US Minor Outlying Islands - Johnston Atoll
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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.
Johnston Atoll is a 50-square-mile (130 km2) atoll in the North Pacific Ocean about 1400 km (750 nmi) west of Hawaii. There are four islands located on the coral reef platform, two natural islands, Johnston Island and Sand Island, which have been expanded by coral dredging, as well as North Island (Akau) and East Island (Hikina), an additional two artificial islands were formed by coral dredging.
Johnston is an unincorporated territory of the United States, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior as part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. For statistical purposes, Johnston Atoll is grouped as one of the United States Minor Outlying Islands.
The four islands compose a total land mass of 2.67 km². Due to the atoll's tilt, much of the reef on the south-east portion has subsided. But even though it does not have an encircling reef crest, the reef crest on the north-west portion of the atoll does provide for a shallow lagoon, with depths ranging from 3 to 10 m.
The American brig Sally, captained by Joseph Pierpont, grounded on a shoal near Johnston Island on September 2, 1796, but did not name or claim the land. The island was named for Captain Charles J. Johnston, commanding officer of HMS Cornwallis, who claimed its official discovery on December 14, 1807. Johnston Atoll was claimed by both the United States and the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1858. The Atoll's guano deposits, mined by U.S. interests operating under the Guano Islands Act, were worked until depletion in about 1890.
On July 29, 1926, by Executive Order, President Calvin Coolidge established Johnston Atoll as a Federal bird refuge and placed it under the control of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. On December 29, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt transferred control of Johnston Atoll to the U.S. Navy in order to establish an air station, and also to the Department of the Interior to administer the bird refuge. In 1936, the U.S. Navy began to develop a seaplane base, an airstrip base, and refueling facilities on the atoll. Johnston Atoll was designated as a Naval Defensive Sea Area and Airspace Reservation on February 14, 1941. Johnston Atoll was shelled by lightly armed Japanese submarines once or twice during World War II.
The Johnston Atoll area was used during the 1950s and 1960s as an American nuclear weapons test site - for both above-ground and underground nuclear tests. It was also used for a rocket launch site for some of the first American spy satellites. Later on, it became the site of a chemical weapons depot and the site of the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS). All of the chemical weapons that were once stored on Johnston Island have been incinerated.
Between 1958 and 1975, several scientific sounding rockets were launched from Johnston Island. There were also several nuclear test missiles that were launched from Johnston Island in 1962 during the "Operation Dominic" series of nuclear tests, from a launchpad at 16° 44' 13" N, 169° 31' 26" W. Twelve thermonuclear warheads were exploded in all, one of which failed when the PGM-17 Thor carrying it failed to launch and scattered plutonium debris over the island. Afterwards, the radioactive debris and soils were placed in a 25 acre landfill on the island, along with residue from Agent Orange containers returned from Southeast Asia after the Vietnam War, PCBs, PAHs, dioxins, and sarin nerve gas from the Soviet Union and East Germany.
In 1963, the United States Senate ratified the Limited Test Ban Treaty, which contained a provision known as "Safeguard C". Safeguard C was the basis for maintaining Johnston Atoll as a "ready to test" above ground nuclear testing site should atmospheric nuclear testing ever be deemed to be necessary again. In 1993, Congress appropriated no funds for the Johnston Atoll "Safeguard C" mission, bringing it to a termination. Congress redefined the island's military mission as the one of the storage and destruction of chemical weapons.
Johnston Atoll has never had any indigenous inhabitants, although during the late part of the 20th century, there were averages of about 300 American military personnel and 1,000 civilian contractor men and women present at any given time.
Johnston Atoll's economic activity was limited to providing services to American military personnel and the contractors residing temporarily on the island. The runway was also available to commercial airlines for emergency landings, and for many years, it was also a regular stop on Continental Micronesia airline's "island hopper" service between Hawaii and the Marshall Islands.
By the end of 2003, the legal jurisdiction of this atoll was transferred from the American military services to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. All structures and facilities, including those used in JACADS, were removed, and the runway was marked closed. On August 22, 2006, Johnston Island was struck by Hurricane Ioke. The eastern eye-wall passed directly over the atoll, with winds exceeding 100 mph (160 km/h).
Johnston Atoll is a part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, which was proclaimed by President George W. Bush on January 6, 2009.
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