Early history The first Western record of the atoll was on September 2, 1796, when the Boston-based American
brig Sally accidentally grounded on a shoal near the islands. The ship's captain, Joseph Pierpont, published his experience in several American newspapers the following year, accurately portraying Johnston and Sand Island along with part of the reef. Still, he did not name or lay claim to the area. The islands were not named until after they were sighted on December 14, 1807, from of the
Royal Navy, commanded by Captain Charles James Johnston. The ship's journal recorded: "on the 14th [December] made a new discovery, viz. two very low islands, in lat. 16° 52′ N. long. 190° 26′ E., having a dangerous reef to the east of them, and the whole not exceeding four miles in extent". In 1856, the United States enacted the
Guano Islands Act, which allowed U.S. citizens to take possession of uninhabited and unclaimed islands containing
guano deposits. Under this act, William Parker and R. F. Ryan chartered the schooner
Palestine specifically to find Johnston Atoll. They located guano on the atoll on March 19, 1858. They proceeded to claim the island as U.S. territory. That same year,
S. C. Allen, sailing on the
Kalama under a commission from
King Kamehameha IV of Hawaii, sailed to Johnston Atoll, removed the American flag, and claimed the atoll for the
Kingdom of Hawaii (June 14–19, 1858). Returning on July 22, 1858, By 1890, the atoll's guano deposits had been almost entirely depleted (mined out) by U.S. interests operating under the Guano Islands Act. In 1892, surveyed and mapped the island to determine its suitability as a telegraph cable station. (This investigation was dropped when it was decided to run the cable via
Fanning Island). and a U.S. Territorial Government was established. On September 11, 1909, this office leased Johnston Atoll to a private citizen, Max Schlemmen of Honolulu, for agricultural purposes. The lease stipulated planting of coconut trees, and that "lessee will not allow use of explosives . . in the water immediately adjacent . . for the purposes of killing or capturing fish . . lessee will not allow destruction or capturing of birds . . " Tents were pitched on the southwest beach of fine white sand, and a thorough biological survey was made. Hundreds of sea birds of a dozen kinds were the principal inhabitants, together with lizards, insects, and hermit crabs. The reefs and shallow water abounded with fish and other marine life. Johnston Atoll was added to the
United States National Wildlife Refuge system in 1926, and renamed the
Johnston Island National Wildlife Refuge in 1940. The Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge was established to protect the tropical ecosystem and the wildlife that it harbors. However, the Department of Agriculture had no ships, and the
United States Navy was interested in the atoll for strategic reasons, so with on December 29, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt placed the islands under the "control and jurisdiction of the
Secretary of the Navy for administrative purposes", but subject to use as a refuge and breeding ground for native birds, under the
United States Department of the Interior. On February 14, 1941, President
Franklin Roosevelt issued to create naval defense areas in the central Pacific territories. The proclamation established the "Johnston Island Naval Defensive Sea Area", encompassing the territorial waters between the extreme high-water marks and the three-mile marine boundaries surrounding the atoll. "Johnston Island Naval Airspace Reservation" was also established to restrict access to the airspace over the naval defense sea area. Only U.S. government ships and aircraft were permitted to enter the naval defense areas at Johnston unless authorized by the
Secretary of the Navy. In 1990, two full-time U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel, a Refuge Manager and a biologist, were stationed on Johnston Atoll to handle increased biological, contaminant, and resource conflict activities. The
national monument includes Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge within its boundaries and contains of land and over of water area. The Administration of President
Barack Obama in 2014 extended the protected area to encompass the entire
Exclusive Economic Zone, by banning all commercial fishing activities. Under a 2017 review of all national monuments extended since 1996, then-Secretary of the Interior
Ryan Zinke recommended permitting fishing outside the 12-mile limit.
Military control 1934–2004 On December 29, 1934, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt with transferred control of Johnston Atoll to the
United States Navy under the 14th Naval District, Pearl Harbor, to establish an
air station, and also to the
United States Department of the Interior to administer the bird refuge. In 1948, the USAF assumed control of the atoll. 's visit to Johnston Atoll in 1969 During the
Operation Hardtack nuclear test series from April 22 to August 19, 1958, the administration of Johnston Atoll was assigned to the Commander of
Joint Task Force 7. After the tests were completed, the island reverted to the command of the U.S. Air Force. In 1970, operational control was handed back to the Air Force until July 1973, when
Defense Special Weapons Agency was given host-management responsibility by the
Secretary of Defense. Over the years, sequential descendant organizations have been the Defense Atomic Support Agency (DASA) from 1959 to 1971, the
Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA) from 1971 to 1996, and the Defense Special Weapons Agency (DSWA) from 1996 to 1998. In 1998, Defense Special Weapons Agency and selected elements of the Office of Secretary of Defense were combined to form the
Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). In 1999, host-management responsibility transferred from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency once again to the Air Force until the Air Force mission ended in 2004 and the base was closed.
Sand Island seaplane base In 1935, personnel from the U.S. Navy's
Patrol Wing Two carried out some minor construction to develop the atoll for seaplane operation. In 1936, the Navy began the first of many changes to enlarge the atoll's land area. They erected some buildings and a boat landing on Sand Island and blasted coral to clear a seaplane landing. Several seaplanes made flights from Hawaii to Johnston, such as that of a squadron of six aircraft in November 1935. In November 1939, civilian contractors commenced further work on Sand Island to allow the operation of one squadron of patrol planes with tender support. Part of the lagoon was dredged, and the excavated material was used to make a parking area connected by a causeway to Sand Island. Three seaplane landings were cleared, one by and two cross-landings each by and dredged to a depth of . Sand Island had barracks built for 400 men, a mess hall, an underground hospital, a radio station, water tanks, and a steel control tower. After the war, on March 27, 1949, a
PBY-6A Catalina had to make a forced landing during a flight from
Kwajalein to Johnston Island. The plane was damaged beyond repair, and the crew of 11 was rescued nine hours later by a Navy ship, which sank the plane using gunfire. In 1958, a proposed support agreement for Navy Seaplane operations at Johnston Island was under discussion, though it was never completed because a requirement for the operation failed to materialize.
Airfield By September 1941, construction of an
airfield on Johnston Island commenced. A runway was built with two 400-man barracks, two mess halls, a cold-storage building, an underground hospital, a fresh-water plant, shop buildings, and fuel storage. The runway was complete by December 7, 1941, though in December 1943, the
99th Naval Construction Battalion arrived at the atoll and proceeded to lengthen the runway to . By 1944, the atoll was one of the busiest air transport terminals in the Pacific.
Air Transport Command aeromedical evacuation planes stopped at Johnston en route to Hawaii. Following
V-J Day on August 14, 1945, Johnston Atoll saw the flow of men and aircraft coming from the mainland into the Pacific turn around. By 1947, over 1,300 B-29 and
B-24 bombers had passed through the
Marianas,
Kwajalein, Johnston Island, and
Oahu en route to
Mather Field and civilian life. Following World War II,
Johnston Atoll Airport was used commercially by
Continental Air Micronesia, touching down between Honolulu and
Majuro. When the aircraft landed, soldiers surrounded the aircraft, and passengers were not allowed to leave the aircraft.
Aloha Airlines also made weekly scheduled flights to the island carrying civilian and military personnel. In the 1990s, there were flights almost daily. Some days saw up to three arrivals. Just before movement of the chemical munitions to Johnston Atoll, the Surgeon General, Public Health Service, reviewed the shipment and the Johnston Atoll storage plans. His recommendations caused the Secretary of Defense to issue instructions in December 1970 to suspend missile launches and all non-essential aircraft flights. As a result, Air Micronesia's service was immediately discontinued, and missile firings were terminated, except for two 1975 satellite launches deemed critical to the island's mission. On December 15, 1941, the atoll was shelled outside the reef by a Japanese submarine, which had been part of the attack on Pearl Harbor eight days earlier. Several buildings, including the power station, were hit, but no personnel were injured.
National nuclear weapon test site 1958–1963 Successes Between 1958 and 1975, Johnston Atoll was used as an American national
nuclear test site for atmospheric and extremely
high-altitude nuclear explosions in
outer space. In 1958, Johnston Atoll was the location of the two "Hardtack I" nuclear tests firings. One conducted August 1, 1958, was codenamed "
Hardtack Teak", and one conducted August 12, 1958, was codenamed "Orange." Both tests detonated 3.8-
megaton hydrogen bombs launched to high altitudes by rockets from Johnston Atoll. Johnston Island was also used as the launch site of 124
sounding rockets going up as high as . These carried scientific instruments and
telemetry equipment, either in support of the
nuclear bomb tests or in experimental
antisatellite technology. with instruments for making scientific measurements of high-altitude nuclear tests during liftoff preparations in the Scientific Row area on Johnston Island Eight
PGM-17 Thor missiles deployed by the
U.S. Air Force (USAF) were launched from Johnston Island in 1962 as part of "
Operation Fishbowl," a part of "
Operation Dominic" nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific. The first launch in "Operation Fishbowl" was a successful research and development launch with no
warhead. In the end, "Operation Fishbowl" produced four successful high-altitude detonations: "
Starfish Prime," "
Checkmate," "
Bluegill Triple Prime," and "
Kingfish." In addition, it produced one atmospheric nuclear explosion, "
Tightrope." On July 9, 1962, "Starfish Prime" had a 1.4-
megaton explosion, using a
W49 warhead at an altitude of about . It created a very brief fireball visible over a wide area, plus bright artificial auroras visible in Hawaii for several minutes. "Starfish Prime" also produced an
electromagnetic pulse that disrupted some
electric power and
communication systems in Hawaii. It pumped enough radiation into the
Van Allen belts to destroy or damage seven
satellites in orbit. The final Fishbowl launch that used a Thor missile carried the "Kingfish" 400-kiloton warhead up to its detonation altitude. Although it was officially one of the Operation Fishbowl tests, it is sometimes not listed among high-altitude nuclear tests because of its lower detonation altitude. "Tightrope" was the final test of Operation Fishbowl and detonated on November 3, 1962. It launched on a
nuclear-armed Nike-Hercules missile and was detonated at a lower altitude than the other tests: "At Johnston Island, there was an intense white flash. Even with high-density goggles, the burst was too bright to view, even for a few seconds. A distinct thermal pulse was felt on bare skin. A yellow-orange disc was formed, and transformed itself into a purple doughnut. A glowing purple cloud was faintly visible for a few minutes." The nuclear yield was reported in most official documents as "less than 20
kilotons." One report by the
U.S. government reported the yield of the "Tightrope" test as ten kilotons. Seven sounding rockets were launched from Johnston Island in support of the
Tightrope test, and this was the final American nuclear atmospheric test.
Failures The "Fishbowl" series included four failures, all deliberately disrupted by range safety officers when the missiles' systems failed during launch and were aborted. The second launch of the Fishbowl series, "
Bluegill", carried an active warhead. Bluegill was "lost" by a defective range safety tracking radar and had to be destroyed 10 minutes after liftoff, even though it probably ascended successfully. The subsequent nuclear weapon launch failures from Johnston Atoll caused severe contamination to the island and surrounding areas with
weapons-grade plutonium and
americium that remains an issue to this day. The failure of the "Bluegill" launch created in effect a
dirty bomb but did not release the nuclear warhead's plutonium debris onto Johnston Atoll as the missile fell into the ocean south of the island and was not recovered. However, the "Starfish", "Bluegill Prime", and "Bluegill Double Prime" test launch failures in 1962 scattered radioactive debris over Johnston Island contaminating it, the lagoon, and Sand Island with plutonium for decades. was operated by
North American Aerospace Defense Command (
NORAD) along with the
U.S. Air Force Spacetrack system, The
Navy Space Surveillance System and
Canadian Forces Air Defense Command Satellite Tracking Unit. The
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory also operated a dozen 3.5 ton
Baker-Nunn Camera systems (none at Johnston) for cataloging of artificial satellites. The U.S. Air Force had ten Baker-Nunn camera stations worldwide, mostly from 1960 to 1977, with a phase-out beginning in 1964. The Baker-Nunn space camera station was constructed on Sand Island. It was functioning by 1965. The Air Force program was used as a cover for the initial development of the
Central Intelligence Agency's
Key Hole (including
Corona and
Gambit) reconnaissance satellites systems. Imaging was performed with film cameras and television surveillance from polar
low Earth orbits with film canisters returning via capsule and parachute with
mid-air retrieval. SAMOS was first launched in 1960 but not operational until 1963, with all of the missions being launched from Vandenberg AFB. During the early months of the SAMOS program, it was essential not only to hide the Corona and GAMBIT technical efforts under a screen of SAMOS activity but also to make the orbital vehicle portions of the two systems resemble one another in outward appearance. Thus, some of the configuration details of SAMOS were decided less by engineering logic than by the need to camouflage GAMBIT. Hence, theoretically, a GAMBIT could be launched without alerting many people to its real nature. Problems relative to tracking networks, communications, and recovery were resolved with the decision in late February 1961 to use Johnston Island as the program's film capsule descent and recovery zone. On July 10, 1961, work was initiated on four buildings of the Johnston Island Recovery Operations Center for the
National Reconnaissance Office. Men from the Johnston Atoll facility would recover the parachuting film canister capsules with a radar-equipped
JC-130 aircraft by capturing them in the air with a specialized recovery apparatus. The recovery center was also responsible for collecting the radioactive scientific data pods dropped from missiles following launch and
nuclear detonation.
Biological warfare test site 1965–1968 The atoll was subject to large-scale bioweapons testing over four years starting in 1965. The American strategic tests of bioweapons were as expensive and elaborate as the tests of the first hydrogen bombs at
Eniwetok Atoll. They involved enough ships to have made the world's fifth-largest independent navy. One experiment involved several barges with hundreds of
rhesus monkeys. It is estimated that one jet with bioweapon spray "would probably be more efficient at causing human deaths than a ten-megaton hydrogen bomb." In the lead-up to biological warfare testing in the Pacific under
Project 112 and
Project SHAD, a new virus was discovered during the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program by teams from the Smithsonian's Division of Birds aboard a
United States Army tugboat involved in the program. Initially, the effort's name was the Pacific Ocean Ornithological Project; however, it was changed once someone noted the natural acronym "POOP". First isolated in 1964 the
tick-borne virus was discovered in
Ornithodoros capensis ticks, found in a nest of
common noddy (
Anous stolidus) at Sand Island, Johnston Atoll. It was designated
Johnston Atoll Virus and is related to influenza. In February, March, and April 1965, Johnston Atoll was used to launch biological attacks against U.S. Army and Navy vessels south-west of Johnston island in vulnerability, defense, and decontamination tests conducted by the
Deseret Test Center during Project SHAD under Project 112. Test DTC 64-4 (Deseret Test Center) was initially called "RED BEVA" (Biological EVAluation), though the name was later changed to "Shady Grove", likely for operational security reasons. The biological agents released during this test included
Francisella tularensis (formerly called
Pasteurella tularensis) (Agent UL), the causative agent of
tularemia;
Coxiella burnetii (Agent OU), the causative agent of
Q fever; and
Bacillus globigii (Agent BG). During Project SHAD,
Bacillus globigii was used to simulate biological warfare agents (such as
anthrax), because it was then considered a contaminant with little health consequence to humans; however, it is now considered a human pathogen. Ships equipped with the E-2 multi-head disseminator and
A-4C aircraft equipped with Aero 14B spray tanks released live pathogenic agents in nine aerial and four surface trials in phase B of the test series from February 12 to March 15, 1965, and in four aerial trials in phase D of the test series from March 22 to April 3, 1965.
Chemical weapon storage 1971–2001 In 1970, Congress redefined the island's military mission as the storage and destruction of chemical weapons. The
United States Army leased on the atoll to store chemical weapons held in
Okinawa, Japan. Johnston Atoll became a chemical weapons storage site in 1971, holding about 6.6 percent of the U.S. military
chemical weapon arsenal. The chemical weapons were brought from Okinawa under
Operation Red Hat with the re-deployment of the
267th Chemical Company. They consisted of rockets, mines, artillery projectiles, and bulk 1-ton containers filled with
Sarin,
Agent VX, vomiting agent, and blister agent such as
mustard gas. Chemical weapons from
West Germany and World War II era weapons from the
Solomon Islands were also stored on the island after 1990. Chemical agents were stored in the high-security Red Hat Storage Area (RHSA) which included hardened igloos in the
weapon storage area, the Red Hat building (#850), two Red Hat
hazardous waste warehouses (#851 and #852), an open storage area, and security entrances and guard towers. Some of the other weapons stored at the site were shipped from U.S. stockpiles in West Germany in 1990. These shipments followed a 1986 agreement between the U.S. and West Germany to move the munitions. Merchant ships carrying the munitions left West Germany under
Operation Golden Python and
Operation Steel Box in October 1990 and arrived at Johnston Island November 6, 1990. Although the ships were unloaded within nine days, the unpacking and storing of munitions continued into 1991. The remainder of the chemical weapons was a small number of World War II era weapons shipped from the Solomon Islands.
Agent Orange storage 1972–1977 Barrels in storage at Johnston Atoll, circa 1973
Agent Orange was brought to Johnston Atoll from
South Vietnam and
Gulfport, Mississippi in 1972 under
Operation Pacer IVY. It was stored on the northwest corner of the island known as the Herbicide Orange Storage site, dubbed the "Agent Orange Yard". The Agent Orange was eventually destroyed during
Operation Pacer HO on the Dutch incineration ship
MT Vulcanus in the Summer of 1977. Leaking barrels during storage, and spills during re-drumming operations, contaminated both the storage area and the lagoon with herbicide residue and its toxic contaminant
2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin.
Chemical weapon demilitarization mission 1990–2000 The Army's
Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS) was the first full-scale chemical weapons disposal facility. Built to incinerate chemical munitions on the island, planning started in 1981, construction began in 1985, and it was completed five years later. Following construction and facility characterization, JACADS began operational verification testing (OVT) in June 1990. From 1990 until 1993, the Army conducted four planned periods of Operational Verification Testing (OVT), required by Public Law 100–456. OVT was completed in March 1993, demonstrating that the reverse assembly incineration technology was adequate and that JACADS operations met all environmental parameters. The transition to full-scale operations started in May 1993, but the facility did not begin full-scale operations until August 1993. All of the chemical weapons once stored on Johnston Island were demilitarized, and the agents incinerated at JACADS, with the process completed in the year 2000. Later, the destruction of legacy hazardous waste material associated with chemical weapon storage and cleanup was completed. JACADS was demolished by 2003, and the island was stripped of its remaining infrastructure and environmentally remediated. File was deleted from Wikimedia Commons - November 29, 2023 --> In 2003, structures and facilities, including those used in JACADS, were removed, and the runway was marked closed. The last flight out for official personnel was June 15, 2004. After this date, the base was completely deserted, with the only structures left standing being the Joint Operations Center (JOC) building at the east end of the runway, chemical bunkers in the weapon storage area, and at least one
Quonset hut. Built in 1964, the JOC is a four-floor concrete and steel administration building for the island that has no windows and was built to withstand a
category IV tropical cyclone as well as atmospheric nuclear tests. The building remains standing but was gutted entirely in 2004 during an
asbestos abatement project. All doors of the JOC except one have been welded shut. The ground floor has a side building attached that serves as a facility for decontamination. It contains three long snaking corridors and 55 shower heads one could walk through during decontamination. Some PCB contamination in the lagoon was traced to Coast Guard disposal practices of
PCB-laden
electrical transformers. In 1962, plutonium pollution following three failed nuclear missile launches was heaviest near the destroyed launch emplacement, in the lagoon offshore of the launch pad, and near Sand Island. The contaminated launch site was stripped, and the debris gathered and buried in the island's 1962 expansion. A comprehensive radiological survey was completed in 1980 to record transuranic contamination from the 1962 THOR missile aborts. The Air Force also initiated research on methods to remove dioxin contamination from soil resulting from leakage of the stored herbicide Agent Orange. The Pluto Yard is on the site of the LE1 where the 1962 missile explosion occurred, and also where a highly contaminated loading ramp was buried that was made for loading plutonium contaminated debris onto small boats that was dumped at sea. Remediation included a plutonium "mining" operation called the Johnston Atoll Plutonium Contaminated Soil Cleanup Project. The collected radioactive soil and other debris were buried in a landfill created within the former LE-1 area from June 2002 through November 11, 2002. Remediation at the Radiation Control Area included the construction of a 61-centimeter-thick cap of coral sealing the landfill. Permanent markers were placed at each corner of the landfill to identify the landfill area. On August 22, 2006, Johnston Island was struck by
Hurricane Ioke. The eastern eye-wall passed directly over the atoll, with winds exceeding . Twelve people were on the island when the hurricane struck, and part of a crew was sent to deliver a USAF contractor who sampled groundwater contamination levels. All 12 survived, and one wrote a first-hand account of taking shelter from the storm in the JOC building. On December 9, 2007, the United States Coast Guard swept the runway at Johnston Island of debris and used the runway in the removal and rescue of an ill Taiwanese fisherman to
Oahu,
Hawaii. The fisherman was transferred from the Taiwanese fishing vessel
Sheng Yi Tsai No. 166 to the Coast Guard buoy tender
Kukui on December 6, 2007. The fisherman was transported to the island, and then picked up by a Coast Guard
HC-130 Hercules rescue plane from
Kodiak, Alaska. Since the base was closed, the atoll has been visited by many vessels crossing the Pacific, as the deserted atoll has a strong lure due to the activities once performed there. Visitors have blogged about stopping there during a trip or have posted photos of their visits. In 2010, a Fish and Wildlife survey team identified a swarm of
Anoplolepis ants that had invaded the Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. The
crazy ants threatened vital seabird colonies and needed eradication. The "Crazy Ant Strike Team" project was led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who achieved a 99% reduction in ant numbers by 2013. The team camped in a bunker previously used as a fallout shelter and office. Full eradication of the species from the atoll was achieved in 2021. In 2025, it was announced as a planned location for the Air Force Research Laboratory to test delivering cargo by reusable rocket under the Air Force's Rocket Cargo program. The program's intent is to support the delivery of military cargo anywhere in the world within hours. The Air Force will build two landing pads supporting up to ten reentry vehicle landings per year over a four-year period. This testing phase is designed to demonstrate and evaluate the capabilities of the program. ==Demographics==