Why Guano ?

Guano (from the Quechua 'wanu', via Spanish) is the excrement (feces and urine) of cave dwelling insectivorous bats, seabirds, and seals. Guano manure is an effective fertilizer and gunpowder ingredient due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. Superphosphate made from guano is used for aerial topdressing. Soil that is deficient in organic matter can be made more productive by addition of this manure.

History Of Guano

Guano has been harvested over several centuries along the coast of Peru, where islands and rocky shores have been sheltered from humans and predators. The Guanay Cormorant has historically been the most important producer of guano; its guano is richer in nitrogen than guano from other seabirds. Other important guano producing species off the coast of Peru are the Peruvian Pelican and the Peruvian Booby.

Advertisement for Guano, 1884

In November 1802, Alexander von Humboldt studied guano and its fertilizing properties at Callao in Peru, and his subsequent writings on this topic made the subject known in Europe.

The high concentration of nitrates also made guano an important strategic commodity. The War of the Pacific (1879 to 1883) between the Peru-Bolivia alliance and Chile was primarily based upon Bolivia's attempt to tax Chilean guano harvesters and over control of a part of the Atacama Desert that lies between the 23rd and 26th parallels on the Pacific coast. The discovery during the 1840s of the use of guano as a fertilizer and its Chile saltpeter content as a key ingredient in explosives made the area strategically valuable.

In this context the US passed the Guano Islands Act in 1856 giving citizens discovering a source of guano the right to take possession of unclaimed land and entitlement to exclusive rights to the deposits. However, the guano could only be removed for the use of citizens of the United States. This enabled US citizens to take possession of unoccupied islands containing guano.

By the end of the 19th century, the importance of guano declined with the rise of artificial fertilizer, although guano is still used by organic gardeners and farmers.

Turning Guano Into Gold

The people of Connecticut have always harvested the sea's resources for profit.

In the early 19^th Century, entrepreneurial New London investors even found a way to profit from South American bird droppings, known as guano. New Londoners introduced guano for use as agricultural fertilizer, and shipped it to farmers in New England, southern plantation owners, and after the Civil War to Europe.

Connecticut people were actively involved in Chincha Islands off the coast of Peru where trading peaked in the 1850’s. On these islands were compacted bird droppings that were two to three hundred feet thick and extremely valuable as fertilizer.

What was really bad about the guano trade was digging the stuff up on the islands because the compacted bird droppings were like talcum powder and would get into your lungs and it was quite literally lethal.

Chinese workers were virtually kidnapped and brought in to do this work. It was another kind slave trade. They were put to work for almost for nothing, about 4-dollars a month, and didn’t survive long breathing in the guano dust - they would die quickly.

The ships bringing in the guano also had their problems. The guano dust would envelop the ship. It really stunk. It was awful stuff. Ship’s accounts recorded that they could smell the guano as they approached the islands from 100 miles downwind. It was a pretty dismal business but it helped grow food in the American south and in Europe.

The Guano Islands Act

The Guano Islands Act (48 U.S.C. ch.8 §§ 1411-1419) is federal legislation passed by the U.S. Congress, on August 18, 1856. It enables citizens of the U.S. to take possession of islands containing guano deposits. The islands can be located anywhere, so long as they are not occupied and not within the jurisdiction of other governments. It also empowers the President of the United States to use the military to protect such interests, and establishes the criminal jurisdiction of the United States.

Whenever any citizen of the United States discovers a deposit of guano on any island, rock, or key, not within the lawful jurisdiction of any other Government, and not occupied by the citizens of any other Government, and takes peaceable possession thereof, and occupies the same, such island, rock, or key may, at the discretion of the President, be considered as appertaining to the to the United States.

—first section of Guano Islands Act

In the 1840s, guano came to be prized as an agricultural fertilizer and as a source of saltpeter for gunpowder. In 1855, the U.S. learned of rich guano deposits on islands in the Pacific Ocean. Congress passed the Guano Islands Act to take advantage of these deposits.

The act specifically allows the islands to be considered a possession of the U.S., but it also provided that the U.S. was not obliged to retain possession after the guano was exhausted. However, it did not specify what the status of the territory was after it was abandoned by private U.S. interests. The implication is that it would return to its former status as terra nullius.

This is the beginning of the concept of insular areas in U.S. territories. Up to this time, any territory acquired by the U.S. was considered to have become an integral part of the country unless changed by treaty, and to eventually have the opportunity to become a state of the Union. With insular areas, land could be held by the federal government without the prospect of it ever becoming a state in the Union.

Portions Adapted From Connecticut and The Sea - by Kenneth A. Simon