Pago Pago, American Samoa
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Pago Pago (pronounced /ˈpɑŋgoʊ ˈpɑŋgoʊ/) is the capital of American Samoa, a territory of the United States of America. Its 1990 population was 10,640. The city is located on Pago Pago Harbor, Tutuila. Tourism, government, and tuna canning are the primary industries. From 1878 to 1951, this was a coaling and repair station for the U.S. Navy.
The city is an interesting mixture of a "seedy" urban area with infamously smelly 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 up to 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 April 14 of that year a US Navy plane, flying overhead as part of the Flag Day celebrations, struck the cable, the plane then crashing into a wing of the Rainmaker Hotel. The tram remains unusable to this day, although according to Lonely Planet, plans have been put forth to reopen it.
Pago Pago is actually but one of 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 to the harbor area and the capital. Thus, both the port itself and the legislature of American Samoa—known as the Fono (/ˈfoʊnoʊ/)—are located in Fagatogo, a village that is adjacent to (and for all practical purposes indistinguishable from) Pago Pago. Similarly, the once famous Rainmaker Hotel (now closed) is located in the village of Utule‘i, adjacent to Fagatogo along the south shore of the long harbor.
