Navassa Island (U.S. Minor Outlying Islands)

ISO Code: UM-76
FIPS 10-4 Code: BQ
MARC Code: uc
IOC Code: Not Applicable
Status: unincorporated territory of the United States

In the final design for Navassa, the island is just one shade of emerald green with a white sky and a royal blue sea and the size of the lighthouse has been exaggerated and is a light gray with a green roof. People either liked this flag a lot or not at all. The actual 3x5 flag wasn't that bad. The flag is not official; it was designed to represent the island for December 7th as a tribute to those Americans who sacrificed and served during the Second World War.
Skip Wheeler, 25 December 2002

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Navassa got its unofficial flag and was first hoisted on 7 December 2001. The flag was designed by Mr. Harry Wheeler in Hawaii and its ratio is 3 by 5. The flag depicts emerald green island with a light grey lighthouse under white sky and in blue ocean. On 7 December 2001 the flag was first hoisted together with Johnston, Palmyra unofficial flags at USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii under U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services for 60th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor Attack by Imperial Japanese planes and the sunk battleship USS Arizona.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 7 August 2002

According to the CIA World Factbook:

Navassa Island - 5 sq. km., uninhabited - transient Haitian fishermen and others camp on the island; about one-fourth of the way from Haiti to Jamaica; strategic location 160 km south of the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; mostly exposed rock, but enough grassland to support goat herds; dense stands of fig-like trees, scattered cactus.

Jarig Bakker, 29 January 2000

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Uninhabited since 1898 when the last phosphate miners left. Claimed by the Baltimore Fertilizer Company under the Guano Act.
Phil Nelson, 25 April 2000

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A few years ago I read a ham radio magazine article about a DXpedition to Navassa Island, probably half a dozen years ago, which said that the U.S. government maintained a lighthouse on Navassa, and a lighthouse-keeper was stationed there until the light was automated, which I purely guess may have been between ten and twenty years ago. The expedition found a Haitian family living on Navassa (which Haiti also claims), eating fruit and fish.
John Ayer, 26 April 2000

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An order by the Secretary of the Interior dated December 3, 1999, transferred jurisdiction over Navassa Island from the Bureau of Insular Affairs to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Joe McMillan, 12 June 2000

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Haiti's claim to Navassa Island (called La Navase by Haiti) starts when Columbus discovered Hispaniola in 1493. Later in 1627, Hispaniola was split between the French and the Spanish. Navassa Island was included in the spilt. According to the Haitians, Navassa Island became a part of Haiti in 1804 and this fact was recognized by the French in 1825. The US claims that the Island was up for grabs until 1859, when Peter Duncan made a claim on the island under the Guano Islands Act. The US also claims that Haitian claim is invalid since Haiti never bothered to enforce tax laws on tine island. Haiti's claim remains unresolved.

There is a private claim on the island. Californian businessman Bill Warren expressed an interest in the island in 1996 intending to find treasure, but later found out about the Guano. He made a claim on the Island under the Guano Islands Act. Warren has brought Navassa Island from the heirs of the people who owned the island in the 1850's. He has even sued to have his claim enforced. He has been unsuccessful in his suits so far. In 1998, an environmental survey was done on the island and this could upset any claim that Warren has.
Joshua Holman, 13 September 2004