Palmyra Atoll
EO-1 Satellite Image of Palmyra Atoll.
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Location of Palmyra Atoll in the Pacific Ocean |
| Geography |
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| Coordinates |
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| Archipelago | North Pacific |
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| Total islands | 4 |
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| Area | 12 km2 (4.6 sq mi) |
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| Coastline | 14 km (8.7 mi) |
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| Highest elevation | 1.8288 m (6 ft) |
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| Demographics |
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| Population | 4 - 10 |
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| Additional information |
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The atoll consists of an extensive
reef, two shallow lagoons, and some 50 sand and reef-rock islets and bars covered with vegetation—mostly
coconut trees,
Scaevola, and tall
Pisonia trees.
The islets of the atoll are mostly connected. Sand Island and the two Home Islets in the west and Barren Island in the east are not. The largest island isCooper Island in the north, followed by Kaula Island in the south. The northern arch of islets is formed by Strawn Island, Cooper Island, Aviation Island, Quail Island, Whippoorwill Island, followed in the east by Eastern Island, Papala Island, and Pelican Island, and in the south by Bird Island, Holei Island, Engineer Island, Tanager Island, Marine Island, Kaula Island, Paradise Island, and Home Island (clockwise). Average annual rainfall is approximately 175 in (4,400 mm) per year. Daytime temperatures average 85 °F (29 °C) year round.
POLITICAL STATUS
The only relevant
Federal law simply gives the
President the authority to administer Palmyra as he best sees fit (see Section 48 of the Hawaii Omnibus Act, Pub. L. 86–624, July 12, 1960, 74 Stat. 411, attached as a note to former sections 491 to 636 of Title 48, United States Code
[4]).
There is no current economic activity on Palmyra. Most of the roads and causeways there were built during
World War II. All of these are now unserviceable and overgrown with bushes and grass. There is a 2,000-meter-long, unpaved,
airstrip on Cooper Island (
Palmyra (Cooper) Airport,
ICAO code PLPA), that was built for the Navy during WW II.
A construction program in 2004 consisted of several two-person bungalows and showers for the temporary residents.
Fresh water is collected from the roof of a concrete building in this area. The communal buildings of the area on the north side of Cooper Island (the only occupied area of the atoll) consist of a common cooking and dining building next to the only sea dock, and there is a kayak and
scuba diving equipment storage building adjacent to this.
Palmyra Atoll's location in the Pacific Ocean, where the southern and northern currents meet, means that its beaches are littered with trash and debris. Plastic mooring buoys and plastic bottles are plentiful on the beaches of Palmyra.
HISTORY
Palmyra was first sighted in 1798 by captain
Edmund Fanning of
Stonington, Connecticut, master of the American merchant ship
Betsy,on a voyage to Asia. Fanning had woken three times during the night before. After the third time, he took it as a premonition, and he ordered
Betsy to heave to for the rest of the night. The next morning,
Betsy resumed sailing, but only about a
nautical milefurther on, she reached the reef of Palmyra. Had the ship continued on her course at night, the ship might have been wrecked.
[6] On November 7, 1802, USS
Palmyra under Captain Sawle was shipwrecked on the reef, which was given the name of this vessel.
In 1859, Palmyra Atoll was claimed for the
United States by Dr.
Gerrit P. Juddof the brig
Josephine, in accordance with the
Guano Islands Act of 1856, but there was no
guano there to be mined. On February 26, 1862, King
Kamehameha IV of
Hawaii commissioned Captain Zenas Bent and Johnson Beswick Wilkinson, both Hawaiian citizens, to take possession of the atoll. On April 15, 1862, it was formally annexed to the Kingdom of Hawaii, while Bent and Wilkinson became joint owners.
[7]
Over the next century, ownership of the atoll passed through various hands. Bent sold his rights to Palmyra to Wilkinson on December 25, 1862. Palmyra later passed to Kalama Wilkinson (Johnson's widow). In 1885, it was then divided between three heirs, two of whom immediately gave their rights to William Luther Wilcox who, in turn, gave them to the Pacific Navigation Company. In 1897, this company was liquidated, and its interests were sold first to
William Ansel Kinney, and then to Fred Wunderburg.
[8]
The third Wilkinson heir sold his rights to William Ringer.
[9]
In 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii, and Palmyra with it. On June 14, 1900, Palmyra became part of the new
Territory of Hawaii.
[7] To end all British claims,
Congress passed a second act of annexation in 1911. This act made Palmyra the only "incorporated territory" of the United States at that time.
In 1912,
Henry Ernest Cooper (1857–1929) acquired William Ringer's property rights to Palmyra and, after a challenge in court, he became the sole owner of the atoll.
[9] Cooper visited the island in July 1913 with the scientists
Charles Montague Cooke, Jr., and
Joseph F. Rock, who wrote up a scientific description of the atoll.
[12]
On August 19, 1922, Cooper sold the whole atoll except two minor islets to Leslie and Ellen Fullard-Leo for $15,000. They established the Palmyra Copra Company to harvest the
coconuts growing on the atoll. Their three sons, including actor
Leslie Vincent, continued as the owners afterwards, except for the period of administration by the Navy during
World War II (1940–1945).
U.S. NAVY OCCUPATION (1934-1959)
After World War II, much of the Naval Air Station was demolished, with some of the materials piled up and burned on the atoll, dumped into the lagoon, or in the case of unexploded ordnance on some islets, just left in place.
[13] After the war, the Fullard-Leo family sued for the return of the ownership of Palmyra Atoll. The case went all the way up to the
Supreme Court. The family won its case in
United States v. Fullard-Leo, 331 U.S. 256 (1947).
[14] As of 2007, descendants of Henry Cooper still owned the two small islets not sold in 1922.
[7]
INTERIOR DEPARTMENT ADMINISTRATION (1959-PRESENT)
In December 2000, most of Palmyra Atoll was bought by
The Nature Conservancy[7] for
coral reef conservation and research. In 2003, a scientific study was published about fossilized coral that was washing up on Palmyra. This fossilized coral was examined for evidence of the behavior of the effect of
El Niño on the tropical
Pacific Ocean over the past 1,000 years.
[15]
In November 2005, The Nature Conservancy established up a new research station on Palmyra to study
global warming, the disappearing coral reefs,
invasive species, and other environmental concerns.
[16]
NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
On January 18, 2001, the Secretary of the Interior signed an order designating Palmyra’s tidal lands, submerged lands, and surrounding waters out to 12 nautical miles (22 km) from the water’s edge as a National Wildlife Refuge. Subsequently, the Department of the Interior published a regulation providing for the management of the refuge. 66 Fed. Reg. 7660-01 (January 24, 2001). The regulation states, in pertinent part, as follows:
"We will close the refuge to commercial fishing but will permit a low level of compatible recreational fishing for bonefishing and deep water sportfishing under programs that we will carefully manage to ensure compatibility with refuge purposes. . . . Management actions will include protection of the refuge waters and wildlife from commercial fishing activities."
In March 2003, The Nature Conservancy conveyed 416 acres (1.68 km2) of the emergent land of Palmyra to the United States to be included in the refuge. It subsequently added 28 more acres to the conveyance.
In January 2007, commercial fishing interests sued the United States in the
Court of Federal Claims alleging that, under the
Takings Clause, the Interior Department regulation had “directly confiscated, taken, and rendered wholly and completely worthless” their purported property interests. The United States filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, and the court granted the motion.
[18] On April 9, 2009, the court's decision was affirmed by the
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
[19]
In 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Nature Conservancy, and Island Conservation began an extensive program to eradicate the large population of non-native rats that had arrived on Palmyra during World War II. As many as 30,000 rats once roamed the atoll, eating the eggs of native seabirds and destroying the seedlings of one the largest remaining stands of
Pisonia grandis trees in the Pacific. These efforts were successfully concluded in 2012--with respect to rodent removal, however fifty-one animal samples representing 15 species of birds, fish, reptiles and invertebrates were collected for residue analysis during systematic searches or as nontarget mortalities. Brodifacoum residues (the toxicant employed during the project) were detected in most (84.3%) of the samples analyzed with unknown long-term and sublethal effects.
[20][21]
Limited visits to the refuge are allowed, including by private recreational sailboat or motorboat. Visits must have prior approval, with access to Cooper Island arranged through the Nature Conservancy.
[22]
THE SEA WIND MURDERS
In 1974, Palmyra was the site of the double murder of a wealthy San Diego couple, Malcolm "Mac" Graham and his wife, Eleanor "Muff" Graham.
[23] The mysterious deaths, murder conviction of Duane (“Buck”) Walker (aka Wesley G. Walker) and acquittal of his girlfriend, Stephanie Stearns, made headlines nationwide and led to a best-selling account written by Stearns's defense attorney,
Vincent Bugliosi, and
Bruce B. Henderson in the
true crime book
And the Sea Will Tell. The book led to a CBS television miniseries by the same name starring
James Brolin,
Rachel Ward and
Hart Bochner. The story was also depicted in
The FBI Files.
Walker and Stearns were arrested in Honolulu in 1974 after returning from Palmyra aboard the Sea Wind, a yacht stolen from the Grahams. Because no bodies were found at the time, Walker and Stearns were convicted only for the yacht theft in August 1975. Six years later, a partially buried corroded chest was found in a lagoon at Palmyra, containing Eleanor Graham's remains. Walker and Stearns were arrested in Arizona for murder. Walker was convicted in 1985. Stearns was acquitted in 1986. Walker served 22 years in the United States Penitentiary, Victorville, California before receiving parole in 2007. Walker died on April 26, 2010.
SEE ALSO
REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS
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alert williamson chang palmyra issues affects the annexation to the u.s. because a treasonous person engaged in that annexation. gp judd had No authority in 1859 the mankichi case brings up palmyra etc. also see the latest iolani....alert williamson chang palmyra issues affects the annexation to the u.s. because a treasonous person engaged in that annexation. gp judd had No authority in 1859 the mankichi case brings up palmyra etc. also see the latest iolani....
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