Kawaihae, Hawaii
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Kawaihae is an
Description
The town's harbor includes a fuel depot, shipping terminal and military landing site. Outside of the man-made breakwall of the harbor is a popular surf spot and the Pua Kailima o Kawaihae Cultural Surf Park. The small town features a handful of restaurants and art galleries. To the north of the harbor is the Kawaihae Canoe Club and a small boat ramp. To the south is
History
Kawaihae served as the seat of kingdom of Hawaii island during the reign of the usurper king Alapaʻinuiakauaua, whose family, the Mahi's, hailed from the Kohala district; he was the king that sought to kill the infant Kamehameha at his birth. His successor Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who overthrew Alapaʻi's son Keaweʻopala, moved the capital back to the Kona district where his family originated. In the late 1700s, Kawaihae's naturally sheltered bay was considered one of the more suitable commercial harbor for western ships on the Big Island. Its harbor and proximity to the fertile uplands of Waimea ensured its status as an important stopover for many early European voyagers and merchantmen needing to make repairs and resupply their ships during the early period of the
Residence of King Kamehameha I
It became the principal residence of King
It was in Kawaihae, on April 1, 1820, that the first company of
Construction of harbor
The United States Army Corps of Engineers dredged the harbor and built the breakwall between 1957 and 1959 and brought the village back from obscurity. In 1970, construction of a small boat harbor began to the south of the main harbor entrance by several institutions under the name of Project Tugboat. It was designed as a test of the use of high explosives to create harbors in hard substrate and as a proof of the concept that small nuclear charges could be used for civil works projects. Over 100 tons of conventional explosives (roughly equivalent to the smallest nuclear charge that could be built at that time) were buried in the Kawaihae reef and detonated to clear the basin and the entrance. It is the home of Kawaihae Canoe Club. It also served as the launching point for the film Waterworld with Kevin Costner. The artificial reef or floating island was just off the coast with headquarters for the movie at the harbor.
References
- ^ a b c Linda Wedel Greene (1993). "Chapter VII: Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site". A Cultural History of Three Traditional Hawaiian Sites on the West Coast of Hawai'i Island. United States Department of the Interior National Park Service Denver Service Center.
- ^ a b Abraham Fornander (1880). John F. G. Stokes (ed.). An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origins and Migrations, and the Ancient History of the Hawaiian People to the Times of Kamehameha I. Vol. 2. Trübner & Co.
- ISBN 978-1-58843-228-5.
- ^ "John Young Homestead - Puʻukoholā Heiau National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)".
- ISBN 0-8248-0976-9.
- ^ Sheldon Dibble (1843). History of the Sandwich Islands. Lahainaluna: Press of the Mission Seminary.
- ^ Hiram Bingham I (1855) [1848]. A Residence of Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich Islands (Third ed.). H.D. Goodwin.