Cape Kumukahi Light

Cape Kumukahi Light stands at Kapoho on Hawaii’s easternmost point, where it long served ships arriving across the Pacific. Though proposed in 1905, the first light appeared in 1928 as a 32-foot wooden tower with an automatic acetylene beacon, and the station was rebuilt in 1933 and 1934 with keeper’s houses and a steel tower designed to withstand frequent small earthquakes. Its history is closely bound to Kilauea’s east rift zone. In the 1960 eruption that destroyed Kapoho, lava consumed the keeper’s houses and Joe Pestrella’s orchard but split around the tower, leaving the lighthouse standing. The light was later automated, and the site now also hosts a NOAA air-sampling facility.

Nanawale Estates, Hawaii · United States