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Kauai Island: Sugar Field ToursHawaii's Plantation History: Historic Farm Tours on Kauai
Kauai is known as the place where the sugar cane industry in Hawaii was born. Once the industrial mainstay of the Kauai economy it is still part of the island's heritage.
Kauai used to be the sugar capital of Hawaii. The beautiful island is smaller, less populated and much less developed than Oahu, Maui or the Big Island. It feels rural and quaint, a sense of its plantation past still lingers in the air, especially when the roosters crow at dawn. The locals say, that the chickens were freed from captivity by the winds of hurricane Iniki and have roamed free ever since. Kauai's Plantation HistoryIn 1865 Kauai-raised George Norton Wilcox leased a struggling farm near Lihue and built it into a thriving sugar plantation. Wilcox became an enterprising innovator, a leader in Hawaiian politics and a philanthropist. He founded the island's first community hospital. Wilcox's Grove Farm grew to a plantation of 22,000 acres. For over a century, sugarcane was Hawaii's leading economic activity providing its major source of employment and tax revenues. Chinese, Japanese, Puerto Rican, Korean and Portuguese immigrants worked the fields owned by Americans and Europeans, creating Hawaii's remarkable cultural melting pot. Over the last three decades the sugar industry collapsed as protective tariffs were withdrawn and cheaper sugar from oversees entered the US market. Now many of the former farms participate in agritourism offering tours with an educational experience. Grove FarmToday Grove Farm on Nawiliwili Road in Lihue is a historic plantation museum. At Grove Farm Homestead Museum informative walking tours of the buildings, gardens and grounds are offered for small groups. They are led by Kauai residents familiar with life on the island. Gay & Robinson Sugar PlantationThe Gay & Robinson Visitor Center and Museum is the Field Office of the only remaining operating sugar plantation near Waimea on the west side of Kaua’i. There are photo albums and artefacts on display relating to plantation life. They document the history of Gay & Robinson Inc., Olokele Sugar Co., Hawaiian Sugar Co. and Makaweli Ranch. Visitors are guided through the factory and fields, viewing how sugar goes from the soil to the package on the shelf. Kilohana PlantationThe beautiful estate at Kilohana just west of Lihue offers a fascinating example of the upscale existence by those who owned and managed the land. Gaylord Wilcox, Albert Wilcox's nephew, managed the estate. He and his wife Ethel built "Kilohana" (meaning "unsurpassed" in Hawaiian) to showcase their status. Renowned architect Mark Potter built the 16,000 sq.ft. Tudor style home for them. With its shops and galleries, the elegant Gaylord's Restaurant, and an array of tours catering to different budgets and time constraints, Kilohana might be considered a tourist trap by some, but it is beautiful and sheds light on a time that shaped Kaua'i. Kilohana's Kaua'i Plantation Railway takes visitors through the plantation on the same tracks where steam trains shuffled workers to the fields and brought the sugar cane to the mills. There is a 40-minute narrated tour offered five times daily and a longer Train-Hike-Lunch-Tour once a day. Gaylord's Restaurant at KilohanaGaylord's Restaurant is a Kaua'i institution. Its menu features Hawaii's finest fresh foods, including island fish, locally grown produce and Kauai coffees. The spectacular Luau Kalamaku at Kilohana is a 4-hour-experience, including a ride on the Plantation Railway, a Conch Shell Ceremony, dinner catered by Gaylord's Restaurant and a theatrical luau show with local performers. Gay & Robinson's Sugar Plantation Visitor Center Read about Kaua'i's early residents and its history: Donald Donohugh: The Story of Koloa: A Hawaii Plantation Town, 2001. An excellent account of oral histories, diaries and letters by Koloa elders, first sailors and plantation workers.
The copyright of the article Kauai Island: Sugar Field Tours in Hawaii Travel is owned by Christine Welter. Permission to republish Kauai Island: Sugar Field Tours in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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