Kauai, the Garden Island, has six minor navigational lights and two primary seacoast lights, Kilauea Point Light and Nawiliwili Light, adorning its shoreline. In 1907, the Lighthouse Board asserted that a first-order light at Kilauea Point, the northernmost point of the inhabited Hawaiian Islands, was needed to serve as a landfall light for ship traffic from the Orient. Two years later, Kilauea Point, a narrow, lava peninsula protruding from the northern shore of Kauai, was purchased from the Kilauea Sugar Plantation Company "for the consideration of one dollar," but before construction could begin, a method for delivering supplies to the remote point had to be developed. Due to the lack of good roads in the area, the decision was made to bring the materials in by sea.
Since there was no beach, the boats would anchor to cleats cemented into the lava rocks at the point. A boom derrick, constructed on a ledge ninety feet above the water, would pluck the supplies from the boats and place them on a loading platform 110 feet above the water.
Work on the 52-foot tower began in August of 1912. As excavation got underway at the site, it was soon apparent that the rock was not solid as had been indicated in the original survey. This forced the workers to dig down eleven feet to find solid volcanic rock and led to the tower having a unique feature: a basement.
The ironwork for the tower's spiral staircase and lantern room was constructed at a cost of $12,000. When the lens arrived, it was discovered that the assembly instructions were in French, and an urgent message was sent to Honolulu, requesting help with translation. Fred Edgecomb was dispatched on an inter-island ship from Honolulu to Nawiliwili Harbor and then rode twenty miles on horseback to the site. After he had helped translate the instructions, the four-and-a-half-ton lens was assembled in the tower and then floated on a bed of mercury contained in a nine-inch-deep circular trough, with an inside diameter of roughly six feet. The revolving lens, which was first illuminated on May 1, 1913, produced a double flash every ten seconds that was visible up to a distance of twenty-one nautical miles.
As part of a day-long celebration that preceded the first lighting, the entire population of Kilauea town was invited for a luau, featuring Kalua pig baked in the ground, sweet potatoes, and poi.
The Kilauea Point Lighthouse, like the Cyclops of old, which swept the sea with their one fierce eye, burst forth its shining eye of warning to the mariner ... while hundreds of country people who had gathered to witness the wonderful sight made the shores and hills ring with astonished delight.
Three keeper's dwellings were constructed several hundred yards south of the tower and oil house that were located near the point's extremity. The homes were constructed of volcanic rock found on site, and each had a living room, two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, storeroom, and laundry. Reinforced concrete cisterns were also supplied to collect rainwater from the roofs of the dwellings.
In 1930, two eighty-foot skeletal steel towers were added to the point, and the Kilauea radio beacon commenced operating in synchronization with one at Makapu`u Point on Oahu. A generating plant was added to the station to provide electricity for the 200-watt radio beacon, and soon thereafter the lighthouse was electrified.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Kilauea Point Lighthouse was darkened for the duration of World War II. In 1974, the lighthouse became part of the Coast Guard's Lighthouse Automation and Modernization Program (LAMP). While preparing the station for automation, complications arose with the mercury flotation system, necessitating the removal of the mercury. With the revolving lens now crippled, a modern rotating beacon was established on a 10-foot pole seaward of the tower and activated in February of 1976. The original tower, though inactive, retained its priceless clamshell lens and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 18, 1979.
Kilauea Point and its lighthouse became part of the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, when it was established in 1985, and today there are more bird-watchers than lighthouse enthusiasts who visit the area. Even if you aren't an expert on birds, it is thrilling to watch the Great Frigate bird and Laysan Albatross, with their large wingspans, soaring above the lighthouse. If you are lucky, you might even spot a Nene, an endangered Hawaiian goose, roaming the grounds.
The Lighthouse can be easily located on any map showing Kauai’s North Shore. You will leave the main highway and drive a couple miles, but the access couldn’t be more simple. This site is a must do while visiting Kauai!