Palmyra Atoll

EO-1 Satellite Image of Palmyra Atoll.
Palmyra Atoll Location of Palmyra Atoll in the Pacific Ocean
Geography
Coordinates	5°53′N 162°5′W / 5.883°N 162.083°WCoordinates:5°53′N 162°5′W / 5.883°N 162.083°W
Archipelago	North Pacific
Total islands	4
Area	12 km2 (4.6 sq mi)
Coastline	14 km (8.7 mi)
Highest elevation	1.8288 m (6 ft)
Country
United States  Palmyra Atoll is under the administration of the Office of Insular Affairs
Demographics
Population	4 - 10
Additional information
incorporated[1] Template:Designation list

Palmyra Atoll /pælˈmaɪrə/ is an unoccupied equatorial Northern Pacific atoll administered as anunorganized incorporated territory by the United States federal government. The variable temporary population of 4–20 "non-occupants" are staffand scientists employed by various departments of the US government and The Nature Conservancy,[2] as well as a rotating mix of Palmyra Atoll Research Consortium[3]scholars pursuing research.

Palmyra is one of the Northern Line Islands (southeast ofKingman Reef and north ofKiribati Line Islands), located almost due south of theHawaiian Islands, roughly halfway between Hawaii andAmerican Samoa. The atoll is 4.6 sq mi (12 km2), and it is located in the equatorial Northern Pacific Ocean. Its 9 mi (14 km) of coastline has one anchorage known as West Lagoon.

The atoll consists of an extensive reef, two shallow lagoons, and some 50 sand and reef-rock islets and bars covered with vegetation—mostlycoconut trees, Scaevola, and tallPisonia 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

Palmyra is an incorporated territory of the United States (the only such territory in existence since 1959), meaning that it is subject to all provisions of the U.S. Constitution and is permanently under American sovereignty. However, since Palmyra is also an unorganized territory, there is no Act of Congress specifying how Palmyra should be governed. Palmyra is also uninhabited, as far as permanent residents are concerned.

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]).

The issue of the governing of Palmyra is generally a moot point, since there is no permanent population remaining there, nor any reason to think that there will be in the future. Palmyra is the only unorganized incorporated territory of the US. Cooper Island in this atoll is owned by The Nature Conservancy, and it is managed as a nature reserve. The rest of Palmyra is Federal land and waters under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.[5] Since Palmyra has no local government at all, it is administered directly fromWashington, D.C., by the Office of Insular Affairs, of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

For all other purposes, Palmyra is counted as one of the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands.

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, KingKamehameha 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]

Meanwhile, in 1889, Commander Nichols of HMS Cormorant claimed Palmyra for the United Kingdom, unaware of the prior claim made by Hawaii.[10]

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.

With imminent opening of the Panama Canal, Palmyra became strategically important. Britain had established a submarine cable station for the All Red Line on nearby Fanning Island.[11] So the U.S. Navy sent USS West Virginia to Palmyra, where on February 21, 1912, American sovereignty was formally reaffirmed.[7]

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)

In 1934, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, and Palmyra were placed under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Navy. The Navy took over the atoll for use as the Palmyra Island Naval Air Station on August 15, 1941. From November 1939 through 1947, the atoll had resident Federal Government representatives, the island commanders.

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)

When Hawaii was admitted to the United States in 1959, Palmyra was explicitly separated from the new state as a federal incorporated territory, administered by the Department of the Interior.[7] In 1962, the Department of Defense used Palmyra as an observation site during several high-altitude nuclear weaponstests high above Johnston Atoll. A group of about ten men supported the observation posts during this series of tests, while about 40 people carried out the observations.

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 ofEl 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]

The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, including Palmyra Atoll, was established on January 6, 2009. The Secretary of the Interior has delegated the responsibility for supervising this National Monument to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.[17]

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 theCourt 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 ofPisonia 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

• List of Guano Island claims

REFERENCES

EXTERNAL LINKS

• Palmyra atoll
• Palmyra Island
• Palmyra Atoll NWR
• The Curse of Palmyra Island – article
• The Curse of Palmyra Island – free eBook
• The Nature Conservancy in Palmyra Atoll
• Palmyra Atoll Research Consortium
• United States v. Fullard-Leo (Supreme Court opinion; includes a history of the island's ownership)
• WorldStatesmen- U.S.
• History of Palmyra Atoll
• The Palmyra Gazette

Template:Protected Areas of the United States Minor Outlying Islands

Gerrit Parmele Judd
Born	April 23, 1803 Paris, New York
Died	July 12, 1873 (aged 70) Honolulu, Kingdom of Hawaii
Resting place	Oahu Cemetery
Nationality	United States
Occupation	Missionary, Physician, Politician
Spouse(s)	Laura Fish
Children	Gerrit Parmele II, Elizabeth Kinaʻu, Helen Seymour, Charles Hastings, Laura Fish, Albert Francis, Alan Wilkes, Sybil Augusta, Juliet Isabelle
Parents	Elnathan Judd Betsey Hastings

Gerrit Parmele Judd (1803–1873) was an American physician and missionary to the Kingdom of Hawaii who later became a trusted advisor and cabinet minister to King Kamehameha III.

LIFE

Judd was born April 23, 1803 inParis, Oneida County, New York, the son of Elnathan Judd and his wife Betsey Hastings. On his mother's side, he was descended from Thomas Hastings, who came from the East Anglian area of England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634.

He was educated as a physician at the medical college in Fairfield, New York. He married Laura Fish (1804–1872) on September 20, 1827 in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. The couple sailed toHawaii (then known as the 'Sandwich Islands') that same year, on the ship Parthian, the third company from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.[1] He was assigned to the mission atHonolulu on the island of Oahu, as a missionary physician, and continued in that employment fifteen years.[2]

WORK

In 1842 he resigned from the mission and became an advisor and translator to King Kamehameha III. He also became involved in the civil concerns of the islands, and was the King’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from November 1843 to March 1845, Minister of Interior from March 1845 to February 1846, Minister of Finance from April 1846 to September 1853, and in the House of Representatives from 1858 to 1859.[3]He was commissioned in 1849 as Minister Plenipotentiary to England, France and the United States.

He was one of the founders of the Punahou School for children of the missionaries in 1841. He founded Hawaii's first medical school in 1870, and was the author of one of the first medical texts written in Hawaiian, Anatomia : he palapala ia e hoike ai i ke ano o ko ke kanaka kino, in 1838.

Judd died July 12, 1873 in Honolulu and was buried in the Oahu Cemetery.

LEGACY

They had nine children:[4]

1. Gerrit Parmele II born March 8, 1829, died November 13, 1839, buried in Oahu Cemetery.
2. Elizabeth Kinaʻu born July 5, 1831 died August 9, 1918. Married September 29, 1857 toSamuel Gardner Wilder (1831–1888) from Leominster, Massachusetts, six children.
3. Helen Seymour born August 27, 1833 and died April 2, 1911.
4. Charles Hastings born September 8, 1835 (twin) died April 18, 1890. Married November 1, 1859 to Emily Catherine Cutts (1840–1921), four children. Worked in the Guano and farming businesses, and held several posts in the Kingdom.[5]
5. Laura Fish born September 8, 1835 (twin) died November 22, 1888 at San Francisco, California. Married February 22, 1861 to Joshua Gill Dickson (1830–1880), four children.
6. Albert Francis born January 7, 1838 died May 20, 1900. Married April 4, 1872 to Agnes Hall Boyd (1844–?) nine children. Last child Lawrence M. Judd became Governor of theTerritory of Hawaii in 1929–1934.[6]
7. Alan Wilkes born April 20, 1840 and died March 26, 1875.
8. Sybil Augusta born March 16, 1843 and died September 10, 1906. Married February 27, 1862 to Henry Alpheus Peirce Carter (1837–1891), seven children. Son Charles Lunt was a member of the Committee of Safety, and son George Robert was Governor of theTerritory of Hawaii (1903–1907).
9. Juliet Isabelle born March 28, 1846 and died June 27, 1857.

Judd's life was the basis of the novel The White King. A biography, Dr. Judd, Hawaii’s Friend[7] which was written by his great-grandson Gerrit P. Judd IV (1915–1971) and published in 1960.[8] His papers were kept under restricted access at the Bishop Museum until his great-grandson Albert Francis Judd III died in 2006.[9]