Kilauea Lighthouse

A picture of the Kilauea Lighthouse in Hawaii.

The Lighthouse Board recognized the need of a first order light station to serve as a light of landfall for ships coming from the Orient, at Kilauea Point, the northern most tips of the populated Hawaiian Islands, during 1907.

Two year hence “for the consideration of one dollar” the Kilauea Point, the narrow protruding lava peninsula, in the north shore of Kauai, was brought from the Kilauea Sugar Plantation Company. However, before the constructions could commence there was a major problem of supplying construction material to the construction site. A decision was made according to which the construction material was to be deported by sea, due to the lack of good roads. The construction of the 52 feet high tower started in 1912 August. As the mining progressed at the location, it was soon become clear that the rock the tower would mount on was not solid, as suggested by the old survey. Due to this the workers had to excavate deeper for almost eleven feet more to locate a volcanic rock. Due to this tower has an exceptional feature: basement. In 1930, two skeletal steel towers both over eighty two feet were further added to the light station. The Kilauea Light Station radio beacon started operating in harmonization with another lighthouse at Makapu’s Point at Oahu. A power generating plant was supplemented to the Kilauea Lighthouse to supply electricity to the 200 watt radio beacon and from then onwards the Kilauea Lighthouse electrified. After the attack on the Pearl Harbor, the Kilauea Light Station was switched off for the World War II duration. In 1974, Kilauea Light Station became a part of the Lighthouse Automation and Modernization Program (LAMP) of the Coast Guard. During the process of automation there was a problem with the mercury flotation system which led to the complete termination the mercury. Because the revolving lens being crippled by then, a modern type of rotating beacon was constructed on a pole of about ten feet high facing towards the sea and was activated in 1976 February.

The actual tower which is inactive still has its priceless clam-shell lens and in 18th October, 1979 it was registered under the Nation Register of Historical Places.