I Have noticed that one or two of our members have mentioned, The Palmyra Atoll, in their profiles or blogs….It interested me so I looked up some information as follows…Sure sounds like a secluded spot to me….Anyone want to go ? A paradise, but with a few mysteries surrounding it….
Palmyra Island Atoll, Pacific Ocean.
There is no current economic activity on the island. Many of the roads and causeways on the atoll were built during World War II. All are now unserviceable and overgrown. There is a roughly 2,200 yard (2,000 m) long, unpaved and unimproved airstrip on Cooper Island (Palmyra Airport, ICAO code PLPA). Various abandoned World War II-era structures are found on the island.
The atoll has been manned by a group of scientists, Nature Conservancy staff and volunteers, and Fish & Wildlife representatives (totaling between four and 20 in all) for the last several years. A series of improvements in 2004 consisted of new two-person bungalows and showers for the island's inhabitants. Water is collected from the roof of a concrete building not far from the main living area of the scientists. Communal buildings of the settlement on the north side of Cooper Island (the only one on the atoll) consist of a common cooking/dining building adjacent to the Atoll's only dock and a kayak and scuba equipment storage building next to the launch ramp.
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 are particularly plentiful on the beaches of Palmyra, as well as plastic bottles for soft drinks, detergents, etc.
Many have extrapolated the question: Can an entire island be haunted? Palmyra Island, really an atoll along the rim of a long dead Pacific volcano, has a long history among sailors and landlubbers alike as being an unwholesome place. Perhaps best known as the location of a sensational 1970’s murder case detailed by author Vincent Bugliosi in his novel “And the Sea Will Tell,” Palmyra has long featured in many cautionary tales passed among old salts who know perhaps more than they care to about this troublesome speck in the ocean.
Many claim that there is a “malevolent aura” surrounding Palmyra, such as Richard Taylor, a yachtsman who gave testimony at the sensational murder trial:
“I had a foreboding feeling about the island. It was more than just the fact that it was a ghost-type island; it was more than that. It seemed to be an unfriendly place to be. I’ve been on a number of atolls, but Palmyra was different. I can’t put my finger on specifically why, but it was not an island that I enjoyed being on. I think other people have had difficulties on that island.”
Palmyra has been called the remotest place on earth, one of the last few truly uninhabited islands, lying near the very center of the Pacific Ocean, about 1000 nautical miles south-southwest of Hawaii and about one-half of the way from Hawaii to American Samoa. It is tiny – measuring approximately a mile and a half long and a half-mile wide. The island lies well off the major Asian/American shipping lanes. There is a huge bird population and an abundance of insect and reptile life. The interior is rain forest jungle and the entire island is surrounded by coral reef; the waters of the reef and the inland lagoons are prime breeding spots for gray and black tip sharks that are found to be unusually aggressive in the waters surrounding Palmyra. Some visitors and servicemen who spent time on the island in WWII reported that the sharks took “one to two” victims a month. Even the native fish that populate the reef are poisonous because they feed on deadly algae that grows on the coral, making them deadly to consume.
Legends of the island appearing out of nowhere and nearly grounding vessels are intermingled with tales of buried pirate gold; even in modern times, in addition to the grisly murder of the 1970’s, there have been bizarre and deadly occurrences. Many of these tales include the crashes and unexplained disappearances of US fighter planes during the war – a history similar to the Bermuda Triangle legacy. But where Bermuda is inhabitable and has some redeeming attractions, there is nothing to redeem Palmyra Island, at least in the minds of those who have experienced it. Truly, as one man said, “only H.P. Lovecraft could have invented this place.”
A partial article from: 10 Most Creepiest Places on Earth!!!
(con't below in comments)
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| :Palmyra Island Atoll, Pacific Ocean. A Paradise or Place of Mystery and Death |
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IB4U
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Mar 9 @ 5:08PM
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Con't from above
History of Palmyra Atoll
Palmyra was first sighted in 1798 by an American sea captain, Edmund Fanning of Stonington, Connecticut, while his ship the Betsy was in transit to Asia, but it was only later—on November 7, 1802—that the first western people landed on the uninhabited atoll. On that date, Captain Sawle of the United States ship Palmyra was wrecked on the atoll.
In 1859, Palmyra was claimed by Dr. Gerrit P. Judd of the brig Josephine for the American Guano Company and the United States, in accordance with the Guano Islands Act of 1856; however, the company never started mining for guano, because there was none to be mined. Meanwhile, on February 26, 1862, Kamehameha IV (1834–1863), Fourth King of Hawaii (1854–1863), issued a commission to Captain Zenas Bent and Johnson B. Wilkinson, both Hawaiian citizens, to sail to Palmyra and to take possession of the atoll in the king's name and on April 15, 1862 it was formally annexed to the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Captain Bent sold his rights to Palmyra to Mr. Wilkinson on December 24, 1862 and from 1862 to 1885, Kalama Wilkinson owned the island which was divided in 1885 between three heirs, two of which immediately transferred their rights to a certain Wilcox who, in turn, transferred them to the Pacific Navigation Company.In 1898 Palmyra was annexed to the U.S. in conjunction with the overall U.S. annexation of Hawaii; on June 14, 1900 it became part of the then U.S. Territory of Hawaii. In the period preceding the formal annexation of the atoll by the U.S., the United Kingdom had shown interest for the atoll to become part of the "Guano Empire" of John T. Arundel & Co; and in 1889 the British had even formally annexed it. In order to end all further British attempts or contestations, a second, separate act of annexation of Palmyra by the U.S. was made in 1911.
Afterwards, by a series of agreements signed between 1888 and 1911, the Pacific Navigation Company transferred its interests to Henry Ernest Cooper Sr. (1857–1929). The third heir of Kalama Wilkinson transferred his rights to a Mr. Ringer, whose children in turn also transferred their rights to Henry Ernest Cooper Sr. (s.a.) in 1912 and who then became the sole owner of the atoll. On February 21, 1912 it was formally claimed by the U.S. government, still as part of Hawaii Territory.
In 1922 Cooper sold the whole atoll except some minor islets (the 5 "home islands") to Leslie and Ellen Fullard-Leo on August 19 for $15,000.00. The latter party established the Palmyra Copra Company to exploit the coconuts growing on the atoll. Their heirs continued as proprietors afterwards, except for a period of Navy administration during World War II.
In 1934, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, and Palmyra were placed under the Department of the Navy. When the U.S. Navy took over the atoll for use as the Palmyra Island Naval Air Station on 15 August 1941, the atoll was privately owned by American citizens in Hawaii. From November 1939 to 1947, the atoll had only permanently resident government representatives, styled "island commanders."
After the war, the Fullard-Leo family fought for the return of Palmyra all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won in 1947. When Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959, Palmyra was explicitly separated from the new state as an incorporated territory of the U.S., administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
In 1962, the U.S. Department of Defense used the atoll for an instrumentation site during high altitude atomic weapon tests over Johnston Island.
In July 1990, Peter Savio of Honolulu took a lease on the atoll until the year 2065 and formed the Palmyra Development Company.[4] When Savio took over the atoll he appointed Roger Lextrait caretaker of the island, and Lextrait lived there for 8 years.
In December 2000, most of the atoll was purchased by The Nature Conservancy for the purposes of coral reef conservation and research. The Cooper family still owns two of the five Home Islands. In 2003, a scientific study was published regarding fossil coral washed up on Palmyra Atoll. The fossil coral was examined for evidence of the behavior of the El Niño effect on the tropical Pacific over the past 1,000 years. In November 2005, a worldwide team of scientists joined with The Nature Conservancy to launch a new research station on the Palmyra Atoll in order to study global warming, disappearing coral reefs, invasive species and other global environmental threats.
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leprichaun_magic
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Mar 9 @ 6:06PM
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samoa and kayaks sounds quite romntic .. i dont know much about this place .. but could be a few war time ghosts haunting the place....by the sound of things ?  
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summerbreeze916
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Mar 9 @ 6:35PM
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It didn't sound half bad until you mentioned 'reptiles'. 
Very interesting blog, IB4U! When I first started reading it, I thought it might be yet another Bermuda Triangle........  
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pinkypaula2
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Mar 10 @ 1:19PM
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you always have the most enlightining interesting blogs howard, thatk you for sharing you are so nice kudos for you
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dixiepixie
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Mar 15 @ 10:04AM
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Excellent and very informative blog. I have used Palmyra Atoll on my profile for quite a while now as a response to the "Looking for a match" item. I really didn't know that much about the atoll but did select it due to the fact that it was was pretty much uninhabited and in an out of the way place. Primarily my reasons were to help me reiterate that I am seeking friends only on this site and perhaps it would help me avoid being emailed by scammers.
Palmyra has been called the remotest place on earth, one of the last few truly uninhabited islands, lying near the very center of the Pacific Ocean, about 1000 nautical miles south-southwest of Hawaii and about one-half of the way from Hawaii to American Samoa.
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