Pu’uhonua o Honaunau

Nearly a half-million visitors each year come to this park on Hawai’i Island to attend demonstrations of traditional Hawaiian arts and crafts, hike a historic trail to important archeological sites associated with the highest chiefs and priests, or just soak up the atmosphere of this sacred place. In 2001, after local residents and Native Hawaiians throughout the islands protested the planned development of 238 acres on the edge of the park, The Trust for Public Land stepped in and purchased the land. Transferred to the National Park Service in 2006, the additional more than doubled the size of the park while preserving important burial grounds, the ancient fishing village of Ki’ilae, and a section of the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail.