List of Unusual Islands

Another westernmost island, this time the westernmost in the Aleutian Islands chain in Alaska. Although Attu Island is the Aleutians’ westernmost island, it actually lies in the Eastern hemisphere. Attu has a population of twenty, all of whom live and work in Attu Station, a United States Coast Guard LORAN (Long Range Aid to Navigation) facility. Apart from being the last island in the 1,200 mile (1,900 kilometer) long Aleutian Islands chain, Attu is also distinct in that it is the location of the only land-based conflict on American soil in all of World War II.

Monuriki is a small, uninhabited island in the Mamanuca Island group in Fiji. Monuriki would not ordinarily be noteworthy for any particular reason, but it came into the spotlight when it was used as the primary filming location in the 2000 Tom Hanks film, “Cast Away”, about a man whose plane crashes and who, subsequently, ends up living on the island for four years. In the movie, the island is completely isolated, although in reality, there are several other islands within a few miles of it, including Tavua, with a population of some 2,400 people. Monuriki has now become a popular tourist destination due to its appearance in the film.

Navassa is an uninhabited Caribbean island about thirty miles west of Haiti and ninety miles south of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Its entire coastline consists of steep cliffs, making boat landings impossible. The United States annexed it in 1857, and spent the next few decades mining its extensive guano deposits. The island is now classified as a nature reserve, requiring United States government permission (which is rarely granted) to enter. Navassa is also one of the few United States territorial disputes — it is also claimed by Haiti.

Palmyra is actually a collection of small islets, located roughly halfway between Hawaii and Samoa. The largest, Cooper Island, is privately owned and administered by The Nature Conservancy. The rest is owned by the United States federal government and is administered by its Fish and Wildlife Service. Palmyra is staffed by a small group of government scientists and Nature Conservancy volunteers for preservation and research. In 1974, Palmyra was the location of a double murder, later detailed in Vincent Bugliosi’s best selling true crime book, “And the Sea Will Tell”.

Bouvet is a 19 square mile (49 square kilometer) volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean, about 1550 miles (2500 kilometers) south-southwest of South Africa. It is almost completely covered with ice. Most of the coastline consists of very steep cliffs, making landings difficult. Bouvet was originally a British territory, but Britain waived its claim and ceded the island to Norway, which maintains it today as a nature preserve. Bouvet has never been inhabited and almost certainly never will be, but it still has its own top-level Internet domain name, .bv, which is unused. Bouvet’s claim to fame is that it is the most remote island in the world. The nearest land, Queen Maud Land in Antarctica, lies some 1,100 miles (1,750 kilometers) to the south. Adventure travelers and amateur radio operators (using the island-specific prefix 3Y) therefore like to travel there.