[1] The Tanager Expedition set up a tent camp on Wilkes in the 1923, when they surveyed Wake Island.
Due to the reef making a closer approach hazardous, the ship stayed in deep water just off from the island, and the expedition was brought ashore by a smaller boat.
Naval officer Charles Wilkes, who led a U.S. expedition to Wake Atoll in 1841.
[6][7] In the 1930s, it was the site where supplies were off-loaded for the Pan-Am airways seaplane facilities, which was built on Peale Island on the other side of the Wake Lagoon.
Supplies were offloaded at Wilkes, moved across a short rail to the other side, then taken by barge across the lagoon to Peale.