Baker island

Baker Island is one of the fourteen unincorporated territories of the United States. It is part of the archipelago of the Phoenix Islands and, although unpopulated, the United States Coast Guard visits the island annually.

It is the last territory in the world where the New Year arrives as opposed to Kiritimati Island.

History

The United States took possession of the island in 1857, claimed under the Guano Islands Act of 1856. Guano deposits were mined by United States and United Kingdom companies in the second half of the century XIX. A short attempt to colonize the island (and also Howland Island) began in 1935, but was interrupted by World War II and abandoned.

On December 7, 1886, the American Guano Company sold all its rights to the British firm John T. Arundel and Company, which made the island its headquarters for guano-digging operations in the Pacific from 1886 to 1891. Arundel applied in 1897 to the British colonial office for a license to work on the island on the presumption that the United States had abandoned its claim. The United Kingdom then considered Baker Island British territory, although it never formally annexed it. The United States raised the issue in the early 1920s and after some diplomatic exchanges, launched the American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project in 1935 and issued Executive Order 7358 in May 1936 to clarify their sovereignty.

This brief colonization attempt, through the United States Equatorial Islands Colonization Project, began when American settlers arrived aboard the USCGC Itasca, the same ship that brought the settlers to neighboring Howland Island, on April 3, 1935. They built a lighthouse and substantial living quarters. and tried to grow various plants.

The settlement was named Meyerton, after Captain H.A. Meyer of the United States Army, who helped establish the camps in 1935. A clump of sad-looking coconut trees was jokingly named King-Doyle Park after two well-known Hawaiian citizens who visited the Taney in 1938. This clump was the best on the island, planted near a water seep, but the dry climate and seabirds eager for anywhere to perch did not give the trees or shrubs much of a chance to survive. King–Doyle Park it was later adopted as a geographic name by the United States Geological Survey. Its population was four American civilians, all of whom were evacuated in 1942 after Japanese naval and air raids. During World War II it was occupied by the US Army.

The island is currently a National Wildlife Refuge managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, under the US Department of the Interior.

Geography

The atoll, halfway between Hawaii and Australia, has an area of 2.1 km² and a maximum height of 8 meters above sea level. Its climate is equatorial, with little rainfall, constant wind and burning sun. The island is surrounded by a narrow coral reef, which is a danger to ships sailing close to the coast.

Its vegetation is sparse and scattered, made up of grass, prostrate vines, and low shrubs. The island lacks trees and a natural source of drinking water.

Baker Island has the curiosity of being the emerged territory closest to the antipode of the geographic center of the world, that is, the intersection between the Equator Line and the 180th meridian or antimeridian.

Flora and fauna

Baker has no natural sources of fresh water. It is treeless, with sparse vegetation, and four types of grasses, prostrate vines, and low-growing shrubs. The island is primarily a nesting, roosting, and feeding habitat for seabirds, shorebirds, and marine wildlife..

Several varieties of shorebirds and other species inhabit the island and nearby waters, some considered endangered. The Arenaria interpres, the Black-tailed Godwit, the Sandpiper, and the Pacific Golden Plover (Pluvialis fulva) are considered to be of Least Concern. The Pacific Curlew (Numenius tahitiensis) is considered vulnerable in the national plan of conservation priorities. Along the reef you can find green turtles and hawksbill turtles, both critically endangered.

Seabird species such as the lesser frigatebird, brown noddy tern, and sooty tern use the island for nesting and roosting. The island is also believed to be a rest stop for shorebirds that breed in the Arctic.

National Wildlife Refuge

On June 27, 1974, Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton created the Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge, which was expanded in 2009 to add submerged land within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of the island. The refuge now includes 215 hectares of land and 165,996 hectares of water. Baker, along with six other islands, was managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Remote Pacific Islands. In January 2009, President George W. Bush redesignated that entity as the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

Environmental challenges include abandoned military debris from World War II and illegal deep-sea fishing. Invasive alien species introduced by human activity, including roaches and coconut palms, have also displaced native wildlife. Feral cats, first introduced in 1937, were eradicated in 1965.

Public entry to the island is only by special use permit from the US Fish and Wildlife Service and is generally restricted to scientists and educators. Agency representatives visit the island on average once every two years, usually coordinating transportation with a NOAA ship.

Demographics

U.S. civilians evacuated the island in 1942 after Japanese air and naval attacks in World War II, as the atoll was occupied by the United States Armed Forces, which they left the island after the war. During its population stage, its capital was based in Meyerton City, named after H.A. Meyer.

Public access is only possible with a special permit from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which is generally only granted to scientists and educators. A cemetery and the remains of buildings from the extinct settlement are located in the middle of the west coast of the atoll. It is visited annually by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (since July 2000).

Currently, the atoll is uninhabited.

pelagic frigates on Baker Island

Government

It is an unincorporated territory, administered in Washington D.C., by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service under the Department of the Interior, as part of the Wildlife Refuge System.

Transportation

The island lacks ports and maritime access, it can only be anchored on the coast, although there is a landing stage in the middle of the western coast. It does have an abandoned World War II airstrip with a length of 1,665 meters, which is completely covered with vegetation and is therefore unusable.

There is a lighthouse near the middle of the western shoreline.

Ruins and artifacts

The Lighthouse of the Island

Debris from past human occupation is scattered throughout the island and in coastal waters. Most of it comes from the US military occupation of the island from 1942 to 1946. The most notable remnant is the 1,646-by-46-meter airstrip. It is completely overgrown and unusable. In the northeast section, apparently the main area of the camp, are the remains of various buildings and heavy equipment.

Five wooden antenna poles about 12 meters high remain standing at the camp. Debris from various crashed planes and large equipment such as bulldozers are scattered across the island. Numerous bulldozer excavations containing remains of metal, fuel, and water drums are scattered across the north central part and northern edge of the island. The Navy reported the loss of 11 landing craft in the waves during World War II.