Daniel K. Inouye Kīlauea Point Lighthouse, Maritime lighthouse on Kīlauea Point, Kauai, United States.
The Daniel K. Inouye Kīlauea Point Lighthouse is a slightly tapering reinforced-concrete cylinder about 52 feet (16 m) tall, built in Classical Revival style on a narrow lava peninsula on Kauaʻi's north shore. A circular steel walkway with a handrail rings the top, where a second-order Fresnel lens made in Paris by Barbier, Bénard and Turenne sits in the lantern. Its focal plane is 53 m above the sea, flashing white every 10 seconds with a nominal range of 9 nautical miles (about 17 km).
Kīlauea Point, a narrow lava peninsula on Kauaʻi's north shore, was bought from the Kīlauea Sugar Plantation Company in 1909 for one US dollar. With no good road from Nawiliwili harbor, supplies arrived by sea aboard the lighthouse tender Kukui and were hoisted by a boom derrick onto a platform 110 feet above the water. Construction began in July 1912 and the light was dedicated on May 1, 1913. It was automated in 1974, listed on the National Register in 1979, and renamed for Senator Daniel Inouye on its centennial, May 1, 2013.
The lighthouse was renamed for U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye on its centennial, May 1, 2013. The site also appears in Disney's animated film Lilo & Stitch and its sequel Stitch! The Movie, where it serves as a rendezvous point and later becomes the home of the electrical experiment Sparky, who relights its beacon.
The site is reached through marked trails within Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, open to visitors on certain weekdays. Prepare for windy coastal conditions and wear proper footwear since the terrain is exposed and can be slippery when wet.
One of only seven remaining second-order Fresnel lenses in American lighthouses resides here, originally manufactured in Paris during the 1900s. These optical instruments from the early lighthouse era are extremely rare and represent important technical achievements of their time.
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