Waimea Pier, 1976

Back in 1976, the Kauai Historical Society gave me a list of sites to photograph for the book "The Kauai Album", including the Waimea Pier. Built in 1865 on the site of Captain Cook's first landing 77 years earlier, the pier originally served the whaling industry and, later, livestock and sugar. The pier served for decades as an active port-of-call for whaling ships and inter-island trade. At the time, Waimea was a vital maritime hub, with goods such as sugar, sweet potatoes, and livestock moving through its shoreline to support nearby plantation communities like Kekaha and Makaweli. As larger, deep-water harbors developed at Port Allen and Nawiliwili in the early 20th century, commercial activity gradually shifted away.