US-Haiti Tips - Haiti Observer Blog

Navassa, an uninhabited island in the Caribbean Sea, is part of mainland Haiti. Between two- and three-square miles, it sits approximately 100 miles from Guantanamo Detention Center.

Founded in 1504 by sailors, its status during the next 300 years is mostly unclear. But between its founding and U.S. acquisition of the island, marine forces occupied it until it was turned over to the U.S. in the 1850s. For four decades, the U.S. mined the island for the phosphate, guano. Foreign and domestic conflicts brought mining to a halt by the end of the century.

The completion of the Panama Canal in the early 1900s raised Navassa's profile again when a lighthouse was constructed on the island. But in 1996, Navassa became abandoned when its lighthouse operations ceased.

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