Fauna:<\/h3>\n
![\"Hermit](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Hermit-Crabs-in-Lighthouse-225x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Red](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Red-Footed-Booby-on-Baker-Island-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
National Wildlife Refuge:<\/h3>\n
![\"FWS](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/FWS-Sign-on-Baker-Island-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Ruins and Artifacts:<\/h3>\n
![\"Settlement](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Settlement-Remains-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Howland Island<\/h2>\n
Introduction:<\/h3>\n
![\"Location](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Location-of-Howland-Island-300x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Map](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Map-of-Howland-Island-279x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
Flora and Fauna:<\/h3>\n
![\"Ruddy](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Ruddy-Turnstones-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
History:<\/h3>\n
Prehistoric Settlement:<\/h4>\n
Sightings By Whalers:<\/h4>\n
![\"Howland](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Howland-Island-from-Space-300x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
U.S. Possession and Guano Mining:<\/h4>\n
Itascatown 1935\u20131942:<\/h4>\n
![\"Settlement](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Settlement-Remains-1-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Kamakaiwi Field:<\/h4>\n
![\"Aircraft](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Aircraft-Wreckage-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Japanese Attacks During World War II:<\/h4>\n
![\"Local](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Local-Plants-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
National Wildlife Refuge:<\/h4>\n
![\"Howland](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Howland-Island-NWR.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Brown](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Brown-Boobies-in-Flight-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Local](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Local-Flora-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Brown](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Brown-Boobies-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Earhart Light :<\/h3>\n
![\"Earhart](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Earhart-Light-236x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Howland](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Howland-Island-Light-225x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Jarvis Island<\/h2>\n
Introduction:<\/h3>\n
![\"Jarvis](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Jarvis-Island-Location-300x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
Geography and Ecology:<\/h3>\n
![\"Jarvis](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Jarvis-Island-from-Space-300x225.png\" "\\"\\"")
History:<\/h3>\n
Discovery:<\/h4>\n
Nineteenth Century Guano Mining:<\/h4>\n
![\"Guano](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Guano-Mining-Remains-204x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Map](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Map-of-Jarvis-Island-279x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
Millersville (1935\u20131942):<\/h4>\n
![\"Jarvis](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Jarvis-Island-Light-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
International Geophysical Year:<\/h4>\n
National Wildlife Refuge:<\/h4>\n
![\"Jarvis](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Jarvis-Island-NWR-300x197.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Transportation:<\/h3>\n
Kingman Reef<\/h2>\n
Introduction:<\/h3>\n
![\"Kingman](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Kingman-Reef-Location-300x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
Political Status:<\/h3>\n
History:<\/h3>\n
![\"Dry](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Dry-Strip-of-Land-on-Kingman-Reef-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Ecology:<\/h3>\n
![\"Kingman](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Kingman-Reef-From-Space-300x185.png\" "\\"\\"")
National Wildlife Refuge:<\/h3>\n
![\"Kingman](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Kingman-Reef-Looking-North-300x199.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Amateur Radio Expeditions:<\/h3>\n