 Jarvis Island was reclaimed by the United States government and colonized from March 26, 1935, onwards, under the American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project (see also Howland Island and Baker Island).President Franklin D. Roosevelt assigned administration of the island to the U.S. Department of the Interior on May 13, 1936.Starting out as a cluster of large, open tents pitched next to the still-standing white wooden day beacon, the Millersville settlement on the island's western shore was named after a bureaucrat with the United States Department of Air Commerce.