Nikumaroro was once called Gardner Island. In 1940, about 190 bones of a skeleton, along with a 1930's era women's blucher-style shoe (with an American "Cat's Paw" heel) were discovered on the island and turned over to the colonial administrator of the Phoenix Islands.
The medical examiner ruled the bones to be mixed race. Earhart was known to wear women's blucher-style shoes.
A lot of official telegraphs were generated in 1940 regarding the skeleton and the prospect that it was Earhart.
The file of telegraphs was discovered about twenty years ago.
Since that time, a group has been back to Nikumaroro, to the area on the island described in the telegraphs as the site where the skeleton was discovered.
Natives who lived on the island around 1937-1940 report a plane on the reef.
There are something like nine sites of small campfires remaining at the point of the island where the skeleton was said to have been found, all in a small area. The fire sites are littered with the skeletons of small fish, including the heads (which the natives eat) and lots of shellfish.
The skeleton is now missing. The measurements of the bones were taken, however. When those measurements are placed into modern computers, it appears that the skeleton was that of a European (white) woman approximately 5'7", or about Earhart's height.
The searchers found a 1930's era woman's compact; Earhart was known to fly with a compact (she said you never knew when you would meet the press). They found part of a woman's hand lotion bottle, made in the U.S. in 1935. They found parts of a jackknife, and the model was identified to be the same model as listed on the inventory of items carried on Earhart's final flight.
They also searched for bones, because not all of the skeleton was found in 1940. They assumed that smaller bones were carried away by crabs into crab holes or under tree roots. They found three small pieces that they assumed were bone, and not coral.
These are the three pieces described in the article.
Anyway, there's a lot that's NOT in the article that it suggests the reef off Nikumaroro may have been where Earhart's round-the-world flight ended.
I'm not saying it did. I'm just reporting what I've read and what I've seen in the documentaries on the expeditions to Nikumaroro.
Interesting. Thank you.
With all that evidence, it makes me wonder why it’s taken 70 years to get to this point. It seems that it would be unlikely that it would have been anyone else. Why the decades-long remaining mystery and apparent cover-up?