Page "Jarvis Island" Paragraph 13

Jarvis Island was reclaimed by the United States government and colonized from 26 March 1935 onwards, under the Baker, Howland and Jarvis Colonization Scheme ( see also Howland Island and Baker Island ).

President Franklin D. Roosevelt assigned administration of the island to the U. S. Department of the Interior on 13 May 1936.

Starting out as a cluster of large, open tents pitched next to the still-standing white wooden day beacon, the Millersville settlement on the island's western shore was named after a bureaucrat with the United States Department of Air Commerce.

The settlement grew into a group of shacks built mostly with wreckage from the Amaranth ( lumber from which was also used by the young Hawaiian colonists to build surfboards ), but later, stone and wood dwellings were built and equipped with refrigeration, radio equipment, and a weather station.

A crude aircraft landing area was cleared on the northeast side of the island, and a T-shaped marker which was intended to be seen from the air was made from gathered stones, but no airplane is known to have ever landed there.