The atoll currently has noeconomic activity.[4] It is managed as a nature reserve. It is best known as the islandAmelia Earhart andFred Noonan were striving for but failed to reach when they and their airplane disappeared onJuly 2, 1937, during their planned round-the-world flight. Airstrips constructed to accommodate their planned stopover were subsequently damaged inWorld War II, not maintained, and gradually disappeared. There are no harbors or docks. Thefringing reefs may pose a maritime hazard. There is a boat landing area along the middle of the sandy beach on the west coast and a crumblingday beacon. The island is visited every two years by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.[5] It was mined forguano in the 19th century, and in the 1930s it was colonized by theAmerican Equatorial Islands Colonization Project. In modern times, it is a nature reserve, and there are some historical remains from the colony and a stone tower called Earhart Light.[6]
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 fringingreef with a slightly raised central area. The highest point is approximately 20 feet (6.1 m) abovesea level.[citation needed]
There are no naturalfresh water resources.[7] The landscape features scattered grasses along with prostrate vines and low-growingpisonia trees and shrubs. A 1942 eyewitness description spoke of "a low grove of dead and decayingkou 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.[8]
Map of Howland IslandOrthographic projection centered over Howland IslandMap of the central Pacific Ocean showing Howland Island and nearbyBaker Island just north of theEquator and east ofTarawa
Since Howland Island is uninhabited, no time zone is specified. It lies within anautical time zone, which is 12 hours behindUTC, named International Date Line West (IDLW). Howland Island andBaker Island are the only places on Earth observing this time zone. This time zone is also called AoE,Anywhere on Earth, a calendar designation indicating that a period expires when the date passes everywhere on Earth.[12]
Howland Island sign, and in the background, the repaired Day Beacon tower
Howland Island was claimed by the United States in 1857 under the1856 Guano Islands Act[13] and was mined forguano later that century. In the 1930s, economic activity on the island began with a few people, several buildings, a day beacon, and a cleared landing strip. This was the island Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were going to land on when they were not heard from again on their long flight. The day after Pearl Harbor, the island was bombed and attacked several more times, which damaged the day beacon and killed two people, finally leading to the island's evacuation. After the war, the day beacon was repaired, and the island became a nature reserve. It has been the subject of visits to honor or look for the lost aviator, Earhart.[14]
Sparse remnants of trails and other surface features indicate a possible earlyPolynesian presence, including excavations and mounds, 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 beadwork in Polynesia suggests these materials are historical.[15] The presence of the kou tree (Cordia subcordata) andPolynesian rats (Rattus exulans) on the island is also considered a possible indicator of early Polynesian visits to Howland.[16]
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. Still, sub-surface testing was limited in scope due to time constraints. Additionally, the USACE survey failed to locate the architectural features described by Hague. However, they concede this may be due to the destruction of these features later during the construction of an airstrip.[17] A later conservation plan by the US Fish and Wildlife Service suggests that Howland was likely used as a stopover or meeting point as opposed to being permanently occupied.[18]
Captain George B. Worth of theNantucket whalerOeno sighted Howland around 1822 and called itWorth Island.[19][20] Daniel MacKenzie of the American whalerMinerva Smith was unaware of Worth's sighting when he charted the island in 1828 and named it after his ship's owners[21] onDecember 1, 1828. Howland Island was at last named onSeptember 9, 1842 after a lookout who sighted it from the whaleshipIsabella under Captain Geo. E. Netcher ofNew Bedford.[citation needed]
Captain William Bligh ofHMS Bounty, in his diary after themutiny, described stopping at the 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 island's name, but apparently, it was known to cartographers.[citation needed] Bligh's account on Howland Island is open to question since his route in the boat began betweenTonga andTofua and ran more or less west directly toTimor.[22]
Howland Island was uninhabited when the United States took possession of it under theGuano Islands Act of 1856. The island was a known navigation hazard for decades, and several ships were wrecked there. Itsguano deposits were mined by American companies from about 1857 until October1878, although there was a dispute between mining companies.
Captain Geo. E. Netcher of theIsabella 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.[23] Other entrepreneurs were approached as George and Matthew Howland, who later became United States Guano Company members, engaged Mr. Stetson to visit the island on the shipRousseau under Captain Pope. Mr. Stetson arrived on the island in 1854 and described it as being occupied by birds and a plague of rats.[24]
The American Guano Company established claims with respect toBaker Island andJarvis Island, which were recognized 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. Netcher, Taylor, and George W. Benson formed the United States Guano Company to exploit the guano on Howland Island, with this claim recognized under the U.S. Guano Islands Act of 1856.[23]
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. The companies ended up in New York state court,[Note 1] with the American Guano Company arguing that the 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.[25] Laborers for the mining operations came from around the Pacific, including from Hawaiʻi; the Hawaiian laborers named Howland IslandUlukou ('kou tree grove').[26] Established in 1861, thePacific Guano Company purchased Howland Island to provide a source of guano for its fertilizer plant.[27]
In the late 19th century, British claims were made on the island, and attempts were made to set up mining.John T. Arundel and Company, a British firm using laborers from theCook Islands andNiue, occupied the island from 1886 to 1891.[28]
Executive Order 7368 was issued onMay 13, 1936 to clarify American sovereignty.[29]
In 1935, colonists from theAmerican Equatorial Islands Colonization Project 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 theKamehameha School for Boys, a private school inHonolulu. 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".[30]
Government House, 1937
The settlement was namedItascatown after the USCGCItasca 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 clearing a landing strip for airplanes. During this period, the island was on Hawaii time, which was then 10.5hours behindUTC.[Note 2] Similar colonization projects were started on nearbyBaker Island andJarvis Island, as well asCanton Island andEnderbury in thePhoenix Islands, which later became part ofKiribati.[32] According to the1940 U.S. census, Howland Island had a population of four people on April 1, 1940.[33]
The planned flight route of Amelia Earhart across the PacificAmelia Earhart and Fred Noonan
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 pilotAmelia Earhart and navigatorFred Noonan on theirround-the-world flight in 1937.Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds were used by theBureau of Air Commerce to construct three graded, unpaved runways meant to accommodate Earhart's twin-enginedLockheed Model 10 Electra.[citation needed]
The facility was namedKamakaiwi 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 spent more than three years on Howland, far longer than the average recruit. It has also been referred to asWPA Howland Airport (the WPA contributed about 20 percent of the $12,000 cost).[citation needed]
Earhart and Noonan took off fromLae,New Guinea, and their radio transmissions were picked up near the island when their aircraft reached the vicinity, but they failed to arrive. It is known that they must have gotten within the radio range of Howland due to the strength of the final radio communications that morning, despite some problems with radio communication and radio direction finding. In some of the last messages recorded from them on 2 July 1937, 7:42 am, Earhart reported, "We must be on you, but cannot see you – but gas is running low. Have been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet."[34][Note 3] At 8:43 am, Earhart reported, "We are on the line 157 337. We will repeat this message. We will repeat this on 6210 kilocycles. Wait."[34] Between Earhart's low-on-fuel message at 7:42 am and her last confirmed message at 8:43, her signal strength remained consistent, indicating that she never left the immediate Howland area as she ran low on fuel. The U.S. Coast Guard determined this by tracking her signal strength as she approached the island, noting signal levels from her reports of 200 and 100 miles out. These reports were roughly 30 minutes apart, providing vital ground-speed clues.[36]
After the largest search and rescue attempt in history up to that time, the U.S. Navy concluded that the Electra had run out of fuel, and Earhart and Noonan ditched at sea and perished. Based on the strength of the transmission signals from Earhart, the Coast Guard concluded that the plane ran out of fuel north of Howland.[36] Many later studies came to the same conclusion; however, an alternative hypothesis that Earhart and Noonan may have landed the plane on Gardner Island (now calledNikumaroro) and died as castaways has been considered.[37]
AJapanese air attack onDecember 8, 1941, by 14 twin-enginedMitsubishi G3M "Nell" bombers ofChitose Kōkūtai, from Kwajalein islands, killed colonists Richard "Dicky" Kanani Whaley and Joseph Kealoha Keliʻihananui.[38] The raid came one day after the Japanese attack onPearl Harbor. It damaged the three airstrips of Kamakaiwi Field. Two days later, shelling from a Japanese submarine destroyed what was left of the colony's buildings.[39] A single bomber returned twice during the following weeks and dropped more bombs on the rubble. The two survivors were finally evacuated by theUSS Helm, a U.S. Navy destroyer, onJanuary 31, 1942. Thomas Bederman, one of the two survivors, later recounted his experience during the incident in aMarch 9, 1942 edition ofLife.[40] Howland was occupied by abattalion of theUnited States Marine Corps in September1943 and was known as Howland Naval Air Station until May1944.[41]
All attempts at habitation were abandoned after 1944. Colonization projects on the other four islands, also disrupted by the war, were abandoned.[42] 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, onJuly 10, 1944, a U.S. NavyMartin 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 theUSCGC Balsam, transferred to a subchaser, and taken to Canton Island.[43]
On June 27, 1974, Secretary of the InteriorRogers Morton created Howland Island National Wildlife Refuge, which was expanded in 2009 to add submerged lands within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of the island. The refuge now includes 648 acres (2.62 km2) of land and 410,351 acres (1,660.63 km2) of water.[44] Along with six other islands, the island was administered by theU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex. In January2009, that entity was upgraded to thePacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument by PresidentGeorge W. Bush.[45]
Multipleinvasive exotic species have affected the island habitat.Black rats were introduced in 1854 and eradicated in 1938 byferal cats introduced the year before. The cats proved destructive to bird species and were eliminated by 1985.Pacific crabgrass continues to compete with local plants.[46]
Public entry to the island is allowed with a 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 theU.S. Coast Guard to defray the high cost of logistical support.[5]
Colonists sent to the island in the mid-1930s to establish possession by the United States, built the Earhart Light(0°48′20.48″N176°37′8.55″W / 0.8056889°N 176.6190417°W /0.8056889; -176.6190417 (Earhart Light)), named afterAmelia Earhart, as aday beacon or navigational landmark. It is shaped like a shortlighthouse. 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 in the middle of the west coast, near 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 shipBlackhaw.[48][49] By 2000, the beacon was reported to be crumbling, and it had not been repainted in decades.[50]
Ann Pellegreno overflew the island in 1967, andLinda Finch did so in 1997 during memorial circumnavigation flights to commemorate Earhart's 1937 world flight. No landings were attempted, but Pellegreno and Finch flew low enough to drop a wreath on the island.[51]
^Rauzon, M.J.; Forsell, D.J.; Flint, E.M.; Gove, J.M. (2011). "Howland, Baker and Jarvis Islands 25 Years After Cat Eradication: The Recovery of Seabirds in a Biogeographical Context". In Veitch, C.R.; Clout, M.N.; Towns, D.R. (eds.).Island Invasives: Eradication and Management: Proceedings of the International Conference on Island Invasives. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. pp. 345–349.CiteSeerX10.1.1.692.5572.ISBN978-2-8317-1291-8.OCLC770307954.
^Shun, Kanalei (1987).Archaeological Reconnaissance, Site Survey, and Limited Sub-Surface Testing of Baker and Howland Islands Final Report. Honolulu: US Army Corps of Engineers.
^U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2008).Howland Island National Wildlife Refuge: Comprehensive Conservation Plan. Honolulu, HI: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
^Quan Bautista, Jesi; Smith, Savannah (2018). Early Cultural and Historical Seascape of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument: Archival and Literary Research Report (Report). NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center. p. 3.doi:10.25923/fb5w-jw23.
^abDepartment of the Navy. Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Intelligence Division. Office of Naval Records and Library. (1922 – 10/10/1945) (July 31, 1937).U. S. Navy Report of the Search for Amelia Earhart, July 2–18, 1937. Series: World War II Action and Operational Reports, 1875 – 2006. Archived fromthe original on December 8, 2019. RetrievedDecember 13, 2019.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Suárez, Thomas (2004).Early Mapping of the Pacific: The Epic Story of Seafarers, Adventurers and Cartographers Who Mapped the Earth's Greatest Ocean. Singapore:Periplus.ISBN978-0-7946-0092-1.
.jpg)
.jpg)
