Help Preserve a Historic Lighthouse

Kilauea Point Lighthouse, with its vintage Fresnel lens and picturesque location on the site of a seabird refuge, is one of the most popular visitor destinations on Kauai. The lighthouse, first opened in 1913, stands high above the ocean at the northernmost tip of the island.

The magnificent Fresnel, or "clamshell," lens is no longer in operation. It was replaced in 1976 with an automated light. But on rare occasions when the lighthouse is open to public tours, the lens, with its hundreds of reflecting prisms, can be viewed.

Over time, the lighthouse has deteriorated to the point where the damage is now considered critical, and a major restoration project has been launched. To help fund the project, the Kilauea Point Natural History Association has launched a Buy A Brick campaign to help defray the cost of the $1.5 million lighthouse restoration and maintenance plan.

The bricks are engraved with a personal message and your name and come in three sizes ranging in price from $75 to $500 each.

The lighthouse is located on the grounds of the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, near Kilauea. The refuge is home to six species of nesting seabirds and is the best place in the Hawaiian Islands to observe seabirds, like the Red-footed Booby, the Great Frigatebird and the Layson Albatross.

In the winter and early spring, humpback whales are commonly sighted in waters off the refuge. Spinner dolphins, Hawaiian monk seals and green sea turtles can be spotted year round.

Construction of the lighthouse was a laborious process. Built on a parcel of land high above the ocean and surrounded on three sides by water, materials had to be lifted from cargo boats in the ocean up steep cliffs to the building site. The lens, which was designed and manufactured in France, weighs 4 tons and floats in a vat containing more than 250 pounds of liquid mercury. The intricate lens is a work of art even in its present out-of-commission state.

Originally used to guide merchant ships sailing from Asia to Hawaii, the beacon no longer sends its signal across the sky. That job is handled by an automated light on a 10-foot tower in front of the lighthouse. But nearly a century since it was constructed at Kilauea Point, the lighthouse has become a Kauai landmark that, fortunately, will be restored.

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