Kingman Reef is an unincorporated US territory in the west-central Pacific Ocean, and is a part of the Northern Line Islands. It is a barren atoll with a deep lagoon that is the nesting area and habitat for sea turtles, large clam species like the Tridacna squamosa and the Tridacna maxima, and migratory seabirds. Today, this mostly submerged, pristine, and uninhabited island is a National Wildlife Refuge.
In 1798, Edmund Fanning was the first person and American that sighted the Kingman Reef. However, it wasn't until 1853 that the island was named after another American, W. Kingman, who was the first to describe it. Under the Guano Islands Act of 1856, an employee from the Palmyra Copra Company claimed the island for the US with the intention of using it as a personal fishing base. It was claimed under the name "Danger Reef", which was the name given to the island due to its low depth and eminent danger to ships who got too close. On May 10, 1922, an American flag was requested by Leslie and Ellen Fullard-Leo to be hoisted over Kingman Reef by Lorrin A. Thurston. This was when it was full annexed by the United States. In 1934, Kingman Reef became a US naval reservation. But by 1938, the lagoon was being used by the commercial industry as a station for seaplanes that flew between Hawaii and Samoa. To this day, the island reef is not open to the public, and is limited to a Special Use Permit in order to maintain the refuge establishment. Kingman Reef National Wildlife Refuge is one of the most pristine coral reef atoll ecosystems in the Pacific Ocean. The Wildlife Refuge was established in 2001, and consists of the Kingman Reef and 487,016 acres of submerged lands and waters extending out 12 miles. With over 25,000 acres of coral reef habitats, the mission of this refuge system is to help promote conservation efforts in order to restore the fish, plants, and wildlife and their habitats for generations to come.
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