Necker Island (Hawaii)

Coordinates: 23°34′30″N 164°42′01″W / 23.57500°N 164.70028°W / 23.57500; -164.70028
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Necker Island (British Virgin Islands).

Necker Island Archeological District
Kaua'i County, Hawaii
Area45.193 acres (182,890 m2)
NRHP reference No.88000641[1]
Added to NRHPJune 13, 1988
Map showing the location of Necker Island in the Hawaiian island chain
Map of Necker Island

Necker Island (

Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument
.

The

Louis XVI
.

Administration

Politically, Necker Island is part of the

Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, it is administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service
. It has no resident human population.

Geography

The remnant of a volcanic cone,[6] Necker Island is located about 120 kilometers (65 nmi; 75 mi) southeast of the French Frigate Shoals[7] on the northwestern end of a large, shallow ocean bank.[8] It is a hook-shaped rocky ridge about 1.3 kilometers (0.8 mi) long and between 60 and 200 meters (197 and 656 ft) wide.[9][7] Composed of basalt,[10] the island is steep-sided and barren, with very little soil,[3] and its rocks are heavily scoured and eroded.[11] It is the second-smallest of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands,[11] with a total area of 45.193 acres (18.289 ha) according to the United States Census Bureau[4] or 41 acres (17 ha)[9] or 39.5 acres (16 ha) according to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.[11]

The westernmost point on Necker Island is Mo'o Point (or Mo'o Head). The island's "hook" is Northwest Cape, a narrow spur that reaches a maximum height of 48 meters (156 ft) and juts northeastward from the west end of the island for 183 meters (600 ft).[12] Northwest Cape is connected to the rest of the island by a narrow gap that is barely above sea level.[7] Northwest Cape's tip is the northernmost point of the island.[12]

The main ridge of the island and Northwest Cape combine to partially enclose Shark Bay along the northern shore of the island; the bay opens to the northeast and usually is subject to rough seas.[9] Along the island's western shore, West Cove lies between Mo'o Point and the southern end of Northwest Cape.[12] A small islet, 300 feet (91 m) long and rising 10 feet (3 m) above sea level, lies just off Necker Island's eastern tip.[9]

The main ridge of Necker Island has five peaks. East to west, they are:[9]

  • Siever's Peak, 61 meters (200 ft) high
  • Bowl Hill (or Bryan Peak), 79 meters (259 ft) high
  • Summit Hill (or Vaughn Peak), 84 meters (277 ft) high, the island's highest point
  • Flagpole Hill, 56.4 meters (185 ft) high
  • Annexation Peak (also Annexation Hill or Captain Brown Peak), 75 meters (247 ft) high

Bowl Cave is located on the northern slope of Bowl Hill. It is an important archaeological site.[13]

Necker Island has an average annual rainfall of just under 25 inches (635 mm).[3]

Flora and fauna

Vegetation on Necker Island is limited to low shrubs and grasses, none more than 2 feet (0.6 m) tall.[9] Five species of plants are known to occur:[9]

  • Goosefoot shrub (Chenopodium oahuense), found on the island's terraced slopes
  • Bunch grass (Panicum torridum) (i.e., kakonakona), which grows on the north slope of the ridge
  • Purslane (Portulaca lutea) (i.e., ihi weed), found on flat tops of the ridge
  • Pickle weed (
    waves
    breaking in Shark Bay can reach it
  • Ohai shrub (Sesbania tomentasa), which grows on the crest of the ridge

The forester of the Territory of Hawaii attempted to introduce six other species of plants to Necker Island in June 1923, but all had died out by the latter half of the 1930s, if not earlier.[9]

The island is also noted for large numbers of birds.

blue-grey noddy, already known from farther south in the Pacific.[15][16] No land birds live on the island.[7] Land animals found on the island include land snails and 15 species of insect found nowhere else, as well as wolf spiders and bird ticks.[11]

Although it is the second-smallest of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Necker Island has the second-largest surrounding

Deep sea fish types that live hundreds of meters (yards) below the surface along the underwater slopes of Necker Island include fishes of the orders Stomiiformes, Gadiformes, Myctophiformes, and Aulopiformes.[17]

Archaeology

Standing stones of Necker Island

Necker Island is known for its numerous religious sites and cultural objects.[10] There are few, if any, signs of long-term habitation, giving rise to the theory that people visited the island for short periods from other islands instead of settling permanently.[11] Many anthropologists believe that the island was a ceremonial and religious site. Necker has 55 currently known sites including 33 ritual sites called heiau, while the remaining sites represent agricultural terraces, miscellaneous platforms, and shelter caves — of which Bowl Cave is the largest.[11] Cultural sites on Necker Island are contemporaneous with those on Nihoa and appear to have been abandoned at roughly the same time several centuries prior to European contact with the Hawaiian Islands.[18][19]

The heiau on Necker Island and Nihoa are unique in the Hawaiian chain representing a raised pavement of basalt stones with upright stones placed across this pavement often near the edges as opposed to the form common to other islands in the chain represented by a high stacked stone wall enclosing a central space.[18] This difference in form represents an earlier iteration of Hawaiian monumental architecture that offers a unique perspective on cultural norms prior to the abandonment of Necker.[19] Thanks to this difference in form, scholars often use the term 'marae' as opposed to 'heiau' in reference to these structures and some scholars argue that the shift in form represents a shift in ritual practice in Hawaii.[20]

Artifacts excavated on Necker Island show a remarkable number of artifacts that would normally be made out of wood rendered in stone. This is especially true of the presence of a series of remarkable carved stone bowls and a bird snare that would have required far more time and effort to create from stone. Additionally, a series of human figures carved from local stone have been recovered from Necker. These statues are up to 1.5 feet (0.5 m) in length and differ in style and medium to similar sculptures (usually rendered in wood) recovered elsewhere in Hawaii.[18] Other artifacts include adzes, fish and squid lures, hammer stones, awls, and other stone tools commonly found across the Hawaiian Islands.[21]

According to the oral traditions of the people of

Polynesians and subsequently built the various stone structures there. [citation needed
]

History

Geological research in the early 21st century indicates that Necker Island is about 10 million years old.[22] While it rises only about 84 meters (277 ft) above sea level now, it reached 1,000 meters (3,281 ft) in height earlier in its history and at one time was comparable in size to modern Oahu.[23][24]

Hawaiians appear to have started visiting Necker Island a few hundred years after they settled the main Hawaiian Islands. Archaeologists believe that the island's poor soil for farming and its small size and relative lack of rainfall made it uninhabitable, and that the Hawaiians visited from Nihoa and other nearby islands to worship at religious sites without establishing any permanent settlements.[11] Their visits appear to have ended a few hundred years before European contact, and by the time Europeans first visited Hawaii in the late eighteenth century, Necker Island apparently was unknown to the Hawaiians.[25]

The French explorer

pearl divers in his employ; the three men landed on the island during an expedition to find pearls on a reef in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.[25]

survey schooner USS Fenimore Cooper visited Necker Island and determined its position.[25] During the summer of 1859, Captain N. C. Brook of the Hawaiian barque Gambia passed the island during a sealing and exploration voyage, but did not report landing on it.[25]

As late as the early 1890s, the Kingdom of Hawaii's claim to Necker Island remained in dispute, and the

telegraph network known informally as the All Red Line. The Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown in 1893 and replaced by the Provisional Government of Hawaii, and when the British corvette HMS Champion arrived at Honolulu in 1894, the provisional government's president, Sanford B. Dole, became concerned that the United Kingdom was about to establish a claim to Necker Island. Wishing to curry favor with the United States rather than the United Kingdom, Dole immediately dispatched an expedition under Captain James A. King to Necker to annex the island. On May 27, 1894, a landing party of 12 men led by King went ashore on Necker for four hours, raised the flag of Hawaii on what became known as Annexation Hill, and read an annexation proclamation.[11][28] The move brought international disputes over claims to the island to an end and the island was included in the Republic of Hawaii when it was founded on July 4, 1894, although the British government continued to attempt to negotiate with the Hawaiian government over use of Necker Island and on September 24, 1894, Champion landed a party on the island.[24][5] On July 12, 1895, King led a Hawaiian government expedition — which also included the first director of the Bishop Museum, William Tufts Brigham, and Professor William DeWitt Alexander — to Necker to survey and map the island and conduct archaeological research.[5] On August 12, 1898, the United States annexed the Hawaiian Islands, including Necker Island, and Necker was included in the Territory of Hawaii
upon its creation on April 30, 1900.

In 1902, the

Hawaiian Islands Bird Reservation, managed jointly by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Territory of Hawaii.[5]

Hawaiian Islands Bird Reservation landed on the island on October 6, 1919, and found stone artifacts during his visit.[5] The Tanager Expedition visited Necker Island in 1923 and 1924, and is noted for exploring the island's biology and archaeology;[11] during its first visit, from June 12 to 29, 1923, it mapped the island and studied its flora and fauna in detail, and on its return visit from July 14 to July 17, 1924, it conducted a thorough archaeological survey.[5]

On August 21, 1959, the

Native Hawaiian organization Hui Mälama I Nä Kupuna O Hawaiʻi Nei ("Hawaiʻi Ancestral Care Association") visited the island to rebury human bones found there which had been transported to Honolulu and kept at Bishop Museum.[10][11]

In the early 21st century, Necker Island was a place of study for

invertebrates and algal assemblages.[29] On June 15, 2006, the United States established the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument
, with Necker Island within its boundaries.

Access

Access to Necker Island is by boat, and is quite difficult because of the island's nearly vertical coastline.[9] Heavy surf usually precludes landings along the coast in Shark Bay, but a small lee exists west of Northwest Cape, and landing on rocky shelves there is possible in moderately calm weather[9] but can be dangerous in high surf.[7]

Visits to Necker Island are permitted only for scientific, educational, and cultural purposes and require the approval of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which gives preference to scientific and cultural visits.[10][11]

Gallery

  • Ceremony for the annexation of Necker Island (Mokumanamana) by the Provisional Government of Hawaii, May 27, 1894.
    Ceremony for the annexation of Necker Island (Mokumanamana) by the Provisional Government of Hawaii, May 27, 1894.
  • Necker Island
    Necker Island
  • Moʻo Point (or Moʻo Head), the westernmost point of Necker Island
    Moʻo Point (or Moʻo Head), the westernmost point of Necker Island
  • Necker Island
    Necker Island

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. ^ "Mokumanamana | Ocean Futures Society". www.oceanfutures.org. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c "Necker Island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands". www.to-hawaii.com. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Necker Island: Block 1001, Block Group 1, Census Tract 114.98, Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States Census Bureau.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Bryan, p. 10.
  6. ^ Harrison, p. 13.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Harrison, p. 14.
  8. ^ Harrison, pp. 13–14.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bryan,p. 8.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument". www.papahanaumokuakea.gov. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t "Mokumanamana (Necker Island) - Hawaiian Islands - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service". www.fws.gov. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  12. ^ a b c Rauzon, p. 27.
  13. ^ Rauzon, p. 32.
  14. ^ a b Rauzon, p. 29.
  15. ^ a b Rauzon, p. 28.
  16. ^
    JSTOR 4069859
    .
  17. S2CID 201316222
    .
  18. ^
    OCLC 50920432
    .
  19. ^
    OCLC 11841243
    .
  20. ^ a b "French Frigate Shoals". Archived from the original on February 13, 2007. Retrieved December 1, 2012.
  21. ^ "Archeology of the "Mystery Islands" Nihoa and Mokumanamana (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved March 8, 2022.
  22. ^ Evolution in Hawaii: A Supplement to Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science. Olson S. Washington (DC); 2004.
  23. ^ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK208869 National Academy of Sciences. (2004). Evolution in Hawaii: A Supplement to Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science, by Steve Olson. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2004.
  24. ^ a b c d e f g Taillemite.
  25. ^ a b c d e f Bryan, p. 9.
  26. ^ Novaresio, 1996. p. 181 "Lapérouse ships, Astrolabe and Boussole"
  27. ^ Representatives, New Zealand Parliament House of (1900). Journal. Appendix.
  28. ^ Bryan, pp. 9–10.
  29. ^ Spatial and Temporal Comparisons of Benthic Composition at Necker Island, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands 2011

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Evenhuis, Neal L.; Eldredge, Lucius G., eds. (2004). Natural History of Nihoa and Necker Islands. Bishop Museum Bulletin in Cultural and Environmental Studies; No. 1. Honolulu, Hawaii:
    ISBN 1-58178-029-X
    .
  • "Necker Island". The Columbia Gazetteer of North America. Columbia University Press. 2000. Archived from the original on March 29, 2002.

External links

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