Makapuʻu Point Light stands on Oʻahu’s southeastern tip, where ships from the American west coast first sight land before Honolulu, making the site important to maritime trade even before a lighthouse was built. Sought during the Kingdom of Hawaii after an 1888 petition, the project stalled amid political change and was finally authorized after annexation in 1906. Activated in 1909, it received a hyperradiant Fresnel lens, the largest ever used in a U.S. lighthouse, and one of the nation’s highest focal planes. Its history also includes a fatal 1925 explosion, Hawaii’s first radio beacon in 1927, automation in 1974, later vandalism, and continued Coast Guard operation.