Navassa Island
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Navassa Island, or La Navase in Haitian Creole, is a small island without anyone living on it in the Caribbean Sea. It is located ninety miles south of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The United States government claims the two-square-mile island as a territory of the United States, and it is under control of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The island is also wanted by Haiti.
Some sailors sailing with Christopher Columbus named Navassa in 1504, because no fresh water could be found there.
A captain named Peter Duncan gave it to the U.S. in the late 1850s, for the purpose of guano mining. After a rebellion in 1889, and the Spanish-American War of 1898, the mining was put to an end.
With the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, Navassa became important again, because of a lighthouse being built there. After World War II, no one lived on it again.
In 1996, Navassa's light was put out of use, and the island was transferred to the U.S. Department of the Interior. Three years later, the Fish and Wildlife Service received ownership of the island. No people are allowed to live on the island because the U.S. made it an animal refuge (it is a place where animals can be safe from people).
[edit] External links
- Navassa Island profile - OIA
- A tour of Navassa Island - USGS
- CIA World Factbook information about Navassa Island
- Bill Warren's site laying out his claim to Navassa Island
- Site that supports the Haitian claim to Navassa
- Fabio Spadi (2001) "Navassa: Legal Nightmares in a Biological Heaven?" Boundary & Security Bulletin, autumn edition
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