Jarvis Island (; formerly known as Bunker Island or Bunker's Shoal) is an uninhabited 4.5 km2 (1.7 sq mi) coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands. It is an unincorporated, unorganized territory of the United States, administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States Department of the Interior as part of the National Wildlife Refuge system. Unlike most coral atolls, the lagoon on Jarvis is wholly dry.
Jarvis is one of the Line Islands and, for statistical purposes, is also grouped as one of the United States Minor Outlying Islands. Jarvis Island is the largest of three U.S. equatorial possessions, which include Baker Island and Howland Island.
The United States claimed it in the 19th century and mined it for guano. In the 20th century, it was the subject of a small settlement. It was attacked during World War II and evacuated, leaving some buildings and a day beacon. In modern times, it is managed as a nature reserve.
While a few offshore anchorage spots are marked on maps, Jarvis Island has no ports or harbors, and swift currents are a hazard. There is a boat landing area in the middle of the western shoreline near a crumbling day beacon and another near the island's southwest corner. The center of Jarvis island is a dried lagoon where deep guano deposits accumulated, which were mined for about 20 years during the nineteenth century. The island has a tropical desert climate, with high daytime temperatures, constant wind, and intense sun. Nights, however, are quite cool. The ground is mostly sandy and reaches 23 feet (7.0 meters) at its highest point. The low-lying coral island has long been noted as hard to sight from small ships and is surrounded by a narrow fringing reef.
Jarvis Island is one of two United States territories that are in the Southern Hemisphere (the other is American Samoa). Located only 25 miles (40 km) south of the equator, Jarvis has no known natural freshwater lens and scant rainfall. This creates a very bleak, flat landscape without any plants larger than shrubs. There is no evidence that the island has ever supported a self-sustaining human population. Its sparse bunch grass, prostrate vines, and low-growing shrubs are primarily a nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds, and marine wildlife.
Jarvis Island was submerged during the latest interglacial period, roughly 125,000 years ago, when sea levels were 5 to 10 meters (16 to 33 ft) higher than today. As the sea level declined, the horseshoe-shaped lagoon formed in Jarvis Island's center.
Jarvis Island's highest point has a topographic isolation of 380.57 kilometers (236.48 mi; 205.49 nmi), with Joe's Hill on Kiritimati being the nearest higher neighbor.
Jarvis Island is located in the Samoa Time Zone (UTC -11:00), the same time zone as American Samoa, Kingman Reef, Midway Atoll, and Palmyra Atoll.
Jarvis Island once held some of the largest seabird breeding colonies in the tropical ocean. Still, guano mining and the introduction of rodents have ruined much of the island's native wildlife. Eight breeding species were recorded in 1982, compared to thirteen in 1996 and fourteen in 2004. The Polynesian storm petrel had made its return after over 40 years of absence from Jarvis Island, and the number of brown noddies multiplied from just a few birds in 1982 to nearly 10,000. Just twelve spectacled terns were recorded in 1982, but by 2004, over 200 nests were found there. The island, with its surrounding marine waters, has been recognized as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports colonies of lesser frigatebirds, brown and masked boobies, red-tailed tropicbirds, Polynesian storm petrels, blue noddies and sooty terns, as well as serving as a migratory stopover for bristle-thighed curlews.
Jarvis Island is unlikely to have hosted permanent human occupation before its use for guano mining. However, it is possible the island was utilized as a waypoint or stopover island by Polynesian voyagers; it is 375 km (200 nmi) southwest of Kiritimati, which was used by them between c. 1250 and 1450 AD. The remoteness of the island and a lack of freshwater resources have prevented large-scale archaeological surveys from taking place.
The island's first known sighting by the British on August 21, 1821, by the British ship Eliza Francis (or Eliza Frances) owned by Edward, Thomas and William Jarvis and commanded by Captain Brown. The island was visited by whaling vessels until the 1870s.
The U.S. Exploring Expedition surveyed the island in 1841. In March 1857 the island was claimed for the United States under the Guano Islands Act and formally annexed on February 27, 1858.
Nineteenth-century guano mining
The American Guano Company, incorporated in 1857, established claims regarding Baker Island and Jarvis Island, recognized under the U.S. Guano Islands Act of 1856. Beginning in 1858, several support structures were built on Jarvis Island, along with a two-story, eight-room "superintendent's house" featuring an observation cupola and wide verandahs. Tram tracks were laid down to bring mined guano to the western shore. One of the first loads was taken by Samuel Gardner Wilder.
Laborers for the mining operations came from around the Pacific, including from Hawaiʻi; the Hawaiian laborers named Baker Island "Paukeaho", meaning 'out of breath' or 'exhausted', which is indicative of the hard work needed.
For the following 21 years, Jarvis was commercially mined for guano sent to the United States as fertilizer. The island was abruptly abandoned in 1879, leaving behind about a dozen buildings and 8,000 metric tons (8,800 short tons) of mined guano.
New Zealand entrepreneurs, including photographer Henry Winkelmann, then made unsuccessful attempts to continue guano extraction on Jarvis, and the two-story house was sporadically inhabited during the early 1880s. Squire Flockton was left alone on the island as caretaker for several months and committed suicide there in 1883, apparently from gin-fueled despair. His wooden grave marker was a carved plank which could be seen in the island's tiny four-grave cemetery for decades.
John T. Arundel & Co. resumed mining guano from 1886 to 1899. The United Kingdom annexed the island on June 3, 1889. Phosphate and copra entrepreneur John T. Arundel visited the island in 1909 on the maiden voyage of the S.S. Ocean Queen, and near the beach landing on the western shore, members of the crew built a pyramidal day beacon made from slats of wood, which was painted white. The beacon was standing in 1935, and remained until at least 1942.