Everything about Pago Pago American Samoa totally explained
Pago Pago (by native Samoan-speakers and sometimes by others) is the
capital town of
American Samoa. It is actually a
village that's often mistaken to be a
city (as in a capital or
port city) of this south Pacific territory of the
United States of America. Its
1990 population was 10,640. The village is located on Pago Pago Harbor, in the island of
Tutuila.
Tourism, entertainment, food, and
tuna canning are the primary industries here. From
1878 to
1951, this was a coaling and repair station for the
U.S. Navy.
Pago Pago is one of the several villages along the shore of the harbor and is located at the very back (inside) of the
embayment. However, because the name
Pago Pago is associated with the harbor itself — the only significant port of call in American Samoa —
Pago Pago is now generally applied not only to the village itself, but to the whole harbor area and the whole town that encompasses the adjacent village of
Fagatogo — the seat of the local territorial government. It is in this sense that Pago Pago becomes the
de facto capital town of American Samoa.
The action of the
W. Somerset Maugham story 'Miss Thompson' aka 'Rain' is set in Pago Pago. It features various dissolute goings-on and a surprise ending to an attempt to reform the title character.
Those versions of the
Careers board game with 'Go to Sea' as a career, have an opportunity to earn happiness in the square 'Terrific shore leave in Pago Pago'. Game designer
James Cooke Brown may have intended this as a sly reference to the Maugham story. A little risqué for a wholesome family game, maybe, but anyone old enough to understand it isn't likely to be affected much.
Pago Pago is a mixture of colorful semi-urban communities, a small town, tuna canneries (which provide employment for a third of the population of Tutuila) and a harbor surrounded by dramatic cliffs, which plunge almost straight into the sea. A climb to the summit of
Mt. Alava (see
National Park of American Samoa) provides a magnificent bird's-eye view of the harbor and town. Until
1980, one could experience the view from the peak by taking an
aerial tramway over the harbor, but on
June 14 of that year a
U.S. Navy plane, flying overhead as part of the
Flag Day celebrations, struck the cable; the plane then crashed into a wing of the
Rainmaker Hotel. The tram remains unusable, although according to
Lonely Planet, plans have been put forth to reopen it. Less spectacular, but worth the drive, is the view from the top of the pass above Aua Village on the road to
Afono.
Both the port itself and the legislature of American Samoa — known as the
Fono (/ˈfono/) — are in
Fagatogo, a village adjacent to Pago Pago. Similarly, the once famous Rainmaker Hotel (now closed) is in the village of
Utule‘i, adjacent to Fagatogo along the south shore of the long harbor. The canneries are in
Atu‘u, on the harbor's north shore. It is suggested that one must avoid eating any fish or invertebrate caught in Pago Pago Harbor because they're contaminated with heavy metals and other pollutants.
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