In 1856 the U.S. Congress passed the Guano Islands Act, which authorized U.S. citizens to take possesion of uninhabited oceanic islands anywhere in the world for the purpose of mining guano for fertilizer. More than 100 islands were occupied at various times in the second half of the 19th century. Several have remained permanently in U.S. possession, including Navassa Island in the Caribbean and a number of small islands in the northern and central Pacific west and south of Hawaii.
Among the guano islands are several in the Phoenix and Line Islands, located near the Equator. In the 1930s, the U.S. government decided to send American settlers to these islands to more clearly establish U.S. sovereignty in the face of Japanese imperial expansion. Small lighthouses were built as part of four settlements, including one on Kanton (Canton) Island in what is now Kiribati. These tiny colonies were short lived; all the settlers were withdrawn in 1942 after Kanton, Baker and Howland Islands were strafed by Japanese ships and planes based at Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati). All the islands have been uninhabited ever since.
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Line Islands Lighthouse
Jarvis Island - 1935. Inactive. No description or photo available. Jarvis Island is about 40 km (25 mi) south of the Equator and a huge distance, about 1800 km (1100 mi), east of Baker and Howland islands. Like Baker, it was mined for guano from 1858 to 1879. After being annexed briefly by Britain, it was reoccupied by American settlers from 1935 to early 1942. Harold Jewell visited the island with a biological expedition in 1958 and mentions the lighthouse several times in his report; the scientists stored some of their gear in it. The lighthouse still stands and is charted as a daybeacon. Like Howland, the island is a national wildlife refuge; visits require a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. ARLHS PJI-001.
Amelia Earhart Beacon, Howland Island, 1963
U.S. Coast Guard photo