Fish and Wildlife Service.
The first recorded western contact at Kingman Reef was by an American seaman, Captain Fanning, in 1798, but was named after Captain Kingman, who visited in 1853. The United States annexed the reef in 1922, and in 1934 delegated jurisdiction to the Department of the Navy. Its sheltered lagoon served as a way station and anchorage for Pan American Flying Clippers on Hawai‘i to American Samoa flights and for U.S. warships during the 1930s before a channel and dock were constructed at Palmyra.
Kingman Reef was under the administrative jurisdiction of the Navy until September 1, 2000, when the Department of the Interior accepted rehabilitation over it. Kingman Reef National Wildlife Refuge was officially established on January 18, 2001.
On January 6, 2009, the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument was established, which includes Kingman Reef National Wildlife Refuge within its boundaries.
Kingman Reef National Wildlife Refuge is only three feet in elevation and lies 934 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu and consists of all emergent areas of the reef and its surrounding 487,016 acres of submerged lands and waters that extend out 50 nautical miles. This includes more than 25,000 acres of thriving coral reef habitat. Kingman is known to be the most undisturbed coral reef within the U.S., complete with a greater proportion of apex predators than at any other studied coral reef ecosystem in the world.
Entry onto Kingman Reef is by permit only. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel, scientists, and researchers.
The reef is closed to the public.