Editing Jarvis Island (section)

===Millersville (1935–1942)===
{{Main|American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project}}
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 | image1 = Government House on Jarvis Island (80-CF-798677-9).jpg
 | image2 = Camp at Jarvis Island (80-CF-798677-7).jpg
 | footer = Settlers erected makeshift campsites on Jarvis Island during the [[American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project]].
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[[File:Men left at Jarvis Island (80-CF-798677-14).jpg|thumb|Four residents wave goodbye.]]
Jarvis Island was reclaimed by the United States government and colonized from March 26, 1935, onwards, under the [[American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McConnell |first=D. R. |date=2024-04-29 |title=Prospects for Marine Minerals in the US Pacific OCS and EEZ |url=https://onepetro.org/OTCONF/proceedings/24OTC/2-24OTC/D021S023R001/544923 |journal=Paper Presented at the Offshore Technology Conference |publisher=OTC |doi=10.4043/35266-MS}}</ref> President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] assigned administration of the island to the [[U.S. Department of the Interior]] on May 13, 1936.<ref name="doi"/> Starting as a cluster of large, open tents pitched next to the still-standing white wooden day beacon, the Millersville [[Human settlement|settlement]] on the island's western shore was named after a [[bureaucrat]] with the [[United States government role in civil aviation|United States Department of Air Commerce]]. The settlement grew into a group of shacks built mostly with wreckage from the ''Amaranth'' (lumber from which was also used by the young [[Hawaii]]an colonists to build [[surfboard]]s), but later, stone and wood dwellings were built and equipped with refrigeration, radio equipment, and a weather station.<ref>Bryan, Edwin H., Jr. [http://www.jarvisisland.info/panalaau_memoirs.html#photos Panala'au Memoirs.] Retrieved: July 7, 2008. Contains several photos of the Millersville settlement and a diary of events in the colony.</ref> A crude aircraft landing area was cleared on the island's northeast side, and a T-shaped marker intended to be seen from the air was made from gathered stones, but no airplane is known to have ever landed there. According to the [[1940 U.S. census]], Jarvis Island had a population of three people.<ref>{{cite United States census|url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1940/population-volume-1/33973538v1ch11.pdf|title = Sixteenth Census of the United States: Population, Volume I, Number of Inhabitants, Hawaii (Table 4)|year=1940|location=Washington, D.C.|page=1211|accessdate=October 29, 2021}}</ref>

At the beginning of [[World War II]], an [[Imperial Japanese Navy]] [[submarine]] surfaced off the west coast of the island. Believing that a [[U.S. Navy]] submarine had come to fetch them, the four young colonists rushed down the steep western beach in front of Millersville towards the shore. The submarine answered their waves with fire from its deck gun, but no one was hurt in the attack. On February 7, 1942, the [[USCGC Taney (WHEC-37)|USCGC ''Taney'']] evacuated the colonists, then shelled and burned the dwellings. The roughly cleared landing area on the island's northeast end was later shelled by the Japanese, leaving crater holes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://home.att.net/~higley.family/sub1.htm |title=History of Jarvis Island |access-date=January 25, 2007 |work="World War Two" section of article. }} Shell holes were later noted in the aircraft landing area.</ref>
[[File:Map of Kiribati CIA WFB.png|thumb|left|upright=1.25|Map of the central Pacific Ocean showing Jarvis and neighboring islands.]]