one star because, this is a long dusty hike to misunderstand and perpetuate misunderstanding-- what is laying on the ground at our feet?? As of right now, 44 reviewers left reviews under the assumption, they met with a pillbox, no one fact-checked Google and this "one time", Google is wrong. I'll update my review to 5-stars when this location within Ka'ena is factually named. I LOVE THIS PLACE.
This location is one of the Minor Lights of Oahu:
Ka'ena Point LIGHTHOUSE !!
I am a competitive lighthouse hunter, traveling extensively, and often researching a location time, and time again. Lighthouses are their own sort of Witness Trees.
Objectively speaking, Ka'ena Lighthouse, is a speedbump as far as American lighthouses goes. That tiny concrete tower was cheap, never manned, and today, lays on its side as a graffiti-adorned urinal within a state wildlife refuge that apparently, doesn't wish to recognize, publicly, its own cultural significance. Allow me to unpack some of that...
There was never a traditional lighthouse with keepers quarters at Ka'ena point. That concrete tower was erected in 1919 by the US Bureau of Lighthouses for less than $2.5k and lit by acetylene. The concrete tower was originally made obsolete by the stick with checkered board currently standing adjacent. BUT. The contractors that were hired to erect the stick and checkered board, are paid to do erect a board, not to knock over the obsolete concrete tower. That concrete stood from 1919, taking vandalism, until sometime in the 90's-- finally toppled into the soft sand due to serious erosion that had been identified and causing controversy for the point.
As more people and politics continued to overrun Hawaii, Ka'ena was no exception to a world of hurt and stress. The lighthouse erected in 1919 saw many things go sideways in Hawaii. Industry. Sugar and Pineapple. Wars. Losing ground to exacerbated erosion from vehicle traffic and climate change rising sea levels. Not sure anyone cared about Ka'ena, but large shorebirds were losing breeding grounds fast, and what ground was left, was overrun with vermin that people purposefully and accidentally introduced to Hawaii. Maybe the birds could gain political clout...
Protective and restorative improvements to Ka'ena point began in the 80's. The 1919 concrete lighthouse was obsolete, but standing when the Ka'ena Point Natural Reserve Area was created. By 2011, the stick and checkered board now standing as Ka'ena Point Lighthouse, witnessed that epic fence go up and feral vermin eliminated from breeding grounds for the laysan albatross and wedge-tailed shearwater.
Ka'ena is culturally significant and on a cusp of coming full circle. The generation before me, protected the very tip of the point for the birds, and accidentally on purpose (? I truly don't know here ?) by protecting the point they also fenced the Leina a Kaʻuhane.
Ka'ena is the westernmost point of Oahu and culturally significant. For a Hawaiian spirit to enter the afterlife, they settle their affairs and travel west following the sun, until they must leap into the sunset... Leina a Kaʻuhane- Leap of the Spirit. Is the last rock a Hawaiian spirit touches before they leap over the point and depart this world chasing the sunset. The remnants of Moka‘ena Heiau overlook the point from 1200', shows us something too-- how much Hawaiian people once physically used/needed Ka'ena and demonstrated via hard work, their deep value of Ka'ena by building a great heiau.
There's interpretive signs about the birds. But signs haven't been afforded by the Hawaii State Parks to interpret nor even acknowledge the culturally significant sites within Ka'ena Point.
The lighthouse ruins and current stick with checkered board, could use an interpretive sign at Ka'ena Point, too.
Awful long walk, to not know, what are we looking at? Someone can't even Google this spot to teach themselves-- because Google has one mistake, and 44 reviews in agreement !!
Oops x 44 = I have to one-star the pillbox, because its not...
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