Wilkes Island

Overview

Wilkes is on the south and west side of the Wake: The western tip of Wilkes is called Kuku Point, in the middle running north-south is the unfinished submarine channel, and on the south end there is a causeway that crosses Wilkes Channel to the main island.

The Tanager Expedition set up a tent camp on Wilkes in the 1923, when they surveyed Wake Island. Due to the reef making a closer approach hazardous, the ship stayed in deep water just off from the island, and the expedition was brought ashore by a smaller boat. Wake is difficult to land on, as it is ringed on all sides by a coral reef and there was no harbor, the only break is Wilkes channel between Wake and Wilkes.

Wilkes Island was named during the Tanager Expedition for the U.S. Naval officer Charles Wilkes, who led a U.S. expedition to Wake Atoll in 1841.

In the 1930s, it was the site where supplies were off-loaded for the Pan-Am airways seaplane facilities, which was built on Peale Island on the other side of the Wake Lagoon. Supplies were offloaded at Wilkes, moved across a short rail to the other side, then taken by barge across the lagoon to Peale.

It was the location of some of the fighting during the Battle of Wake Island in December 1941. Wilkes was the site of a shore battery and defenses, as part of the overall defenses of Wake island, when WW2 broke out. Japanese troops landed on the Wilkes island as part of the invasion of island, which fell 23 December 1941.

On 10 December 1941, a group of Japanese G3M Nell bombers struck Wilkes island killing one marine and detonating 120 tons (US tons) of dynamite, that was stored on the island for construction of the military base.

In the 21st century, Wilkes island is home to a bird sanctuary with at least 12 species of nesting seabird, and up to tens of thousands of birds.