WAKE ISLAND

formerly Halcyon Island, or Helsion Island, an atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, 2,300 miles (3,700 km) west of Honolulu. An unincorporated territory of the United States, it comprises three low-lying coral islets (Wilkes, Peale, and Wake) that rise to 21 feet (6 m) and occupy a total land area of 2.5 square miles (6.5 square km). Linked by causeways, they lie in a crescent configuration on a reef (4.5 miles long and 2 miles wide) surrounding a lagoon. The atoll receives little rainfall, which may explain the absence of inhabitants when it was first sighted (1568) by the Spanish explorer lvaro de Mendaa. Two water catchments and a distillation plant for seawater have alleviated the problem. Visited by the British mariner William Wake (1796), the atoll was charted by a U.S. expedition under Lieutenant Charles Wilkes (1841). It was formally claimed by the United States in 1899 for the site of a cable station and was placed under naval jurisdiction in 1934. The following year a commercial seaplane base and hotel were built for overnight stops on transpacific flights to Guam and the Philippines. In 1939 the U.S. Navy began construction of an air and submarine base; this was half completed when Wake was attacked and occupied by Japanese forces in December 1941. Soon after the Japanese surrender and the return of U.S. personnel to the island in 1945, commercial flights were resumed. Since 1974 it has been used by commercial aircraft, mainly for emergency stopovers. In 1975 Vietnamese refugees were housed on Wake Island before transport was arranged to the United States. The atoll, which has a jet airfield, is administered by the U.S. Air Force. The U.S. National Weather Service and National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration operate research stations on the islands. Bridges link the islets. The atoll is linked by underwater cables with Honolulu and Guam. Pop. (1980) 302.