Ka‘ū News Briefs Sunday, March 11, 2018

One of the first federal government involvements in Ka Lae was tending and improving the lighthouse and quarters for  its keeper, after Hawaiʻi became a U.S. territory in 1898. Ka Lae Lighthouse is now automated  and run by solar panels. Photo from Lighthouse Friends

FEDERAL USE OF SOUTH POINT, where some 11,000 acres are subject to a new management plan by the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, began after Hawaiʻi became a U.S. territory in 1898. The U.S. Lighthouse Service proposed improvements.
     Ka Lae Lighthouse was not more than a large oil lamp on a 30 foot tall mast, the beam shining 9 miles out to sea, warning ships and boats of the South Point cliffs, and marking the southernmost point in the Hawaiian Islands. It shined onto an ocean where winds and currents make a distinct line, as if to divide the island in half, with a predominant calm to the west and turbulence to the east.

Traditional dwellings at Ka Lae where the federal government took over the lighthouse in 1908 and built the lighthouse keeper a small house. Photo from Lighthouse Friends

     The first light keeper was John Nakai, who belonged to a Ka Lae fishing family. He lived next to the light in a small, traditional Hawaiian thatched dwelling, its shape described in some reports as "pyramidal."
     An agent of the U.S. Lighthouse Service arrived to visit Nakai and presented a view of Ka Lae that contrasts to modern day appreciation of traditional Hawaiian fishing communities and the renaissance of protecting South Point's cultural and natural resources.
     Lighthouse Friends quotes Capt. C. W. Otwell, of the Lighthouse Service, describing Ka Lae in 1907: "This station is isolated and desolate, the locality being only a waste of rough lava rock.

The second wind-powered light in the U.S Lighthouse service was installed in 1928 at Ka Lae. 1948 photo by Elmer Jackson

     "No quarters have been provided for the keeper. The only line of supply is over a rough trail, the nearest water and provisions being ten miles distant. To provide at least temporary relief from the hardship to which the keeper is exposed, $200 worth of materials were purchased for the construction of a shelter and water tank. A suitable dwelling should be constructed at this… southernmost point of the Hawaiian Islands. The light is important, and the keeper should have this inducement to remain."

Ka Lae Lighthouse is powered by a solar panel just under the light. It's been automated since 1949, when  it was wind-powered. Photo from Lighthouse Friends

     Founding Ka Lae light keeper Nakai was followed by Robert Iana Reid (1907 – 1912), William F. Williams (1912 – 1914), Harry W. Flint (1915 – 1924), and James K. Haleamau (1926 – 1933). In 1928, during Haleamau's term, according to Lighthouse Friends, a new 45-foot, steel lighthouse tower was installed, its beacon "connected to storage batteries charged by a wind-driven electric generator, making Ka Lae Lighthouse the second wind-powered lighthouse in the U.S. Lighthouse Service."
     A gasoline-powered generator provided electricity for the light and dwelling when wind-generated power was insufficient. "During the first year of this new system, the backup gasoline generator only had to run for about fifty hours."
     James J. Gibson served as light keeper from 1937 – 1942. The last keeper was Henry S. Smith, who served until 1948 or 1949, when the lighthouse was automated, eliminating the need for a keeper. The 45-foot tower was replaced by a 32-foot concrete pole in 1972. Today, batteries charged by solar panels power the light.
     The ten acres acquired by the U.S. government in 1908 remain in federal ownership today, surrounded by Hawaiian Home Lands. The U.S. Coast Guard operates the lighthouse. The land includes the Kalalea Heiau.
     See more on the federal involvement with Ka Lae, with a story on the military era in Monday's Kaʻū News Briefs.