Baker Island Geography and Climate
Baker Island belongs to the remote islands of the United States in the Pacific Ocean and it is the United States that has control over this island without it being part of the United States for that matter. They usually talk about Bakerön together with Howlandön as an island couple as they are close to each other. The island is named after Captain Michael Baker, who discovered it on behalf of the United States in 1832. There are traces of previous settlements in the form of a cemetery and traces of buildings. The island has no harbor so you have to dock at the coast to get past the reef that is around the island. This reef poses a certain danger so there is a lighthouse on the island that warns of it.
The runway that was built during the Second World War is today abandoned, and it is covered with vegetation so it can not be used.
Geography and climate
Bakerön is a coral island with a highest point of about 8 meters and most of the island consists of sand and lower vegetation. Here there are no sources of fresh water and there is also no population living on the island permanently. The USA administers Bakerön via the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the island is considered a nature conservation area. The climate is equatorial climate with little rainfall, constant wind and strong sunshine. There is no lagoon here and the island is free of trees. The vegetation instead consists of four different kinds of grass and shrubs.
Bakerön is an important place for birds and there are plenty of different types of seabirds that have made the island their home. Some of these birds are considered to belong to endangered species. In the water and in the reef around the island there are also turtles.
History
Bakerön was discovered as early as 1818 by Captain Elisha Folger who came on the whaling ship Equator. He named the island New Nantucket, but the island was named after Captain Michael Baker who came in 1834. There are sources claiming that he came to the island in 1832 and again in 1839 to bury an American sailor. In any case, it was Captain Baker who claimed the island in 1855.
The United States seized the island in 1857 and came to extract the guano that was on the island between 1859 and 1878. In 1886, the American Guano Company sold the rights to the British company John T. Arundel and Company, which made the island a center for guano excavation in the Pacific. the sea until 1891.
In 1935, American colonists tried to settle the island. They built a lighthouse, housing and even tried to grow different types of plants. However, it turned out to be very difficult to get any trees to grow as the island has such a dry climate and birds damaged the trees and palm trees that they tried to grow.
