Daniel K. Inouye

Kı ̄lauea Point Lighthouse

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Seeing a Need and Selecting a Site 

At the start of the twentieth century, 

shipping between Asia and the west 

coast of the United States mainland 

increased. The need for a lighthouse

to serve as the first landfall seen by 

eastbound ships became evident.

As the northernmost point in the main 

Hawaiian Islands and with an elevation

of 180 feet, Kı ̄lauea Point

was a perfect choice. In

1909, the U.S. Government

purchased the 31-acre site

from the Kı ̄lauea

Sugar Company

for $1.00! 

Lighthouse

in 1913

National

Archives

Samuel Apollo Amalu

Station Keeper 1915-1925

Honolulu Star-Bulletin

KILAUEALIGHTHOUSECENTENNIAL

KILAUEA POINT NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

1913 - 2013

Beacon for the Generations to Come

Ka lama kuhikuhi no nā hānauna

Construction began in July 1912, and the 

Kı ̄lauea Point Lighthouse was dedicated 

on May 1, 1913. Local residents joined in 

the celebration and participated in a lu ̄‘au 

and shark shoot. Nineteenth Lighthouse 

District Inspector A.W. Arledge, who was 

in attendance that day, would later recall:

“There is a cliff about 400 feet high 

about 300 yards south easterly of the 

tower across which the beam of light 

rapidly swept. I believe that this is the 

most beautiful light station I have 

witnessed.”

Bringing Supplies to the Lighthouse 

Since there were no suitable roads or 

motorized vehicles on Kaua‘i at the time 

of construction, all building materials 

and supplies were brought by sea. The 

lighthouse tender Kukui serviced the 

station until roads were used in 1927. 

The Kukui anchored in the cove west of 

the Point. From there, smaller boats brought 

deliveries within reach of a derrick mounted 

90 feet above sea level on the cliffside; 

the foundations of which can still be seen 

today. From a platform near the derrick, 

supplies were carried up to the Point on 

a narrow-gauge inclined railway.

Lighthouse Decommissioned 

After World War II, RADAR (Radio 

Detecting And Ranging), LORAN (Long 

Range Navigation), and other technological 

advances made the use of lighthouses as 

navigational aids obsolete. In 1976, while 

still operable but no longer used by large 

ships and planes, the U.S. Coast Guard 

decommissioned the lighthouse. The 

automated rotating beacon you see today 

was installed for local boaters and aircraft.

How far can a lighthouse be seen? 

It depends on how high the light stands above sea level. The higher it is, the further 

the beam can travel before it’s blocked by the Earth’s curvature. The center of Kı ̄lauea 

Point’s light is 217 feet above sea level and could be seen by ships 22 nautical miles at sea.

Kı ̄lauea’s beacon proved to be visible from much further by air when the Bird of Paradise, the 

historic first flight from the U.S. mainland to Hawai‘i, overshot the islands in 1927. With the 

plane low on fuel, the pilots spotted Kı ̄lauea’s beacon from 90 miles away and turned back to 

safety and a heros’ welcome on O‘ahu. They credited the lighthouse with saving their lives.

Life for Early Lighthouse Keepers

The routine 

demands of the 

31-acre station 

left the Kı ̄lauea 

Point staff little 

time for socializing 

or visiting Kı ̄lauea. 

The Lighthouse 

Board provided 

each keeper and 

assistant keeper 

with a 106-page 

Instructions to 

Light-Keepers 

and Masters of Light Vessels that detailed 

their duties and the manner in which 

they would be carried out.

Keepers had to light the lamp at sunset 

and extinguish it at sunrise. One keeper 

remained in the watch room throughout 

the night, or two would split the hours of 

darkness into two shifts. Those on duty 

wound the clockwork mechanism 

periodically, trimmed the lamp wick as 

needed, and made a detailed record 

of the night’s happenings.

During daylight hours, the keepers 

continued their log keeping while 

meticulously shining brass in the

lighthouse, polishing the lens, and 

cleaning lighthouse windows to remove 

accumulated salt spray. Daytime

was also the period for chipping 

rust and repainting, building

and grounds maintenance, and

other tasks such as replenishing

fuel supplies.
Third Floor: The Watch Room 

The watch room is where the 

lighthouse keepers spent most 

of their time when the lamp was 

illuminated. It is in this room 

that they operated the winch for 

the clockwork mechanism, which 

rotated the lens. A ladder in the 

center also provided access to the 

inside of the lens for maintaining 

the light source. 

To control the combustion air for 

the oil-vapor lamp, intake vents 

spaced around the perimeter of the 

watch room were adjusted to match 

the intensity and direction of the 

wind. 

The entire lens assembly floated 

in a tub of liquid mercury located 

at this level. Mercury was used 

instead of water or oil because it’s 

13 and a half times as heavy as 

water, providing that much more 

buoyancy. (A one gallon container 

of mercury weighs over 110 

pounds!) This enabled the entire 

lens assembly to float using little 

more than 2 gallons of mercury. 

When properly adjusted, the 3 ton 

lens could be rotated easily with a 

single finger!

First Floor: The Work Room 

The first floor of the lighthouse 

is also known as the work room. 

The shaft in the center of the room 

provides a clue to how the lens 

rotated before electric motors were 

available. 

A system of cables, weights, and 

pulleys rotated the lens, much like

descending weights turn the hands

of a grandfather clock. The weights 

would slowly gravitate down the 

shaft in the center of the lighthouse. 

Fourth Floor: The Lantern Room 

In the center of the lantern room 

is the lighthouse’s “crown jewel” - 

its Fresnel lens. The lens was 

designed by Augustine Fresnel and 

fabricated in Paris, France by the 

firm of Barbier, Benard & Turenne. 

It is termed a bivalve or clamshell

lens because of its flattened shape

containing four bull’s-eyes, two on

each side. The lens made one 

complete revolution every 20 

seconds resulting in Kı ̄lauea’s 

characteristic light signature - 

a double flash every 10 seconds.

The lens was shipped from France 

in sections, each consisting of a 

bronze framework with glass 

elements already installed. When 

the time came to install the lens, 

it was found that the instructions 

were written in French! The U.S. 

Lighthouse Service sent over one 

of their engineers from O‘ahu as 

a translator. He arrived on Kaua‘i 

by ship and had to ride a horse 20 

miles to reach the lighthouse!

Second Floor: The Service Room 

This level contained two steel 

doors, forming an air lock similar 

to a revolving door in a hi-rise 

building. Before electricity, the 

source of Kı ̄lauea’s light was an 

oil-vapor lamp, similar to today’s 

camping lantern. Both of the doors 

were never opened at the same 

time to prevent a “stack effect” 

where air would rush up the 

building like wind up an open

chimney. This rush of air could

easily blow out the fragile mantle

on the lamp, requiring at least

15 minutes to relight and creating

soot on the hundreds of glass

elements that would take 

the lighthouse keepers all 

the next day to clean!

The Basement 

Stairs lead down to an

11 foot deep basement. 

The basement was 

needed in order to reach 

a stable ground for the 

lighthouse foundation.

A view inside the lighthouse

The clockwork mechanism 

had to be manually wound 

every 3-1/2 hours. An electric 

motor was installed in 1939, 

eliminating this lighthouse 

keeper’s task, but the reliable

clockwork mechanism was 

maintained for many years

as an emergency backup.

For more information visit: www.fws.gov/kilaueapoint

May 2013