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Although the lighthouse at Laupahoehoe, on the Big Island of Hawaii, was never large or grand, from the time it was built, it has always been very important to shipping in that part of the Hawaiian Islands.
The first Laupahoehoe Lighthouse was built around 1890. It was a thirty-foot wooden tower with an ordinary lantern hung at the top, later it was replaced by a mast with a lens lantern.
By 1915, the Lighthouse Board built a concrete tower on the spot. The Coast Guard photo of 1915 shows it with a building at its base.
This tower stood until 1947, but on April 1st of 1946, the coasts of four of the Hawaiian Islands were hit by a tsunami. It was the same tsunami that destroyed Scotch Cap Lighthouse on Unimak Island in Alaska, and killed the Coast Guard Crew of five men. At Scotch Cap, it hit in the middle of the night, with no warning at all, totally destroying the new concrete lighthouse, the old lighthouse that still stood, and three keepers houses.
At Laupahoehoe, it struck in the morning. A series of three tidal waves hit the beach. There were children and teachers at the Laupahoehoe School. They watched as the sea receded and then came back with more force. The first wave went under the teachers’ cottages, then receded. It came back again and still no one was too concerned as they had no experience with tidal waves. The water receded a second time going much further back than before. The bay was sucked dry. The children were walking on the beach watching the water. And the teachers were changing into dry clothes after getting wet from the
first waves.
Then the water stopped receding and became the highest wave yet, some say it was like a wall of water possibly 50 feet high. They added the waves were so high that it washed over the coconut trees. Some of the children were afraid when the water receded. They rushed to a higher ground where they could only watch helplessly as the raging water swept away the teachers’ cottages, the teachers and children. They had to watch their friends and family members as they were swept out to the sea, many of them while they were running to escape the water. Only one teacher and two children were saved after the tsunami receded. Twenty-five children children and teachers lost their lives that day. The deadly tsunami killed 159 people in the Hawaiian Islands and caused $26 million in property damage.
And the little Laupahoehoe Lighthouse? Although the tidal waves had washed over it, it still stood steadfast against Mother Nature. However, it had been buffeted and undermined by the tsunami.
The next summer, in 1947, a storm dealt its deathblow and the Laupahoehoe Lighthouse finally toppled to the ground. The Coast Guard replaced it with the tower that is shown in the 1951 photo, which stood until recent years when it was replaced by a modern beacon.
The remains of the Laupahoehoe Lighthouse, weakened by the tsunami of 1946 and felled by the storms of 1947, still lies at the foot of the current tower, to remind people that nothing stands forever against the force of the earth’s natural disasters.
This story appeared in the
August 2006 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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