History of Palmyra

1798 A.D.
After a premonition delivered in a dream, American sea captain Edmond Fanning "discovers" the atoll the next morning. He does not land.

1802
Captain Sawle and his American ship are blown ashore during a storm. The name of his ship is Palmyra.

1816
A Spanish pirate ship, Esperanza, loaded with plunder from Incan temples, wrecks on the atoll reefs. The crew allegedly buries the treasure beneath a palm grove before setting out on three fabricated rafts. Two of the rafts are never seen again. The remaining raft is rescued by an American whaling vessel. The sole survivor of the raft soon dies after sharing the fate of his ship.

1859
Dr. G.P. Judd of the American brig, Josephine, claims possession of the islets for the United States and the American Guano Company.

1862
King Kamehameha IV declares possession of Palmyra for the Kingdom of Hawai’i, acting on a petition by Zenas Bent and J.B. Wilkinson. Bent and Wilkinson pursue beche de mer and copra production. Bent later sells his interest in Palmyra to Wilkinson, who later willed his interest in the atoll to his wife.

1889
Great Britain claims the atoll.

1898
The United States of America, by Joint Resolution of Congress and under the leadership of President McKinley, annexes the Territory of Hawai‘i, explicitly including Palmyra.

1911-12
Judge Henry E. Cooper of Honolulu buys Palmyra Atoll and quits title to Palmyra in the Land Court of Hawai‘i. He uses Palmyra as a coconut plantation.

1922
The Fullard-Leo family of Hawai‘i purchases Palmyra Atoll from Cooper.

1940-1946
The United States Navy takes over the island and uses it as a naval air facility during World War II – Palmyra Island Naval Air Station. The 6,000-man station was an important link in the aerial supply route to Canton Atoll and Bora Bora in the South Pacific. A 6,000-foot coral airstrip was built on Cooper Island and roads were laid out with causeways connecting most of the islets and islands.

1947
The U.S. Supreme Court decides in favor of the Fullard-Leo family vs. U.S. Government claim to ownership of Palmyra. The Navy is directed to clean up and abandon the atoll.

1959
Hawai‘i becomes the 50th State and Palmyra is specifically excluded from the Hawai‘i Statehood Act, making it the only privately-owned territory in the United States.

1961
President Kennedy issues an executive order vesting civil administration of Palmyra in the U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

1974
A yachting couple is murdered at Palmyra, later becoming the basis for And the Sea Will Tell, a book by Vincent Bugliosi (author of Helter Skelter), published in 1991. It becomes a New York Times Bestseller (1991) and a TV movie (1991).

2000
The Fullard-Leo family agrees to sell the atoll to The Nature Conservancy, which aims to ensure the preservation of Palmyra Atoll for future generations.

2001
Palmyra Atoll and neighboring Kingman Reef National Wildlife Refuges are established in January 2001 by the Secretary of the Interior of the Clinton administration and includes for Palmyra submerged lands and associated waters out to 12 nautical miles from the atoll. This act protects 415,000 acres of terrestrial, nearshore, coral reef and deep water habitat, including more than 15,000 acres of nearshore marine shelf.

2004
The Fish and Wildlife Service purchases the outlying islets (415 acres) of Palmyra from The Nature Conservancy. The Nature Conservancy maintains title to Cooper-Menge Island and its facilities.

2005
The Nature Conservancy works with partners to establish the Palmyra Atoll Research Consortium (PARC). Major funding for the research station, start-up research operations and research station endowment was provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

2009
Palmyra Atoll is part of the new Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument established by President George W. Bush on January 6. This designation increases the amount of protected ocean wilderness surrounding Palmyra from half a million acres to 13 million acres including nearby Kingman Reef. The monument designation extends the commercial no-fishing zone from 12 miles surrounding the remote islands out to 50 nautical miles, effectively creating a huge marine protected area.

(Sources: The Nature Conservancy and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)