Molokai Light

The Moloka'i Lighthouse stands tall on the peninsula.

NPS / Rob Ratkowski

Quick Facts

Location:

Kalaupapa National Historical Park

Amenities

1 listed

Parking - Auto

In 1880, the long, narrow island of Moloka‘i had only one lighthouse at Kaunakakai. Yet by 1900, hundreds of vessels annually passed through the channel between O‘ahu and the north side of Moloka‘i—and by the Hansen's disease settlement. A permanent light station was needed for maritime navigation.

Just before sunset on September 9, 1909, lighthouse keeper James Keanu started up the light with its special Fresnel lens. The lens was a rare and huge crystal-like glass lens that spun on a bath of mercury. It was a solitary light more than 200 feet above sea level. It beckoned to the rough seas surrounding the Kalaupapa Peninsula for the first time. It was the brightest light in the Pacific and flashed twenty-one miles to sea. To the settlement’s patients, just two miles away, the light rhythmically sweeping over the pali (cliffs) was a part of their lives. Former patient Richard Marks once commented, “They talk about the statue of liberty, well, this light was the first thing that hundreds of thousands of immigrants to Hawai‘i saw when they came here… That light has been very special to the people here…. It has been here longer than any living person has. You could always look out and see it sweeping across the cliff… It is the Kalaupapa Light.”

Learn more about the Moloka‘i Light here.