# MIDWAY ATOLL & WAKE ISLAND 1930s TRAVELOGUE (INCOMPLETE) 23034

This fragmentary film about Midway Island and Wake Island dates to the pre-WWII era, when both were being used as a stop-over by Pan Am Clipper seaplanes and as USA military installations. The film begins with images of the famous Midway Gooney (albatross) birds before showing some of the activities that awaited visitors to the island: swimming, boating, and fishing. At 3:12 a group of visitors takes the "shortest railway in the world" -- a narrow gauge railroad on Wake Island (see below for story about this). At 4:30 the group fishes off Wake. At 6:50 exotic trigger fish are shown in an aquarium, as examples of the fish caught at Wake. On January 20, 1903, the United States Navy opened a radio station on Midway in response to complaints from cable company workers about Japanese squatters and poachers. Between 1904 and 1908, President Roosevelt stationed 21 Marines on the island to end wanton destruction of bird life and keep Midway safe as a U.S. possession, protecting the cable station. In 1935, operations began for the Martin M-130 flying boats operated by Pan American Airlines. The M-130s island-hopped from San Francisco to China, providing the fastest and most luxurious route to the Far East and bringing tourists to Midway until 1941. Only the very wealthy could afford the trip, which in the 1930s cost more than three times the annual salary of an average American. With Midway on the route between Honolulu and Wake Island, the flying boats landed in the atoll and…

- Kind: Film
- By: PeriscopeFilm
- Genres: War, Travel, Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/23034midwayisland)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/23034midwayisland?play=1)