On September 30, 1857, an uninhabited island halfway between Hawaii and Australia was claimed in the name of the United States of America. It was called Howland Island - it had actually been named and forgotten twice before - and was best known as a major hazard for ships passing by on their way to more important places. About half the size of Central Park and completely bereft of trees, this quite literally deserted island became highly sought after for a time in the mid 19th century when it was discovered to hold vast deposits not of gold, silver, or diamond, but tons upon tons of bird poop.
Guano, which is the accumulated droppings of sea birds and cave-dwelling bats, had become quite the hot commodity in 19th century America. Because of its high nitrogen and phosphorous content, guano makes an incomparable organic fertilizer which, when you are an agriculturally driven nation can be a major boon to your economy. Additionally, the only real impediment to harvesting guano was distance, as it was most often found in large deposits on islands out to sea where migratory birds would stop to nest. Once found, workers would free the massed bird dung with shovels, picks, and even explosives, then dry it in sun and load it into bags for transport. It was a straightforward, albeit dirty operation.
As it happens when the main producers of guano are seabirds, the largest deposits of the stuff lay on far outlying islands where seabirds tend to congregate. The complicating step for entrepreneurial Americans was the legal gray area of showing up to an island and removing its poo deposits without sovereign recognition. Businessmen also sought to legitimize their claims and legally protect themselves from competitors mining their discoveries.
Recognizing the situation at hand, Congress acted quickly, passing the Guano Islands Act in August of 1856. The act empowered any American, upon discovery of an island with no apparent sovereign attachments and no resident citizens of other countries - it did not mention residents unaffiliated with governments, which legally opened the door to exploitation of native islanders - to claim the island as a territory of United States. This entitled the island to the military and diplomatic protection of the U.S. government, as well as placing all activities on the island under U.S. criminal jurisdiction. The act also made certain that the initial discoverer of a deposit had the exclusive right to mine it. Finally, the United States was absolved, by its own directive, of any lasting obligations to the islands once the guano had been fully mined.
With this mandate in hand, American speculators hit the seas. Howland Island, our particular rock of focus, was claimed in 1857 by the United States Guano Company, an offshoot of the rival American Guano Company which held claim to nearby Baker and Jarvis Islands. When the mining crew of the U.S. Guano Company arrived to harvest their claim, they found a team from the American Guano Company already at work. The companies went to court and, perhaps deciding he had heard enough of distant, uninhabited islands full of bird dirt, the judge ruled that both companies would split the claim on Howland Island. Astonishingly, the island contained enough guano to occupy the companies for nearly 20 years until 1878 when it was abandoned. The birds stayed, however, and by the mid 1880’s had generated enough waste to attract a British company to renew mining operations on the island.
Over 100 islands were eventually claimed and mined under the Guano Islands Act. Of these, most have been returned to their unassigned sovereign status, while others have been ceded to other nations, and some have even remained United States’ possessions in one form or another. Howland Island went on to gain notoriety as the destination Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were targeting when their plane disappeared over the Pacific. A beacon still stands on the island as a memorial to the missing aviatrix. The island itself is testament to the first waves of American imperialism, when economic drive pushed them beyond their borders to exert their will outside the American continent. And it just so happens that this conquering drive that has defined America in the eyes of the world all began because of a little bird dung.