Palmyra Atoll is an uninhabited atoll in the Pacific Ocean with lush greenery and WWII ruins. It was discovered in 1789 and annexed by Hawaii and later the US. It was used as a Pacific base during WWII and was the site of a double murder in 1974.
Palmyra Atoll is a small uninhabited atoll located near the geographic center of the Pacific Ocean. With a total land area of 4.6 square miles (12 square km), Palmyra Atoll consists of 16 medium-sized connected islands and 36 additional small islets and sandbars. The average annual rainfall on the atoll is 175 inches annually, covering the island with lush greenery. The only structures on the island were built during WWII and include an overgrown and unusable airstrip and several other ruined buildings.
Palmyra Atoll is about 100 miles north of the equator and is the northernmost of the islands in the line, which also includes Millennium Island, the first land outside of Antarctica to see the rising sun every day. The International Date Line is located immediately east of the Line Islands. Palmyra Atoll was first sighted in 1789 by American sea captain Edmund Fanning while en route to Asia. It was not landed until three years later, when the USS Palmyra was wrecked on the reef around the atoll on November 7, 1802.
The paranormal circumstances of the discovery of Palmyra Atoll gave rise to a number of legends and mysticisms surrounding the islands which persist to this day. While Captain Fanning slept through the night on his voyage across the Pacific, he gave command of the vessel to his first mate. The night before sighting the island, Fanning woke up suddenly three times. On the third awakening, he took it as a premonition and ordered the ship to anchor until morning. In the morning, the vessel resumed its voyage, but covered only a mile before reaching the reef of Palmyra. Had they run into the reef during the night, the entire crew could have perished.
In 1862, the atoll was annexed by the Kingdom of Hawaii in the name of King Kamehameha IV. After a failed attempt to colonize the island by sending a married couple there in 1885, the island was annexed by the United States in 1900 as part of the annexation of the State of Hawaii. After changing ownership, most of the atoll was formally reclaimed by the US government in 1912. The Palmyra Copra Company bought partial rights to harvest coconuts there, but during World War II the island was under of the Navy. The island became one of several Pacific bases used by the United States to mount attacks on other Japanese-occupied islands.
In 1974, the islands were the site of the double murder of Mac and Muff Graham by a couple they had met in the area. Seven years later, Muff Graham’s body washed up on the shores of Palmyra Atoll. It is thought they were murdered for their expensive yacht. The perpetrators of the crime were sentenced to 22 years in prison.
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