Uninhabited US Territories: America's Crumbs

What It Covers

The 1856 Guano Islands Act enabled American citizens to claim uninhabited Pacific and Caribbean islands for bird manure deposits, creating nine remote US territories — including Midway, Wake, and Howland — that remain American soil today with zero permanent residents.

Key Questions Answered

• •Guano Islands Act (1856): The US government acquired remote Pacific and Caribbean islands at zero federal cost by deputizing private citizens to claim uninhabited, unclaimed islands containing guano — a fertilizer and gunpowder ingredient — with military protection guaranteed for successful claims.
• •FDR's 1930s Colonization Project: To counter Japanese Pacific expansion, the Roosevelt administration sent small groups of young Hawaiian men to live on remote guano islands, build camps, raise flags, and record weather data — establishing legal sovereignty through continuous physical occupation rather than traditional settlement.
• •Johnston Atoll's Cold War role: Johnston Atoll served as a nuclear weapons test site, hosting the 1962 Starfish Prime high-altitude detonation that generated an artificial aurora and disabled satellites and electrical systems across Hawaii, then later housed a chemical weapons disposal facility operational through the 1990s.
• •Palmyra Atoll's unique legal status: Unlike every other uninhabited US territory, Palmyra is an incorporated territory where the full US Constitution applies. Congress deliberately excluded it from Hawaii's 1959 Statehood Act due to its private ownership and separate legal classification, making it constitutionally distinct from all other remote islands.