Mike was working on JI,this is a few words taken from his web site.
Welcome to my site about Johnston Island
I have put a few more pictures on my Flickr photo site
My Guestbook is back up and running. Please take a look and feel free to sign it. I clean out the Spam droppings daily.There are over 900 entries.
Johnston Island has finally gone to the Birds. I was on the next to the last flight off of the Island June 14th 2004. They were tearing down the East Redwoods and loading the last barge to haul everything away that morning. A C-130 flew out to get the last 50 or so people on June15th,2004. There shouldn't be anything there now except the shell of the JOC, and the cement slabs of the buildings torn down.
Aloha,Mark
Mike himself ( i think)
The kit we sent to Charles at JI was expected to take a number of years to complete,eventually Charles would come to the end of his contract (civilian) and just sail away,that was the plan,he had three years to do it in.Charles certainaly wasted little time,it was not long before he had produced the hull,it was also not so long after this when he was told the island was to be closed down,all buildings flattened and all equipment removed,the island would be left bare and then mother nature could take over.One of the interesting sides to my job,is the people we meet and of course the places they live and work in,my understanding of geography has taken a quantum leap for sure! look at this about Johnston Atol and why it eventually became called an island.
The American brig Sally, captained by Joseph Pierpont, grounded on a shoal near Johnston Island on September 2, 1796, but did not name or claim the land.[2] The island was named for Captain Charles J. Johnston, commanding officer of H.B.M.S. Cornwallis, who claimed its official discovery on December 14, 1807. Johnston Atoll was claimed by both the United States and the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1858. The Atoll's guano deposits, mined by U.S. interests operating under the Guano Islands Act, were worked until depletion in about 1890.
In Charles case he was told to cease work on his boat as he was to leave the island with the rest of the islands staff,now what thinks I? well he knew all equipment was to be taken off the island by whats called a 'Barge' would they take his boat too?he was lucky they said yes,and their destination was close to where Charles lived on mainland USA too.
With this blog in mind I searched the web and found a web site called Aloha from Johnston Island,its run by a guy called Mark,the site is full of the island as it was when being closed down,here are a few pictures taken from Marks site.
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