Place:Kauai, Kauai, Hawaii, United States

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Kauai, anglicized as Kauai, is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km²), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the 21st largest island in the United States. Known also as the "Garden Isle", Kauai lies 73 miles (117 km) across the , northwest of . This island is the site of Waimea Canyon State Park and the Na Pali Coast State Park.

The United States Census Bureau defines Kauai as census tracts 401 through 409 of , which comprises all of the county except for the islands of Kaʻula, Lehua and . The 2020 United States Census population of the island was 73,298. The most populous town was .

History

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Polynesian inhabitants settled on the island hundreds of years before the arrival of Europeans, as shown by excavations dating back to as early as 200 A.D. to 600 A.D. These first inhabitants, originally from the Marquesas Islands, lived undisturbed for around five centuries until a second wave of seafarers arrived by sea-canoe from Tahiti. Many Hawaiian traditions and belief structures are rooted in the religion and practices that arrived with these Tahitians.^[1]

In 1778, Captain James Cook arrived at Waimea Bay, the first European known to have reached the Hawaiian islands. He named the archipelago the "Sandwich Isles" after his patron, the 6th Earl of Sandwich, George Montagu.

During the reign of King Kamehameha, the islands of Kauai and Niihau were the last Hawaiian Islands to join his . Their ruler, , resisted Kamehameha for years. King Kamehameha twice prepared a huge armada of ships and canoes to take the islands by force, and twice failed; once due to a storm, and once due to an epidemic. In the face of the threat of a further invasion, however, Kaumualii decided to join the kingdom without bloodshed, and became Kamehameha's vassal in 1810. He ceded the island to the Kingdom of Hawaii upon his death in 1824.^[2]

Schäffer affair

In 1815, a ship from the Russian-American Company was wrecked on the island. In 1816, an agreement was signed by Kaumualiʻi to allow the Russians to build Fort Elizabeth. It was an attempt by Kaumualiʻi to gain support from the Russians against Kamehameha I. Construction was begun in 1817, but in July of that year under mounting resistance of Native Hawaiians and American traders the Russians were expelled. The settlement on Kauaʻi was an instance of a Pacific outpost of the Russian Empire.

Old Sugar Mill of Koloa

In 1835, Old Koloa Town opened a sugar mill.^[2] From 1906 to 1934 the office of County Clerk was held by John Mahiʻai Kāneakua, who had been active in attempts to restore Queen Liliuokalani to the throne after the United States takeover of Hawaii in 1893.

Valdemar Knudsen

Valdemar Emil Knudsen was a Norwegian plantation pioneer who arrived on Kauai in 1857. Knudsen, or "Kanuka", originally arrived in Koloa where he managed Grove Farm, but later sought a warmer land and purchased the leases to Mana and Kekaha, where he became a successful sugarcane plantation owner. Knudsen settled in Waiawa, between Mana and Kekaha, immediately across the channel from Niʻihau Island. His son, Eric Alfred Knudsen, was born in Waiawa.

Knudsen was appointed land administrator by King Kamehameha for an area covering 400 km², and was given the title konohiki as well as a position as a nobility under the king. Knudsen, who spoke fluent Hawaiian, later became an elected representative and an influential politician on the island.

Knudsen lends his name to the Knudsen Gap, a narrow pass between Hã’upu Ridge and the Kahili Ridge. Its primary function was as a sugar farm planted by the Knudsen family.

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