Pu'ukohola Heiau

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

From the record

One of 107 National Register listings published here for Hawaii County · listed in 1966 · category: Site · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

National Historic Landmark. The highest federal designation, held by about 2,600 places in the country against roughly 100,000 Register listings.
What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 site as contributing to the listing.
Address. 0.9 mi. SE of Kawaihae, Kawaihae, 96743
When was it listed? October 1966
Category. site
Census division. South Kohala
National Register reference number. 07001173 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

103 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 103 fires within 5 miles of Pu'ukohola Heiau between 1992 and 2020, burning about 10,665 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	96
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Recreation and ceremony	2
Arson/incendiarism	2
Fireworks	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
7 September 2008	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	20 acres	County of Hawai'i	not named
30 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	County of Hawai'i	not named
23 September 2004	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	County of Hawai'i	not named
20 September 2004	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	County of Hawai'i	not named
16 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	County of Hawai'i	not named
12 September 2004	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1,500 acres	County of Hawai'i	not named
1 September 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	County of Hawai'i	not named
8 August 2015	Equipment and vehicle use	3,884 acres	Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site	KAWAIHAE

Every fire recorded in Hawaii County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Pu'ukohola Heiau: 3 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Calcium. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Yamada Kawaihae Coral Mill	Calcium	Past Producer
Boase Number 1 Quarry and Mill	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Kawaihae Coral Mill	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Hawaii County

Storms near this property

24 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Kawaihae, the town this property stands in, in 24 storm reports between 2004 and 2024: 20 heavy rain, 4 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
May 2024	Flash Flood	Kawaihae	-	All lanes were closed at the Kawaihae Road and Queen Kaahumanu Hwy intersection due to flooding at the bridges on both sides of the intersection.
August 2015	Flash Flood	Kawaihae	-	Four inches of water over the intersection of Kawaihae Road and Puukohola. Also, the Mauna Kea Apartment structure was inundated and residents were evacuated near the intersection of Kawaihae Road and Queen Kaahumanu.
October 2006	Flash Flood	Kawaihae	-	Akoni Pule Highway closed for a short time because of high water.
September 2022	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
September 2022	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
September 2021	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
September 2019	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
October 2018	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
January 2017	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
November 2017	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
December 2016	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
June 2015	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
April 2015	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
October 2015	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
February 2014	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
June 2014	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
September 2014	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
July 2013	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
July 2011	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
April 2010	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
March 2006	Flash Flood	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
January 2005	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
October 2004	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed
October 2004	Heavy Rain	Kawaihae	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hawaii County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

1 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site	0.2 miles	1972

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 07001173 in Record Group 79.
Hawaii County	All 107 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.