Lapakahi State Historical Park

Lapakahi is part of a marine conservation area and certain sections are sacred. Follow the 1-mile loop trail (unshaded) past the remains of house sites, canoe sheds and fishing shrines. Learn how fishers used lift nets to catch opelu (pan-sized mackerel scad), a technique still practiced today, and how the salt used to preserve fish was dried in stone salt pans. Try 'o'o ihe (spear throwing) and 'ulu maika (stone bowling).

Lapakahi was a remote fishing village 600 years ago. Fish were plentiful, and the cove provided a safe canoe landing year-round. Eventually some of the villagers moved to the wetter uplands and began to farm, trading their crops for fish with those who had stayed on the coast, thereby creating an ahupua'a (wedge-shaped land division including seafront and mountainous interior). When the freshwater table dropped in the 19th century, the village was abandoned. Brochures are available at the trailhead. Lapakahi's clear waters are loaded with tropical fish and are part of a marine-life conservation district. This is a historiacal park, not a recreational park. Staff may grant permission for swimming, but check with them first.