Kauai Historic Sites

This Tour Comes From...

An image of the book: America's Historic Places

National Geographic Guide to America's Historic Places

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First of the Hawaiian Islands to be discovered by Captain Cook in 1778, Kauai was the last to yield to Kamehameha the Great and join the Hawaiin kingdom in 1810. By mid-century, foreigners had established Christian missions and Hawaii’s first succesful sugar plantation. (Convention & Visitors Bureau, 3016 Umi St., Lihue. +1 808 245 3971) CONTINUED

Stops on This Tour

- Lihue
- Wailua River Ancient Sites

(Continued From Top)

Lihue
Grove Farm Homestead Museum (Nawiliwili Rd. +1 808 245 3202. Mon., Wed., Thurs., by reserved tours. Adm. fee) See the old family residence, workers’ camp houses, and lush grounds of an 1864 sugar plantation.
Kauai Museum (4428 Rice St. +1 808 245 6931. Mon.-Sat.; Adm. fee) A 1920s public library now displays calabashes and other early Hawaiian artifacts.
Alekoko (Menehune) Fish Pond (Hulemalu Rd. near Nawiliwili Harbor) The stone wall that creates this pond is said to have been built in one night by the menehunes—the “little people” who settled Hawaii.

Wailua River Ancient Sites
From Lihue, Hawaii 56 winds north into an idyllic landscape dotted with places sacred to ancient Hawaiians. At Lydgate State Park, you’ll find the sketchy site of a heiau (temple); flat-backed royal birthing stones, where high-ranking women bore noble children; and a sacred rock where mothers placed the newborns’ umbilical cords. Here, too, is a place of refuge—a sanctuary where taboo breakers received pardon. If chased down before reaching the place of refuge, they were sacrificed to the gods at Holoholoku Heiau (Inland on Hawaii 580, Wailua River S.P.), located near Opaekaa Falls.
This partial listing is an excerpt from the National Geographic Guide to America’s Historic Places.