Mapping the Forgotten Atolls: Visual Evidence and Satellite Views of the Us Minor Outlying Islands
The territorial sovereignty of the United States across these far-flung ocean pockets began with bird droppings. When Congress passed the Guano Islands Act of 1856, it authorized American citizens to take peaceable possession of unclaimed, unoccupied islands containing guano deposits. This single legislative stroke established US ownership over Baker and Howland Islands, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, and Navassa Island in the Caribbean Sea.
Private prospectors stripped the landscape bare over three decades. Tens of thousands of tons of nitrogen-rich seabird guano were shipped back to mainland farms to replenish depleted soil. Once the mineral deposits were exhausted, mining companies abandoned the low-lying coral formations, leaving behind iron rails, rotting piers, and scarred topsoil.
That sudden departure created a protracted legal vacuum. Navassa Island, an elevated limestone plateau located 35 miles west of Haiti, remains subject to a formal sovereignty dispute. Haiti claims Navassa under its 1801 constitution, citing historic territorial integrity over its surrounding waters. The United States maintains possession under the 1856 statute, managing the island through the US Fish and Wildlife Service as a restricted wildlife refuge. Satellite imagery of Navassa shows an overgrown, abandoned 1917 lighthouse standing over sheer coastal cliffs, completely devoid of docks, residents, or modern roads.
