Lighthouses of the U.S. Pacific Remote Islands

The United States of America is a federal union of 50 states and a capital district. This page describes lights established on a number of remote islands in the north central Pacific Ocean. These islands are classified as unincorporated U.S. territories under the direct control of the federal government.

In 1856 the U.S. Congress passed the Guano Islands Act authorizing U.S. citizens to take possesion of uninhabited oceanic islands anywhere in the world for the purpose of mining guano for fertilizer. More than 100 islands were occupied at various times in the second half of the 19th century. Nearly all these territorial claims have lapsed or been officially abandoned but several islands have remained permanently in U.S. possession, including Navassa Island in the Caribbean and a number of small islands in the North Pacific Ocean west and south of Hawaii.

Among the guano islands are several in the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands, located near the Equator in the central Pacific Ocean. In the 1930s the U.S. government decided to send American settlers to several of these islands to establish U.S. sovereignty more clearly in the face of Japanese imperial expansion. Small lighthouses were built as part of five settlements, including the three described on this page. The other two were on Kanton (Canton) Island and Enderbury Island but the U.S. claims to these islands were ceded to the new nation of Kiribati in the 1979 Treaty of Tarawa. These tiny colonies were short lived; all the settlers were withdrawn in 1942 after Kanton, Baker and Howland Islands were strafed by Japanese ships and planes based at Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands (also now in Kiribati). All the islands have been uninhabited ever since.

In 2009 the atolls and coral islands of Baker, Howland, Jarvis, Wake, Johnston, and Palmyra and the Kingman Reef were incorporated into the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. These same islands, plus Navassa Island in the Caribbean Sea and the Midway Islands in the Hawaiian chain, are also called the United States Minor Outlying Islands, a statistical category invented by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volumes G and M of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 111.

General Sources
United States Minor Outlying Islands
Photos by various photographers available from Wikimedia.
World of Lighthouses - Other U.S. Overseas Territories
Photos by various photographers available from Lightphotos.net.
Online List of Lights - Midway Island and Wake Islands
Photos by various photographers posted by Alexander Trabas.

Amelia Earhart Beacon
Amelia Earhart Beacon, Howland Island, August 2008
Wikimedia Creative Commons photo by Joann94024

Line Islands Lighthouse
Jarvis Island
1935. Inactive since 1942. 5 m (17 ft) round tower; no lantern, but a light on a short mast was placed at the top. The lighthouse was originally painted white with a red horizontal band, but little paint remains today. Wikimedia has a 2003 view from the sea and the beacon casts a shadow in Google's satellite view. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has an older but distant view in which the red and white bands are visible. Jarvis Island is a coral island about 40 km (25 mi) south of the Equator and about 2400 km (1490 mi) south of Honolulu; its longitude of 160°W places it a huge distance, about 1800 km (1100 mi), east of Baker and Howland Islands. Like Baker it was mined for guano from 1858 to 1879. After being annexed briefly by Britain it was occupied by American settlers from 1935 to early 1942, when the settlers were evacuated at the start of World War II. Scientists established a base on the island during the International Geophysical Year in 1957-58. Harold Jewell, one of the scientists, mentioned the lighthouse several times in his report (no longer online); the scientists stored some of their gear in it. The lighthouse still stands and is charted as a daybeacon. Like Howland the island is a national wildlife refuge; visits require a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. ARLHS PJI-001.

Phoenix Islands Lighthouses (see also Kiribati)
Amelia Earhart (Howland Island)
1937. Inactive since 1942. 6 m (20 ft) round rubblestone tower, originally painted with black and white horizontal bands but unpainted today. A 2008 photo appears above, Wikimedia also has a more distant view, and Google has a satellite view. Howland Island is a coral island in the Phoenix Islands 80 km (50 mi) north of the Equator at longitude 176.6°W, about 3050 km (1900 mi) southwest of Honolulu. The atoll has been claimed by the U.S. since 1856. The lighthouse and an airstrip were constructed in 1937 to support a round-the-world flight by the famous aviator Amelia Earhart. After Earhart disappeared July 2 on her flight from New Guinea to Howland the tower was retained in her memory. Lightphotos.net has a photo taken in 1939 that shows the original appearance of the lighthouse. Two Americans were killed when Japanese planes attacked the island on 8 December 1941, the day after the Pearl Harbor attack. Damaged by the attack, the lighthouse was restored by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1963 as a daybeacon. Lighthouse Digest has a Coast Guard photo of the restored tower. Clearly there has been no further restoration since that time. The island is a national wildlife refuge; visits require a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. ARLHS BAK-002.
Baker Island
1935. Inactive since 1942. 5 m (17 ft) round brick tower; no lantern, but a light on a short mast was placed at the top. The lighthouse was painted with red and white stripes in 1967 but it appears that it was repainted white at a later date. A 2008 photo is at right, Wikimedia also has a view from the sea, and Google has a satellite view. Baker Island is a coral island 68 km (43 mi) south of Howland Island and only 25 km (15 mi) north of the Equator. The island was mined for guano from 1859 to 1878. Britain claimed the island from 1897 to 1936 but took no action to occupy it. American settlers arrived in 1935 and built the lighthouse. The settlement was evacuated at the start of World War II. In September 1943 the U.S. Army built an airstrip on the island and used it for several months as a base for attacks on Japanese bases in the Marshall Islands. Since early 1944 the island has been unoccupied and rarely visited. The lighthouse still stands and is charted as a daybeacon. Like Howland, the island is a national wildlife refuge; visits require a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. ARLHS BAK-001.
Baker Island Beacon
Baker Island Beacon, August 2008
Wikimedia Creative Commons photo by Joann94024

Midway Islands Lighthouse
Sand Island (2)
Date unknown. Active; focal plane 48 m (158 ft) (?); flash every 10 s; two white flashes are followed by a green flash. Light mounted on a round fuel tank painted in a red and white checkerboard pattern. Google has a street view of the tank taken in 2012, before the tank had the light. Google also has a satellite view. Wikimedia has Forest and Kim Starr's photo of the light when it was mounted on a water tank. The tank was removed in 2016 but it is still listed by NGA. The Midway Atoll is near the extreme western end of the Hawaiian Islands, about 2100 km (1310 mi) west northwest of Honolulu. The islands were discovered by U.S. sealers in 1859 and annexed by the United States in 1867, long before Hawaii. Midway was placed under Navy jurisdiction and has never been part of Hawaii as a territory or as a state. A naval air station was established on Sand Island, the largest island of the atoll, in 1941, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. Management of the atoll was transferred in 1996 to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge; in 2000 the World War II facilities were designated the Battle of Midway National Memorial. Several dozen U.S. government employees and contractors normally occupy the island but it is closed to tourism and casual visitors. Admiralty G7580; ex-NGA 11112.

Wake Island Lighthouse
Wake Island
Date unknown. Active; focal plane 19 m (62 ft); flash every 10 s, alternately white and green. 16 m (52 ft) square airport tower. A photo of the tower and a U.S. Air Force F/A-18E fighter jet is available and Google has a satellite view. Wake Island is one of the most isolated islands of the Pacific; it is 3700 km (2300 mi) west of Honolulu and 1445 km (898 mi) north of Majuro in the Marshall Islands. The island was discovered by a Spanish expedition in 1568 but was rarely visited in the following centuries. The U.S. Navy took formal possession for the United States in January 1899, immediately after the Spanish-American War. A U.S. base was established shortly before World War II but it was captured by Japan shortly after the war began and remained in Japanese hands until the end of the war. The island is managed today as a U.S. Air Force Base serving as a refueling station and emergency landing site; there is also a launch facility for testing antimissile defense systems. The island is closed to casual visitors. Site manager: U.S Air Force 15th Wing (Wake Island). Admiralty M8482; NGA 11096.

Information available on lost lighthouses:

Notable faux lighthouses:

Adjoining pages: North: Hawaii | South: Kiribati

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Posted August 28, 2005. Checked and revised September 18, 2023. Lighthouses: 5. Site copyright 2023. Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.