Kanton Island

The British laid claim to Kanton Island during the 1850s.[8] The official British claim was formally reasserted on 6 August 1936, and an order in council issued in March 1937 including Kanton and other Phoenix Islands in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, with the British making several visits to the island culminating in the placement of two radio operators on Kanton on 31 August 1937.

Rusting fire truck on Kanton Island, 2008.

On 8 June 1937, Kanton was the site of a total solar eclipse and the island was occupied briefly by American and New Zealand scientists, members of an expedition organized by the National Geographic Society, and led by the astronomer Samuel Alfred Mitchell. During this time, the American party claimed the island for the United States, erecting a small monument with two American flags. According to one account, the British warship HMS Wellington fired a shot across the bow of the USS Avocet, when the latter refused to cede the choicest anchorage spot to the British vessel.[16] The American ship allegedly responded in kind, following which both captains agreed to "cease fire" until instructions could be received from their respective governments. Washington and London quickly ordered no further escalation, and both parties observed the solar eclipse together, "though officially a bit cool."[17]

In response to the British reoccupation of Kanton in August 1937, seven Americans from the American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project landed on the island on 7 March 1938. Although the British ambassador to the United States requested removal of markers claiming U.S. sovereignty, President Franklin Roosevelt formally placed the island under control of the U.S. Interior department on 3 March 1938. Both parties continued to press their competing claims until 6 April 1939, when the U.S. and Britain agreed to hold Kanton under joint control for the next fifty years as the Canton and Enderbury Islands condominium. The U.S./U.K. tenure proved cordial and cooperative thereafter, with each party enjoying the other's hospitality and working together to ensure smooth operation of island facilities. A United States office was open between 1940 and 1965 and from 1970.[18] Canton Island Post Office opened on 25 January 1941 and closed around February 1968.

Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) arrived on Kanton on 18 May 1939, to build facilities for their planned New Zealand flying boat service.[8] Service commenced on 12 July 1940 with the Boeing 314 Clipper. On 4 December 1941, the Pacific Clipper departed Kanton for New Caledonia as the final civilian flight before the United States joined the war.

Aerial view of Kanton Island showing SS President Taylor grounded in an entrance to the lagoon (1945)

During World War II the United States Navy built a 6,230 foot (1.9 km) airstrip at 2°46′05″S 171°42′37″W (now known as Canton Island Airport (IATA: CIS, ICAO: PCIS)). Kanton became a stopover point for the Navy Air Transport Service flights to Australia and New Zealand as well as a staging point for attacks on the Gilbert Islands, then held by Japan. The SS President Taylor was grounded and abandoned near the island on 14 February 1942 when disembarking troops.[19] It was shelled three times in late 1942 by Japanese submarines, and bombed once on 25 March 1943. Damage was reported as "slight".[20] The island was defended by approximately 1,200 combat troops and support personnel, but was never attacked by Japanese forces.[21] It was the site of at least two airplane crashes during the war: on 19 July 1944 and 5 December 1945. After the war moved west, it became the homebase for the Roman Catholic chaplain in this area of the Pacific.[22]

In November 1946, Pan Am resumed service to Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand via Kanton with Douglas DC-4 aircraft. British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines (BCPA), Australia's first trans-Pacific airline, served the island via a cooperative agreement with Australian National Airways (ANA) initially with Douglas DC-4's on a routing of Sydney - Auckland - Fiji - Kanton Island - Honolulu - San Francisco - Vancouver, with the inaugural flight departing Australia on 15 September 1946. BCPA then began flying luxurious Douglas DC-6Bs on the Sydney to Vancouver route. Qantas took over this service shortly thereafter as BCPA subsequently ceased all operations and went out of business. Canadian Pacific Airlines also used the island as well for its Douglas DC-4 service between Vancouver and the southern hemisphere.[23] A full-scale community was established to support these airline operations, including an electrical power station, a hotel for the airline passengers' use, a medical dispensary, school for dependent children of station personnel, and other necessary facilities. The island was jointly administered by the United Kingdom and the United States, and the British and American post offices were both operated from a single building.

Pan Am Boeing 377 Stratocruiser undergoing engine repair at Kanton Island, ca. 1955

The American administrator, who was an employee of the Civil Aeronautics Administration (predecessor to the FAA) and island manager for that agency, also served as the U.S. resident administrator under the Department of the Interior and as a U.S. special deputy marshal under the Department of Justice. William J. Evans held this position from 1952 to 1955, during which time a crew from National Geographic magazine visited the island and highlighted it in the magazine's January 1955 issue.[24]

Vice-President Richard Nixon and his wife visited the island in October 1953, en route to New Zealand, where they stayed overnight and were interviewed by Fred Carpenter for the local radio station KIBS.[25][26] By 1956, Pan Am was operating a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser service into the airport from Los Angeles and San Francisco, via a stop in Honolulu, with these flights continuing on to Sydney with a stop at Nadi Airport in Fiji.[27]

Ultimately, the introduction of long-range jet aircraft spelled the end of Kanton's usefulness as an aircraft refueling station, and all airlines ended their operations there by the late 1950s—except for Pan Am, which continued a monthly service with Douglas DC-7C prop aircraft via Auckland, Nadi, Pago Pago, Kanton, Honolulu and return. This service was conducted using the outbased DC-7C aircraft N743PA and N744PA, which provided feeder service from Auckland to three points on the jet service schedules. The last Pan Am flight was in November 1965 when the final DC-7C returned to Miami after the opening of a new airport in Auckland, enabling New Zealand to be added to Pan Am's Boeing 707 jet routes. Kanton's airport remained operational, however, as an emergency landing field.

House on Kanton Island, 2008.

In 1960 a tracking station for the Mercury program was built on Kanton, and used through November 1965. The U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Space and Missile Systems Organization continued to use the island for missile-tracking operations through 1976. That year marked the complete end of the American presence; the airfield was abandoned and all U.S. personnel were removed.[28] The British closed their post office, ending their presence on Kanton as well. With the independence of Kiribati from Britain in 1979, the Anglo-American condominium was formally terminated, and the island transferred to Kiribati sovereignty. Kanton's post office was reopened by the Kiribati government, and the island was repopulated with a few people from the more crowded atolls of the Gilbert Islands, who reside in several of the abandoned residences left over from the Anglo-American presence.[29]

Kanton is occasionally visited by Republic of Kiribati vessels, the U.S. Coast Guard and various fishing boats. In 2008, Kanton and the rest of the Phoenix Islands became the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), the world's largest marine protected area, covering a total area of 410,500 square kilometers of land and ocean.[30] In 2007 it was submitted, together with the rest of the PIPA, as a UNESCO World Heritage site.[31] A station of the Global Seismographic Network, IU KNTN, hosted by the Kiribati Weather Service was established in 2007 with current data shown as of August 2016.[32]

In 2010 Alex Bond and his yacht crew, who were sailing from Hawaii to Australia, stopped at Kanton and discovered the 24 islanders (14 adults and 10 children[33]) were dangerously short of food.[34] An expected supply ship had not arrived and they had been living on fish and coconuts for several months.[34] Bond said, "They have trouble growing what they need because of problems with the soil".[33] Bond contacted the UK Coastguard, who contacted the U.S. Coast Guard to arrange relief supplies.[33][34]