13 Facts About Palmyra Atoll

Palmyra Atoll, referred to as Palmyra Island, is one of the Northern Line Islands .

Palmyra Atoll is part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, the world's largest marine protected area.

Palmyra Atoll is in the Samoa Time Zone, the same time zone as American Samoa, Midway Atoll, Kingman Reef and Jarvis Island.

The name of the federal territory retained by Congress since 1959 is Palmyra Island, but the official name of the National Wildlife Refuge within the territory is Palmyra Atoll, as is the corresponding division of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

The rest of Palmyra is federal land and waters under the jurisdiction of the U S Fish and Wildlife Service.

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Since Palmyra has no state or local government, it is administered directly from Honolulu by the U S Fish and Wildlife Service, except for some submerged tracts administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, both in the U S Department of the Interior.

When built the airport was called Palmyra Atoll Airfield, and later Palmyra Island Naval Air Station as it was a former Naval airfield on the Palmyra Atoll in the Line Islands of the Central Pacific Area.

Captain Fanning's claim to have discovered Palmyra Atoll itself has been challenged, on the view that he had only reached Kingman Reef 34 miles away and could not possibly have seen Palmyra Atoll from that distance.

In 1859, Palmyra Atoll was claimed for the United States both by Alfred Benson and by Dr Gerrit P Judd of the brig Josephine, in accordance with the Guano Islands Act of 1856, but no guano was there to be mined, so the claims were abandoned.

At the time, Palmyra Atoll was occupied by three Americans: Colonel William Meng, his wife, and Edwin Benner, Jr.

When Hawaii was admitted to the United States in 1959, Palmyra Atoll was explicitly separated from the new state, remaining a federal incorporated territory, to be administered by the secretary of the interior under a presidential executive order.

In 1974, Palmyra Atoll was the site of a murder, and possible double murder, of a wealthy San Diego couple, Malcolm "Mac" Graham and his wife, Eleanor "Muff" Graham.

Palmyra Atoll wrote an 895-page book about his experiences, and life on Palmyra Island, in which he denied killing Eleanor Graham.