Howland Island
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Howland Island () is an uninhabited
coral island A coral island is a type of island formed from coral detritus and associated organic material. It occurs in tropical and sub-tropical areas, typically as part of a coral reef which has grown to cover a far larger area under the sea. Ecosystem ...
located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, about southwest of
Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
. The island lies almost halfway between
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...
and Australia and is an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States. Together with
Baker Island Baker Island, formerly known as New Nantucket, is an uninhabited atoll just north of the Equator in the central Pacific Ocean about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbor is H ...
it forms part of the
Phoenix Islands The Phoenix Islands, or Rawaki, are a group of eight atolls and two submerged coral reefs that lie east of the Gilbert Islands and west of the Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, north of Samoa. They are part of the Republic of Kiri ...
. For statistical purposes, Howland is grouped as one of the
United States Minor Outlying Islands The United States Minor Outlying Islands is a statistical designation defined by the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 3166-1 code. The entry code is ISO 3166-2:UM. The minor outlying islands and groups of islands consist ...
. The island has an elongated cucumber-shape on a north–south axis, , and covers . Howland Island National Wildlife Refuge consists of the entire island and the surrounding of submerged land. The island is managed by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...
as an
insular area In the law of the United States, an insular area is a U.S.-associated jurisdiction that is not part of the 50 states or the District of Columbia. This includes fourteen U.S. territories administered under U.S. sovereignty, as well as three so ...
under the
U.S. Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the man ...
and is part of the
Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument is a group of unorganized, mostly unincorporated United States Pacific Island territories managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States Department of the Int ...
. The atoll has no
economic activity Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes w ...
. It is perhaps best known as the island Amelia Earhart was searching for but never reached when her airplane disappeared on , during her planned round-the-world flight. Airstrips constructed to accommodate her planned stopover were subsequently damaged, not maintained and gradually disappeared. There are no harbors or docks. The
fringing reef A fringing reef is one of the three main types of coral reef. It is distinguished from the other main types, barrier reefs and atolls, in that it has either an entirely shallow backreef zone (lagoon) or none at all. If a fringing reef grows direc ...
s may pose a maritime hazard. There is a boat landing area along the middle of the sandy beach on the west coast, as well as a crumbling
day beacon A day beacon (sometimes "daybeacon") is an unlighted nautical sea mark. A signboard identifying it is called a day mark. Day beacons typically mark channels whose key points are marked by lighted buoys. They may also mark smaller navigable rout ...
. The island is visited every two years by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.


Flora and fauna

The climate is equatorial, with little rainfall and intense sunshine. Temperatures are moderated somewhat by a constant wind from the east. The terrain is low-lying and sandy: a coral island surrounded by a narrow fringing
reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock o ...
with a slightly raised central area. The highest point is about six meters above
sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...
. There are no natural fresh water resources."United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges."
''CIA: The World Factbook.'' . Retrieved: November 25, 2010.
The landscape features scattered grasses along with prostrate vines and low-growing
pisonia ''Pisonia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the four o'clock flower family, Nyctaginaceae. It was named for Dutch physician and naturalist Willem Piso (1611–1678). Certain species in this genus are known as catchbirdtrees, birdcatcher trees o ...
trees and shrubs. A 1942 eyewitness description spoke of "a low grove of dead and decaying kou trees" on a very shallow hill at the island's center. In 2000, a visitor accompanying a scientific expedition reported seeing "a flat bulldozed plain of coral sand, without a single tree" and some traces of buildings from colonization or World War II building efforts, all wood and stone ruins overgrown by vegetation. Howland is primarily a nesting, roosting and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds and marine wildlife. The island, with its surrounding marine waters, has been recognized as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports
seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...
colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...
of
lesser frigatebird The lesser frigatebird (''Fregata ariel'') is a seabird of the frigatebird family Fregatidae. At around 75 cm (30 in) in length, it is the smallest species of frigatebird. It occurs over tropical and subtropical waters across the Indian ...
s, masked boobies, red-tailed tropicbirds and sooty terns, as well as serving as a migratory stopover for
bristle-thighed curlew The bristle-thighed curlew (''Numenius tahitiensis'') is a medium-sized shorebird that breeds in Alaska and winters on tropical Pacific islands. It is known in Mangareva as ''kivi'' or ''kivikivi'' and in Rakahanga as ''kihi''; it is said to be ...
s.


Economics

The U.S. claims an Exclusive Economic Zone of and a
territorial sea The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and poten ...
of around the island.


Time zone

Since Howland Island is uninhabited, no time zone is specified. It lies within a nautical time zone which is 12 hours behind UTC, named International Date Line West ( IDLW). Howland Island and
Baker Island Baker Island, formerly known as New Nantucket, is an uninhabited atoll just north of the Equator in the central Pacific Ocean about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbor is H ...
are the only places on Earth observing this time zone. This time zone is also called AoE,
Anywhere on Earth Anywhere on Earth (AoE) is a calendar designation that indicates that a period expires when the date passes everywhere on Earth. It is a practice to help specify easy to understand deadlines such as "March 16, 2004, End of Day, Anywhere on Earth ( ...
, which is a calendar designation which indicates that a period expires when the date passes everywhere on Earth.


History


Prehistoric settlement

Sparse remnants of trails and other surface features indicate a possible early Polynesian presence, including excavations and mounds along with stacked rocks and a footpath made of long flat stones. In the 1860s, James Duncan Hague noted discovering the remains of a hut, canoe fragments, a blue bead, and a human skeleton buried in the sand. However, the perishable nature of the wooden materials and the lack of bead work in Polynesia suggests these materials are historic in nature. The presence of the kou tree (''
Cordia subcordata ''Cordia subcordata'' is a species of flowering tree in the borage family, Boraginaceae, that occurs in eastern Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, northern Australia and the Pacific Islands (including Hawaii). The plant is known by a variety o ...
'') and
Polynesian rat The Polynesian rat, Pacific rat or little rat (''Rattus exulans''), known to the Māori as ''kiore'', is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat. The Polynesian rat originated in Southeast Asia, ...
s (''Rattus exulans'') on the island is also considered a possible indicator of early Polynesian visits to Howland. However, the only modern archaeological survey of Howland, conducted by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1987, found no evidence of prehistoric settlement or use of the island but sub-surface testing was limited in scope due to time constraints. Additionally, the USACE survey failed to locate the architectural features described by Hague though they concede this may be due to the destruction of these features later during the construction of an airstrip. A later conservation plan by the US Fish and Wildlife Service suggests that Howland was likely used as a stop over or meeting point as opposed to permanently occupied.


Sightings by whalers

Captain George B. Worth of the Nantucket whaler '' Oeno'' sighted Howland around 1822 and called it Worth Island. 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 . Howland Island was at last named on after a lookout who sighted it from the whaleship ''Isabella'' under Captain Geo. E. Netcher of
New Bedford New Bedford (Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast region. Up through the 17th century, the area was the territory of the Wampanoag Native American pe ...
.
Captain William Bligh Vice-admiral (Royal Navy), Vice-Admiral William Bligh (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was an officer of the Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. The Mutiny on the Bounty, mutiny on the HMS ''Bounty'' occurred in 1789 when the ship ...
of '' HMS Bounty'', in his diary after the mutiny, described stopping at this Island shortly after being set adrift by the mutineers in April, 1789. He had 18 crew members who scoured the island for sustenance such as oysters, water, and birds. Bligh was unsure of the name of the island but apparently it was known to cartographers. Bligh's account on Howland Island is open to question since his route in the boat began between
Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...
and Tofua and ran more or less west directly to
Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western part. The Indonesian part, also ...
.


U.S. possession and guano mining

Howland Island was uninhabited when the United States took possession of it under the
Guano Islands Act The Guano Islands Act (, enacted August 18, 1856, codified at §§ 1411-1419) is a United States federal law passed by the U.S. Congress that enables citizens of the United States to take possession, in the name of the United States, of unclai ...
of 1856. The island was a known navigation hazard for many decades and several ships were wrecked there. Its guano deposits were mined by American companies from about 1857 until October1878, although not without controversy. Captain Geo. E. Netcher of the ''Isabella'' informed Captain Taylor of its discovery. As Taylor had discovered another guano island in the Indian Ocean, they agreed to share the benefits of the guano on the two islands. Taylor put Netcher in communication with Alfred G. Benson, president of the American Guano Company, which was incorporated in 1857."The Guano Companies in Litigation – A Case of Interest to Stockholders."
''The New York Times'', May 3, 1865. Retrieved: March 23, 2013.
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. Mr. Stetson arrived on the Island in 1854 and described it as being occupied by birds and a plague of rats.Howland, Llewellyn
"Howland Island, Its Birds and Rats, as Observed by a Certain Mr. Stetson in 1854."
''Pacific Science'', Vol. IX, April 1955, pp. 95–106. Retrieved: March 23, 2013.
The American Guano Company established claims in respect to
Baker Island Baker Island, formerly known as New Nantucket, is an uninhabited atoll just north of the Equator in the central Pacific Ocean about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbor is H ...
and
Jarvis Island Jarvis Island (; formerly known as Bunker Island or Bunker's Shoal) is an uninhabited coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands. It is an unincorporated, unorganized territory of the Un ...
which were recognised under the U.S. Guano Islands Act of 1856. Benson tried to interest the American Guano Company in the Howland Island deposits, however the company directors considered they already had sufficient deposits. In October1857 the American Guano Company sent Benson's son Arthur to Baker and Jarvis Islands to survey the guano deposits. He also visited Howland Island and took samples of the guano. Subsequently, 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 recognised under the U.S. Guano Islands Act of 1856. However, when the United States Guano Company dispatched a vessel of their own in 1859 to mine the guano they found that Howland Island was already occupied by men sent there by the American Guano Company. The 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. The result was that both companies were allowed to mine the guano deposits, which were substantially depleted by October1878. Laborers for the mining operations came from around the Pacific, including from Hawaii; the Hawaiian laborers named Howland Island ('kou tree grove'). In the late 19th century there were British claims on the island, as well as attempts at setting up mining.
John T. Arundel John T. Arundel (1 September 1841 – 30 November 1919) was an English entrepreneur who was instrumental in the development of the mining of phosphate rock on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Banaba (Ocean Island). Williams & Macdonald (1985) ...
and Company, a British firm using laborers from the
Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...
and
Niue Niue (, ; niu, Niuē) is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Zealand. Niue's land area is about and its population, predominantly Polynesian, was about 1,600 in 2016. Niue is located in a triangle between Tong ...
, occupied the island from 1886 to 1891. To clarify American sovereignty, Executive Order 7368 was issued on .


Itascatown (1935–42)

In 1935, colonists from the
American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project The American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project was a plan initiated in 1935 by the U.S. Department of Commerce to place citizens of the United States on uninhabited Howland, Baker and Jarvis islands in the central Pacific Ocean so that we ...
arrived on the island to establish a permanent U.S. presence in the Central Pacific. It began with a rotating group of four alumni and students from the
Kamehameha School Kamehameha Schools, formerly called Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate (KSBE), is a private school system in Hawaii established by the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, under the terms of the will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, who was a formal membe ...
for Boys, a private school in
Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
. Although 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, according to one of the Jarvis Island colonists, George West, "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". 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. Itascatown was a line of a half-dozen small wood-framed structures and tents near the beach on the island's western side. The fledgling colonists were given large stocks of canned food, water, and other supplies including a gasoline-powered refrigerator, radio equipment, medical kits and (characteristic of that era) vast quantities of cigarettes. Fishing provided variety in their diet. Most of the colonists' endeavors involved making hourly weather observations and constructing rudimentary infrastructure on the island, including the clearing of a landing strip for airplanes. During this period the island was on Hawaii time, which was then 10.5hours behind UTC. Similar colonization projects were started on nearby
Baker Island Baker Island, formerly known as New Nantucket, is an uninhabited atoll just north of the Equator in the central Pacific Ocean about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbor is H ...
and
Jarvis Island Jarvis Island (; formerly known as Bunker Island or Bunker's Shoal) is an uninhabited coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands. It is an unincorporated, unorganized territory of the Un ...
, as well as
Canton Island Canton Island (also known as Kanton or Abariringa), previously known as Mary Island, Mary Balcout's Island or Swallow Island, is the largest, northernmost, and , the sole inhabited island of the Phoenix Islands, in the Republic of Kiribati. It i ...
and Enderbury in the
Phoenix Islands The Phoenix Islands, or Rawaki, are a group of eight atolls and two submerged coral reefs that lie east of the Gilbert Islands and west of the Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, north of Samoa. They are part of the Republic of Kiri ...
, which later became part of
Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...
. According to the
1940 U.S. Census The United States census of 1940, conducted by the United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 132,164,569, an increase of 7.3 percent over the 1930 United States Census, 1930 populat ...
, Howland Island had a population of four people on April 1, 1940.


Kamakaiwi Field

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. Howland Island was designated as a scheduled refueling stop for American pilot Amelia Earhart and navigator
Fred Noonan Frederick Joseph "Fred" Noonan (born April 4, 1893 – disappeared July 2, 1937, declared dead June 20, 1938) was an American flight navigator, sea captain and aviation pioneer, who first charted many commercial airline routes across the Pacif ...
on their round-the-world flight in 1937.
Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
(WPA) funds were used by the
Bureau of Air Commerce The Air Commerce Act of 1926 created an Aeronautic Branch of the United States Department of Commerce. Its functions included testing and licensing of pilots, certification of aircraft and investigation of accidents. In 1934, the Aeronautics Bran ...
to construct three graded, unpaved runways meant to accommodate Earhart's twin-engined
Lockheed Model 10 Electra The Lockheed Model 10 Electra is an American twin-engined, all-metal monoplane airliner developed by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in the 1930s to compete with the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2. The type gained considerable fame as one was f ...
. The facility was named ''Kamakaiwi Field'' after James Kamakaiwi, a young Hawaiian who arrived with the first group of four colonists. He was selected as the group's leader and he spent more than three years on Howland, far longer than the average recruit. It has also been referred to as ''WPA Howland Airport'' (the WPA contributed about 20 percent of the $12,000 cost). Earhart and Noonan took off from
Lae Lae () is the capital of Morobe Province and is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located near the delta of the Markham River and at the start of the Highlands Highway, which is the main land transport corridor between the Highl ...
,
New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...
, and their radio transmissions were picked up near the island when their aircraft reached the vicinity but they were never seen again.


Japanese attacks during World War II

A Japanese air attack on , by 14 twin-engined
Mitsubishi G3M The was a Japanese bomber and transport aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS) during World War II. The Yokosuka L3Y (Allied reporting name "Tina"), was a transport variant of the aircraft manufactured by the Yokosu ...
"Nell" bombers of Chitose Kōkūtai, from Kwajalein islands, killed colonists Richard "Dicky" Kanani Whaley and Joseph Kealoha Keliʻhananui. The raid came one day after the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...
and damaged the three airstrips of Kamakaiwi Field. Two days later, shelling from a Japanese submarine destroyed what was left of the colony's buildings. A single bomber returned twice during the following weeks and dropped more bombs on the rubble. The two survivors were finally evacuated by the USS ''Helm'', a U.S. Navy destroyer, on . Thomas Bederman, one of the two survivors, later recounted his experience during the incident in a edition of ''
Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
''. Howland was occupied by a
battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions a ...
of the
United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
in September1943 and was known as Howland Naval Air Station until May1944. All attempts at habitation were abandoned after 1944. Colonization projects on the other four islands, also disrupted by the war, were also abandoned. No aircraft is known to have landed on the island, though anchorages nearby were used by float planes and flying boats during World War II. For example, on , a U.S. Navy Martin PBM-3-D Mariner flying boat (BuNo 48199), piloted by William Hines, had an engine fire and made a forced landing in the ocean off Howland. Hines beached the aircraft and, though it burned, the crew were unharmed, rescued by the (the same ship that later took the USCG's Construction Unit 211 and LORAN Unit 92 to
Gardner Island Gardner Island is a largely ice-free island which lies about 3 km west of Broad Peninsula in the southern Vestfold Hills, in Prydz Bay on the Ingrid Christensen Coast of Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica. It has been designated an Imp ...
), transferred to a sub chaser and taken to Canton Island.


National Wildlife Refuge

On June 27, 1974, Secretary of the Interior
Rogers Morton Rogers Clark Ballard Morton (September 19, 1914 – April 19, 1979) was an American politician who served as the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Commerce during the administrations of presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, ...
created Howland Island National Wildlife Refuge which was expanded in 2009 to add submerged lands within of the island. The refuge now includes of land and of water. Along with six other islands, the island was administered by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...
as part of the Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex. In January2009, that entity was upgraded to the
Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument is a group of unorganized, mostly unincorporated United States Pacific Island territories managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States Department of the Int ...
by President
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
. The island habitat has suffered from the presence from multiple
invasive exotic An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species adv ...
species.
Black rats The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus ''Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is n ...
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."Howland Island National Wildlife Refuge."
''U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.'' Retrieved: March 20, 2012.
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 The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mul ...
to defray the high cost of logistical support.


Earhart Light

Colonists sent to the island in the mid-1930s, to establish possession by the United States, built the Earhart Light , named after Amelia Earhart, as a
day beacon A day beacon (sometimes "daybeacon") is an unlighted nautical sea mark. A signboard identifying it is called a day mark. Day beacons typically mark channels whose key points are marked by lighted buoys. They may also mark smaller navigable rout ...
or navigational landmark. It is shaped 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, near the site of Itascatown. The beacon was partially destroyed early in World War II by Japanese attacks, but was rebuilt in the early 1960s by men from the U.S. Coast Guard ship '' Blackhaw''. By 2000, the beacon was reported to be crumbling and it had not been repainted in decades.
Ann Pellegreno Ann Dearing Holtgren Pellegreno (born 1937 in Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, IllinoisLinda Finch Linda (Dueler) Finch, also known as Linda Finch Doctor (born March 13, 1951), is an American businesswoman, aviator, and aviation historian from San Antonio, Texas. Finch had 30 years of experience in the construction industry, making prefabricat ...
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.Safford et al. 2003, pp. 76–77.


Image gallery

File:Plane wreckage on Howland Island.jpg, Aircraft wreckage on Howland File:Howland Itascatown.jpg, Itascatown settlement remains File:Groundcover.jpg, Howland island flora File:Howland Flora.jpg, Howland island flora ( leeward) File:Howland Fauna.JPG, Young masked boobies File:Howland Boobies.JPG, Masked boobies File:Howland birds.JPG,
Ruddy turnstone The ruddy turnstone (''Arenaria interpres'') is a small cosmopolitan wading bird, one of two species of turnstone in the genus ''Arenaria''. It is now classified in the sandpiper family Scolopacidae but was formerly sometimes placed in the plov ...
s


See also

*
List of lighthouses in United States Minor Outlying Islands This is a list of lighthouses in the United States. The United States has had approximately a thousand lighthouses, lights as well as light towers, Leading lights, range lights, and pier head lights. Michigan has the most lights of any state with ...
*
Howland and Baker islands Howland Island and Baker Island are two uninhabited U.S. atolls in the Equatorial Pacific that are located close to one another. Both islands are wildlife refuges, the larger of which is Howland Island. They are both part of the larger politi ...
, includes coverage of the Howland-Baker EEZ *
History of the Pacific Islands History of the Pacific Islands covers the history of the islands in the Pacific Ocean. Histories Easter Island – Rapanui Easter Island is one of the youngest inhabited territories on earth, and for most of the history of Easter Island it w ...
*
List of Guano Island claims The United States claimed a number of islands as insular areas under the Guano Islands Act of 1856. Only the eight administered as the US Minor Islands and the ones part of Hawaii and American Samoa remain under the jurisdiction of the United Stat ...
*
Phoenix Islands The Phoenix Islands, or Rawaki, are a group of eight atolls and two submerged coral reefs that lie east of the Gilbert Islands and west of the Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, north of Samoa. They are part of the Republic of Kiri ...


References


Notes


Citations


Bibliography

* Bryan, Edwin H., Jr. ''American Polynesia and the Hawaiian Chain''. Honolulu, Hawaii: Tongg Publishing Company, 1942. * Butler, Susan. ''East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart''. Cambridge, MA: Da Capa Press, 1999. . *
"Eyewitness account of the Japanese raids on Howland Island (includes a grainy photo of Itascatown)."
''ksbe.edu.'' Retrieved: October 10, 2010. * Irwin, Geoffrey. ''The Prehistroric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific.'' Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992. . * Long, Elgen M. and Marie K. Long. Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. . * Maude, H.E. ''Of Islands and Men: Studies in Pacific History''. Melbourne, Australia:
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1968. * Safford, Laurance F. with Cameron A. Warren and Robert R. Payne. ''Earhart's Flight into Yesterday: The Facts Without the Fiction''. McLean, Virginia: Paladwr Press, 2003. . * Sharp, Andrew. ''The Discovery of the Pacific Islands''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960. * Suárez, Thomas. ''Early Mapping of the Pacific''. Singapore: Periplus Editions, 2004. .


External links


Howland Island National Wildlife Refuge
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Geography, history and nature on Howland Island
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{{Lighthouse identifiers , qid2=Q20932641 Coral islands Uninhabited Pacific islands of the United States Amelia Earhart Works Progress Administration National Wildlife Refuges in the United States insular areas Important Bird Areas of United States Minor Outlying Islands Important Bird Areas of Oceania Seabird colonies