When was kauai discovered

Tahitians are said to have come to the island after the Marquesans. They were more powerful and eventually forced many of the Marquesans to flee to neighboring islands.

The first settlers from Polynesia sailed from over 3, miles away. They only brought with them the most important plants and foods, many of which are still abundant today in Hawaiian culture and diet. One of most important plants is taro, named kalo in Hawaiian. It is a rich starch and became a staple of the Hawaiian diet. The plant holds significance in the Hawaiian culture and is used to make many foods, most notably, poi, which is often served at a luau.

The Royal Coconut Coast was the most desirable place to live, even in the early days. Fresh water was always available and the land was perfect for growing taro, yams, and bananas.

The coconut trees grew in plenty, and was a very useful plant since it served as a source of food, utensils and fiber. Captain James Cook is credited for being the first European to discover the islands; he first landed in Waimea, on the west shore of Kauai in January Hawaii quickly became a common trade stop for sea voyagers and a popular destination for missionaries and other Westerners eager to find their piece of paradise.

Kauai has a unique history being the oldest inhabited of the main Hawaiian Islands and the only island that was not conquered by King Kamehameha in his attempt to unite all the Hawaiian Islands. King Kamehameha twice built up his army in hopes of conquering the last islands of Kauai and Niihau.

Both times he was unable to make the voyage to Kauai, first due to a rebellion in and then in an outbreak of disease prevented the King and his army from leaving Oahu. Kamehameha recovered and continued to build his army; the soldiers, weapons, and ships Kamehameha had at his discretion far surpassed any of the resources available on Kauai. The King of Kauai and Niihau at the time, King Kaumualii, decided to avoid the inevitable bloodshed and instead came to a peaceful resolution with Kamehameha in Kaumualii continued to serve as governor of Kauai under the united Hawaiian Kingdom ruled by King Kamehameha.

Flume crossing from bluff over river to mill carrying came from higher elevations to the mill at Kealia. Makee Mill in background. Two men on horseback, in foreground, pulling flatbed train cars on tracks across the bridge. They only used the trade winds and the stars to guide them.

Tahitians also found the Hawaiian Islands but because they were more powerful, they eventually forces many of the original settlers to flee to neighbor islands. Kauai is also unique for being the only Hawaiian island that was not conquered by King Kamehameha. The first sugar plantation was founded in Koloa in the year Plantations like it would eventually attract scores of people from all corners of the world, including East Asia, the Philippines and Europe.

Immigrant labor was cheap, with workers being housed in structures known as Camp Houses. A few of these old Camp Houses are still standing today, although they have been completely renovated. The Camp House Grill is a family-style Kalaheo restaurant situated inside one of these renovated buildings.

There are also several former plantation homes now open for public viewing. Both are intended to teach visitors about the growth of the sugar industry and its influence on the island as a whole. With its lush, tropical landscape, breathtaking views and relative seclusion, Kauai makes the perfect location for a Hollywood film shoot--particularly if the story is set in the jungle.

Kauais Hollywood history goes back as far as the s, but its debut into public memory is perhaps due to the production of King Kong. Hawaii Movie Tours show visitors all the top locations in a fun-packed van tour. The Garden Isles natural beauty draws visitors from all over the world--and the accompanying natural disasters only slow down the tourism flow for a few weeks at most.

A visitor to current Kauai might not realize that both and brought mass destruction, in the form of Hurricanes Iwa and Iniki. Both of these hurricanes devastated the island, but in the near-decade since, Kauai has been rebuilt to far outshine its former self. Avians filled the ecological niches that elsewhere were occupied by grazing animals such as wild sheep and cattle, which could not survive the long journey across the ocean. By now we are standing at the bottom of one of the excavation trenches with cool muck rising halfway to our knees.

Eventually we climb back up, passing the centuries as we go. He ambles over to the volunteers sorting through the mud using garden hoses and rectangular boxes with one-sixteenth-inch mesh. Archaeologists have long suspected that the arrival of humans on Hawaii spelled doom for innumerable plant and animal species.

Nearly four dozen bird species, many of them extinct, have been recovered from Makauwahi Cave, and other excavations, particularly along the coastal plains, confirm the rapid transformation of the environment once people got there. Though the original settlers likely were a small band of people or so, based on genetic data, rats rapidly populated the islands, posing a deadly threat to the large flightless birds vulnerable to scurrying mammals.

The rats also quickly ate the seeds of the native palms, while humans may have overexploited the trees for thatch, causing them to almost disappear from the island. Early engravings made by Europeans who began coming to Hawaii in the late s show the area around Makauwahi Cave to be virtually treeless by this point—coastal plains had been transformed by way of irrigation and ponds, and mass burning had driven the forest back to areas too steep to cultivate.

One of the surprising finds Burney and his colleague, Australian paleoentomologist Nick Porch of Deacon University, have made is that the accidental introduction of insects, particularly ants, may have devastated the native species of beetles, many of which were wingless and therefore defenseless against the invaders.

Although today only a few native species of plants and animals survive in the lowlands of Kauai, the Burneys are working hard to change this. The land that includes the cave complex is owned by the Grove Farm Company, but it is now managed by the nonprofit Makauwahi Cave Reserve, which the Burneys created.

In combination with their archaeological work, they are trying to bring ancient Hawaii back to life, at least on a small scale. Inside the sinkhole, based on what they have found during more than two decades of excavation, they are slowly replacing plants brought by Europeans with both native Hawaiian and Polynesian species.

These species had retreated into largely inaccessible areas, but can thrive in the lowlands if given a chance. The reserve is also home to a few acres of traditional taro and other early Polynesian crops, as well as native palms and indigenous flowering plants that have replaced what was a year monoculture of sugarcane. For Burney, the effort is an innovative way to use archaeological and paleontological data to restore native species to the landscape and revive ancient practices.

As we part, Burney is off to feed his chickens before dusk. Subscribe to the Digital Edition! Archaeology e-Update Subscriber Alert! Subscribe Now! Special Introductory Offer Renew.