Tinian () is one of the three principal islands of the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

of the

Northern Mariana Islands The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), is an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territory and Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States consistin ...

(CNMI). Together with uninhabited neighboring

Aguiguan Aguijan (; ; also Aguiguan and Aguihan, based on the Spanish rendition of the native name) is a small bean-shaped uninhabited coralline island in the Northern Mariana Islands chain in the Pacific Ocean. It is situated south-west of Tinian, from ...

, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of the four constituent

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of the Northern Marianas. Tinian's largest village is San Jose. Tinian is just south of the Northern Marianas' most inhabited island,

Saipan Saipan () is the largest island and capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, an unincorporated Territories of the United States, territory of the United States in the western Pacific Ocean. According to 2020 estimates by the United States Cens ...

, but north of the populated Rota to the south. The island has many

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

historical sites, cattle ranches, and beaches. There was a 5-star casino that operated from 1998 to 2015; the remaining are other hotels/resorts and a golf course. The main Saipan access is a short airplane ride from the international airport or a charter boat. Tinian is part of the United States and the

CNMI The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), is an unincorporated territory and commonwealth of the United States consisting of 14 islands in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.Lin, Tom C.W.Ameri ...

. Along with

Guam Guam ( ; ) is an island that is an Territories of the United States, organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña, and the most ...

, it is the westernmost U.S. island in the Pacific.

History

First settlers

The Mariana Islands, of which Tinian is one, were the first islands settled by humans in Remote Oceania. It was also the first and the longest of the ocean-crossing voyages of the

Austronesian peoples The Austronesian people, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples who have settled in Taiwan, maritime Southeast Asia, parts of mainland Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melan ...

and is separate from the later Polynesian settlement of the rest of Remote Oceania. They were settled around 1500 to 1400 BC by migrants departing from the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. This was followed by a second migration from the

Caroline Islands The Caroline Islands (or the Carolines) are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the cen ...

by the first millennium AD, and a third migration from

Island Southeast Asia Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the Southeast Asian countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor. The terms Island Southeast Asia and Insular Southeast Asia are sometimes given the same meaning as Mari ...

(likely the Philippines or eastern

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

) by 900 AD. Thousands of years ago, the island was settled by a people who built stone structures all over Tinian called taga.

Spanish colonial period

Tinian, together with

, was possibly first sighted by Europeans of the Spanish expedition of

Ferdinand Magellan Ferdinand Magellan ( – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer best known for having planned and led the 1519–22 Spanish expedition to the East Indies. During this expedition, he also discovered the Strait of Magellan, allowing his fl ...

when it made landfall in the southern Marianas on March 6, 1521. It was likely sighted next by Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa in 1522 on board the Spanish ship ''Trinidad'', in an attempt to reach

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

after the death of Magellan. This would have happened after the sighting of the Maug Islands between the end of August and the end of September. Gonzalo de Vigo deserted in the Maugs from the ''Trinidad'' and in the next four years, living with the

Chamorros The Chamorro people (; also Chamoru) are the Indigenous people of the Mariana Islands, politically divided between the United States territory of Guam and the encompassing Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Micronesia, a commonweal ...

, visited thirteen main islands in the Marianas and possibly Tinian among them. The first clear evidence of European arrival was by the

Manila galleon The Manila galleon (; ) refers to the Spain, Spanish trading Sailing ship, ships that linked the Philippines in the Spanish East Indies to Mexico (New Spain), across the Pacific Ocean. The ships made one or two round-trip voyages per year betwe ...

''Santa Margarita'' commanded by Juan Martínez de Guillistegui, that wrecked in the southeast of Saipan in February 1600 and whose survivors stayed for two years till 250 were rescued by the ''Santo Tomas'' and the ''Jesus María''. The Spanish formally occupied Tinian in 1669, with the missionary expedition of

Diego Luis de San Vitores Diego Luis de San Vitores, SJ (November 12, 1627 – April 2, 1672) was a Spanish Jesuit missionary who founded the first Catholic church on the island of Guam. He is responsible for establishing the Christian presence in the Mariana Islands. H ...

who named it ''Buenavista Mariana'' (Goodsight Mariana). From 1670, it became a port of call for Spanish and occasional English, Dutch, and French ships as a supply station for food and water. The native population, estimated at 40,000 at the time of the Spanish arrival, shrank to less than 1400 due to European-introduced diseases and conflicts over land. The survivors were forcibly relocated to

in 1720 for better control and assimilation. Under Spanish rule, the island was developed into ranches for raising cattle and pigs, which were used to provision

Spanish galleon Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine ** Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

s en route to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

German colonial period

After the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

of 1898, Tinian was sold by Spain to the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

in 1899. Germany administered the island as part of

German New Guinea German New Guinea () consisted of the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea and several nearby island groups, and was part of the German colonial empire. The mainland part of the territory, called , became a German protectorate in 188 ...

. During the German period, there was no attempt to develop or settle the island, which remained under the control of its Spanish and mestizo landowners.

Japanese colonial period

In 1914, during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, the island was captured by

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, which was awarded formal control in 1918 by the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

as part of the

South Seas Mandate The South Seas Mandate, officially the Mandate for the German Possessions in the Pacific Ocean Lying North of the Equator, was a League of Nations mandate in the " South Seas" given to the Empire of Japan by the League of Nations following W ...

. The island was settled by ethnic Japanese, Koreans, and

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

ns, who developed large-scale sugar plantations. Under Japanese rule, extensive infrastructure development occurred, including the construction of port facilities, waterworks, power stations, paved roads and schools, along with entertainment facilities and

Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...

s. Initial efforts to settle the island met with difficulties, including an infestation of

scale insects Scale insects are small insects of the order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the infraorder Coccomorpha which is considered a more convenient grouping than the ...

, followed by a severe drought in 1919. Efforts were resumed under the aegis of the Nanyo Kohatsu Kabushiki Kaisha in 1926, with new settlers from Okinawa as well as Fukushima and

Yamagata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It has a population of 1,005,926 (1 February 2025) and an area of 9,325 Square kilometre, km2 (3,600 Square mile, sq mi). Its neighbours are Akita Prefectu ...

s, and the introduction of coffee and cotton as cash crops in addition to sugar, and the construction of a ''

Katsuobushi is simmered, smoked and fermented skipjack tuna (''Katsuwonus pelamis'', sometimes referred to as bonito). It is also known as bonito flakes or broadly as . Shaved ''katsuobushi'' and dried kelp—''kombu''—are the main ingredients of ...

'' processing plant. By June 1944, some 15,700 Japanese civilians resided on Tinian (including 2700 ethnic Koreans and 22 ethnic Chamorro). In the Japanese area, thousands of colonists arrived, and it was used for agriculture and military purposes.

World War II

The Japanese military did not garrison Tinian until the latter stages of

when the Japanese realized its strategic importance as a possible base for American

Boeing B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a retired American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the Bo ...

bombers. The island was seized by the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

during the

Battle of Tinian The Battle of Tinian was part of the Pacific War, Pacific campaign of World War II. It was fought between the United States and Japan on the island of Tinian in the Mariana Islands from 24 July until 1 August 1944. The battle saw napalm used f ...

from July 24 to August 1, 1944. Of the 8,500-man Japanese garrison, 313 survived the battle. At the time, there were an estimated 15,700 Japanese civilians (including 2,700 ethnic Koreans) on the island. Many hundreds were also killed in the crossfire, took their own lives, or were executed by the Japanese military to avoid capture by the Americans. Tinian is approximately from mainland Japan and was suitable as a staging base for continuous heavy bomber attacks on the Japanese Islands. Immediately after the island's seizure by the US, construction began on the largest airbase of

WWII World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, which covered the entire island (except its three highland areas). The Tinian Naval Base was a 40,000-personnel installation. The Navy

Seabee United States Naval Construction Battalions, better known as the Navy Seabees, form the U.S. Naval Construction Forces (NCF). The Seabee nickname is a heterograph of the initial letters "CB" from the words "Construction Battalion". Dependi ...

s (110th NCB) laid out the base in a pattern of city streets resembling

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Manhattan Island Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the smallest county by area in the U.S. state of New York. Located almost entire ...

and named the streets accordingly. The former Japanese town of Sunharon was nicknamed "The Village" because its location corresponded to that of

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

. A large square area between West and North Fields, used primarily for the location of the base hospitals and otherwise left undeveloped, was called

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

. Some of the roads named from NYC include Broadway, 42nd Street, Lenox Avenue, Riverside Drive and Eighth Avenue. Two runway complexes, West Field and North Field, having a combined total of six runways, were constructed. Today, the four runways at North Field are overgrown and abandoned. A five-year, $409 million contract has been awarded in 2024 to upgrade the North Field. One of the two West Field runways remains in use as part of Tinian International Airport.

West Field

The Japanese originally built an airfield with two parallel runways. The Americans repaired it and then called it West Field. From here seven squadrons of the 58th Bombardment Wing flew combat and reconnaissance missions throughout

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

and finally into the

Japanese home islands The is an archipelago of 14,125 islands that form the country of Japan. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East China and Philippine seas in the southwest along the Pacific coast of the Eurasian continent, and cons ...

, as part of the bombing of Japan. After WWII, West Field was Tinian's airport called Gurguan Point Airfield; and today is Tinian International Airport.

North Field

The Japanese had constructed three small fighter strips on Tinian, but none were suitable for bomber operations. Under the Americans, nearly the entire northern end of the island was occupied by the runways, almost of taxiways and the airfield area, designed to accommodate the entire 313th Bombardment Wing complement of

bombers. North Field was the departure point of the 509th Composite Group specialized ''

Silverplate Silverplate was the code reference for the United States Army Air Forces' participation in the Manhattan Project during World War II. Originally the name for the aircraft modification project which enabled a B-29 Superfortress bomber to drop ...

'' nuclear weapons delivery B-29 bombers ''

Enola Gay The ''Enola Gay'' () is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel (United States), Colonel Paul Tibbets. On 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the Atomi ...

'' and ''

Bockscar ''Bockscar'', sometimes called ''Bock's Car'', is the United States Army Air Forces Boeing B-29 Superfortress, B-29 bomber that dropped the Fat Man, Fat Man nuclear weapon over the Japanese city of Nagasaki during World War II in the secondand ...

'', which respectively carried the two

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...

s named

Little Boy Little Boy was a type of atomic bomb created by the Manhattan Project during World War II. The name is also often used to describe the specific bomb (L-11) used in the bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress ...

and

Fat Man "Fat Man" (also known as Mark III) was the design of the nuclear weapon the United States used for seven of the first eight nuclear weapons ever detonated in history. It is also the most powerful design to ever be used in warfare. A Fat Man ...

, that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Remains of the US bomber base and Atom Bomb Pits, and the remains of Japanese fortifications are located at North Field. A memorial on the old airfield at the loading pits is roofed with glazed panels in metal framing for safer viewing. Both pits were reopened in conjunction with the 60th Anniversary Commemoration of the Battles of Saipan and

Tinian Tinian () is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguiguan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of the four constituent municipalities of the Northern ...

. The pits were originally constructed to load the bombs since they were too large to be loaded conventionally. The B-29s were maneuvered over a pit with their bomb bay doors open to facilitate loading.

Postwar Tinian

After the end of World War II, Tinian became part of the

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) was a United Nations trust territory in Micronesia administered by the United States from 1947 to 1994. The Imperial Japanese South Seas Mandate had been seized by the U.S. during the Pacifi ...

, controlled by the United States. The island continued to be dominated by the United States military and was administered as a sub-district of Saipan until 1962. Since 1978, it has been a municipality of the

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), is an unincorporated territory and commonwealth of the United States consisting of 14 islands in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.Lin, Tom C.W.Amer ...

. During the 1980s, one of the runways on North Field was kept active to allow US Air Force C-130s to take off and land in support of U.S. Marine Corps training exercises in the island's north end. The two northern airstrips, Alpha and Bravo, were cleared of vegetation, and the limestone coral that had been disturbed by roots was excavated and replaced by Marines of the 9th Engineer Support Battalion, 3rd FSSG, 3rd Marine Division then stationed at Camp Hansen, Okinawa in late 1981. That unit had been transported by sea aboard the . The military presence began to be replaced by tourism in the 1990s, but still plays an important role in the local economy. On November 4, 1986, the Northern Marianas, including Tinian, became a part of the United States, and the people there became US Citizens. Primary business on the island in the postwar period included fishing, cattle, and tourism. In the 1990s, an ill-fated attempt at operating casinos began. There are still many ranches and some 1–2 thousand cattle on Tinian.

21st century

In 2009, STAR Marianas Air, based in Tinian, was founded, and by the 2010s, small aircraft operated routes between Saipan, Guam, Tinian, and Rota, for example. The airline has fleet by 2016 consisting of 5 Piper Super-Chieftains and 6

Piper Cherokee Six The Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six is a series of single-engine, fixed landing gear, light aircraft manufactured in the United States by Piper Aircraft between 1965 and 2007.Plane and Pilot: ''1978 Aircraft Directory'', page 63. Werner & Werner Cor ...

es. The Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino shut down in 2016, with the company blaming Typhoon Souledor for a decrease in visitors. The Hong Kong-based company that operated what was the only casino on Tinian had its gambling license revoked and was going bankrupt. On October 24, 2018,

Typhoon Yutu Typhoon Yutu, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Rosita, was an extremely powerful tropical cyclone that caused catastrophic destruction on the islands of Tinian and Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, and later impacted the Philippines. ...

made landfall on the island of Tinian as a Category 5-equivalent super typhoon, becoming the most powerful storm on record to hit the Northern Mariana Islands, and causing an extensive amount of damage. A new casino, called Tinian Diamond Casino, was in the final stages of completion by 2022 and was working to reestablish a ferry between Tinian and nearby Saipan. However, it never opened.

Revival of US Military base on Tinian

In late 2023, it was reported that the US House and Senate approved $79 million for Tinian's Divert Airfield in the

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (NDAA 2024) is a United States federal law which specifies the budget, expenditures, and policies of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) for fiscal year 2024. Background The National ...

. In 2024, the U.S. Air Force has awarded a $409 million contract to

Fluor Corporation Fluor Corporation is an American engineering and construction firm, headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is a holding company that provides services through its subsidiaries in three main areas: oil and gas, industrial and infrastructure, government ...

, a construction company in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

to restore the island's former airfield. The re-militarization of the island caused concern for local residents, who fear rising geopolitical tensions between the US and China could make Tinian a target in the event of a conflict over Taiwan. "Sometimes there's very little oversight of what the military does because the community is not involved. It tends to take place at the agency level," said cultural anthropologist Isa Arriola, who is also a Northern Mariana Islander.

Municipality

Tinian Municipality is one of the four constituent

of the

. It consists of Tinian and

islands and their offshore islets. The municipality is the second southernmost in the Northern Marianas and has a land area of . The population of the 2000 census was 3,540 persons, all living on the island of Tinian (Aguijan is uninhabited). The municipal seat and main village of the island of Tinian is San Jose, situated on the southwest coast.

Geography

Tinian is about southwest of

, from which it is separated by the Saipan Channel. It has a land area of , with its highest elevation on the Kastiyu plateau at . It is considerably flatter than Saipan. The island has limestone cliffs and caves. There is a variety of marine life and coral reefs surrounding the island. Its clear, warm waters are ideal for snorkeling, scuba diving, and sport fishing. Aguijan Island, a small island, lies to the south, and Tatsumi Bank, a fishing forum, lies to the southeast. Tinian soil 1988

Plant, wildlife, and marine life

There is a variety of flora and fauna; the Tinian monarch is the island's only endemic bird species and is threatened by habitat loss. The island has been recognised as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because it supports populations of Micronesian megapodes, white-throated ground doves, Mariana fruit doves, Micronesian myzomelas, rufous fantails,

Saipan white-eye The bridled white-eye (''Zosterops conspicillatus'') (Chamorro language, Chamorro name: ''nosa'') is a species of white-eye native to the Mariana Islands and formerly Guam. The species' natural habitat is tropical forests, shrublands and urban ar ...

s and Micronesian starlings. Surveys of bird populations in 1982, 1996, and 2008 have found that the bird population, including native birds, is ok. Examples of native bird species on Tinian include Mariana Fruit-Dove (''Ptilinopusroseicapilla''), Micronesian Honeyeater (''Myzomela rubratra''), and Tinian Monarch (''Monarcha takatsukasae'').

Population

The population of Tinian was 2,044 (), which corresponds to less than 5% of all residents of the Northern Mariana Islands and a population density of 20 people per km². Most of the inhabitants are

(about 75%) and members of various other groups of islands in the

. There are also minorities of Filipino, Bangladeshi, East Asian, and European-descended people. Tinians are United States citizens.

Economy

Much of the local economy of Tinian is dependent on tourism. However, tourist infrastructure is relatively poorly developed. The village of San Jose has several smaller hotels, restaurants, and bars. Agriculture is primarily on the subsistence level. The largest employers on the island are the government and the casino, which was legalized in 1989. The 2010 census showed a population of 3,136 for the island.

Transportation

Air

Tinian Airport (TIQ) is small and serviced by Star Marianas Air, which operates daily scheduled flights to

. Freedom Air, which previously served the island, filed for bankruptcy in October 2013 and suspended all operations in March 2014.

Ferry

The ferry boat service that operated twice daily between Tinian and Saipan ran at a loss estimated to be US$1 million a year and has since ceased.

Government

The local government is the Municipality of Tinian and Aguiguan, which also includes the uninhabited island

Aguijan Aguijan (; ; also Aguiguan and Aguihan, based on the Spanish rendition of the native name) is a small bean-shaped uninhabited coralline island in the Northern Mariana Islands chain in the Pacific Ocean. It is situated south-west of Tinian, from ...

. The municipality has a land area of . The population of the 2000 census was 3,540 persons, all living on the island of Tinian (Aguijan is uninhabited). The municipal seat and main village of the island of Tinian is San Jose, situated on the southwest coast. Mayor Edwin P. Aldan was inaugurated in January 2019, succeeding Joey San Nicolas.

Local attractions

House of Taga

The House of Taga is a

latte stone A latte stone, or simply latte (also latde, latti, or latdi), is a Column, pillar () capped by a Sphere, hemispherical stone capital (architecture), capital () with the flat side facing up. Used as building supports by the ancient Chamorro peopl ...

site, one of the most significant structures in the Marianas. The stones are quarried limestone, each approximately in length. Of the twelve large Latte structures, only one is still standing. The site is one of seven locations on Tinian on the National Register of Historic Places listings in the Northern Mariana Islands.

Beaches

Major Beaches on Tinian include: * Tachogna, near Taga beach * Taga Beach is popular, with a small cliff where you can jump into the water. * Chaga, a small beach in the NW of Tinian * Unai Dankulu or Long Beach, actually a series of beaches on the North East In 2022, Chiget Beach was reopened for use after being cleared. The issue was unexploded ordnance on the beach. Blowhole - Tinian - panoramio

One of the natural wonders is a blowhole, in which water gets shot up 10 meters. Snorkeling and scuba diving is a popular tourist activity in Tinian.

Education

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Public School System Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Public School System (CNMI PSS) is a school district serving the Northern Mariana Islands, a Territories of the United States, United States territory. Its headquarters are in Susupe, Saipan. Schoo ...

operates public schools including Tinian Elementary School, and Tinian Jr./Sr. High School.

State Library of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Joeten-Kiyu Public Library is the State Library of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Branches: * Joeten-Kiyu Public Library (JKPL) - Susupe, Saipan * Antonio C. Atalig Memorial Rota Public Library - Songsong, Rota

operates the Tinian Public Library in San Jose Village.TINIAN PUBLIC LIBRARY
."

. Retrieved on January 15, 2017.

References

External links

''The Insular Empire: America in the Mariana Islands'', PBS documentary film & website

Google Maps

and ttps://web.archive.org/web/20140427193501/http://gaebler.info/sonstiges/marianen.htm#tinian Tinian {{Authority control Islands of the Northern Mariana Islands Municipalities of the Northern Mariana Islands Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Former German colonies Important Bird Areas of the Northern Mariana Islands Geography of the Northern Mariana Islands