Best Place To See Hawaii As It Was Pre-Contact [STAFF PICK]
Kahikihui
It’s remarkable to think that the place archaeologists believe was the spot Polynesians first landed in Hawaii is also one of the most unchanged parts of the state. What we today call Maui’s “backside”–a rocky, remote stretch of land between Ulupalakua and Kaupo where the clearest radio stations you can pick up originate on the Big Island–was once home to a thriving Hawaiian community. Sure, there are native Hawaiians who live there now, as well as some ranching there and a rather large wind farm, but for the most part the old pre-contact homesteads are still in place. That’s why archaeologist Patrick Vinton Kirch was able to spend 17 years researching the place, eventually cataloging thousands of sites. Since plans are to build a lot more windmills out there if the state ever builds an Oahu-Maui undersea power cable, the days of its largely unspoiled nature may be coming to an end. @apignataro
Photo: Forest & Kim Starr/Wikimedia
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