US Minor Outlying Islands - Baker Island
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The United States Minor Outlying Islands consist of nine United States insular areas in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea: Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Islands, Navassa Island, Palmyra Atoll, and Wake Island. The Caribbean territories of Bajo Nuevo Bank and Serranilla Bank can also be included as per U.S. sources.
Baker Island is an uninhabited atoll located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean about 3,100 kilometers (1,700 nmi) southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia, and is a possession of the United States. Its nearest neighbor is Howland Island, 68 kilometers (37 nmi) to the north.
Baker is located at 0° 11' 41" N 176° 28' 46" W. It covers 1.64 square kilometers (410 acres), with 4.9 kilometers (3.0 mi) of coastline. The climate is equatorial, with little rainfall, constant wind, and strong sunshine. The terrain is low-lying and sandy: a coral island surrounded by a narrow fringing reef with a depressed central area devoid of any lagoon. Baker's highest point is 8 meters (26 ft) above sea level.
The island now forms the Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge, which consists of all 405 acres (1.64 km2) of the island and a surrounding 30,500 acres (123 km2) of submerged land. The National Wildlife Refuge is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an insular area under the U.S. Department of the Interior. Baker Island is an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the U.S.
Its defense is the responsibility of the United States; though uninhabited, it is visited annually by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Baker was discovered in 1818 by Captain Elisha Folger of the Nantucket whaling ship Equator, who called the island "New Nantucket". In August 1825 Baker was resighted by Captain Obed Starbuck of the Loper, also a Nantucket whaler. The name goes back to Michael Baker, who visited the island in 1834. Other references state that he visited in 1832, and again on August 14, 1839, in the whaler Gideon Howland, to bury an American seaman.
The United States took possession of the island in 1857, claiming it under the Guano Islands Act of 1856. Its guano deposits were mined by the American Guano Company from 1859 to 1878. John T. Arundel and Company, a British firm, made the island its headquarters for its guano-digging operations in the Pacific from 1886 to 1891.
In the late 19th Century there were apparently some British claims on the island. To clarify American sovereignty, Executive Order 7358 was issued on May 13, 1936.
In 1935, a short-lived attempt at colonization was begun. The American colonists were landed from the USCGC Itasca, the same vessel that brought colonists to neighboring Howland Island, on April 3, 1935. They built a lighthouse, substantial dwellings, and attempted to grow various plants. One 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. This clump was the best on the island, planted near a water seep, but the dry climate and sea birds, eager for anything upon which to perch, did not give the trees or shrubs much of a chance to survive.
King-Doyle Park was later adopted as a geographical name by the USGS.
The settlement was named Meyerton after Captain H.A. Meyer of the United States Army, who helped establish the camps for the colonists in 1935. It had a population of four American civilians, who were all evacuated in 1942 after Japanese air and naval attacks. During World War II it was occupied by the U.S. military.
Since the war, Baker Island has been uninhabited. Feral cats were eradicated from the island in 1964. Public entry is by special-use permit only from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and is generally restricted to scientists and educators.
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