Kalaupapa Lighthouse
featured in fed giveaway

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By Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.com

Bryan Harry has waited for this opportunity for years.

The National Park Service is getting the chance to gain control of the Kalaupapa Lighthouse and the land under it from other federal agencies. The Park Service already owns the surrounding land and structures, including the lighthouse keeper's home.

COURTESY PHOTO The Kalaupapa Lighthouse on Molokai is one of 20 sites being offered for free.

"The lighthouse is an integral component of the park. It's on the national register, as are the surrounding buildings," said Harry, National Park Service General Superintendent of Parks in the Pacific. "It would be hard for them to give it to anybody else."

The Kalaupapa Lighthouse is among 20 being offered for free by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Coast Guard to other federal agencies, state and local governments, nonprofit corporations and community development organizations for park, recreation, cultural, historic and educational use.

Six are being featured in Parade magazine in Sunday's Star-Bulletin.

This is the latest round in the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Program "giveaway."

There are nearly 300 lighthouses and light stations the government no longer needs. In the first round of the giveaway this summer, the government transferred ownership of six properties in Florida, Georgia, Maine, Michigan and New York, primarily to nonprofit organizations.

Eventually all of the facilities will be offered. Interested parties need to submit a letter to the U.S. Department of the Interior for a specific lighthouse within 60 days of its posting, which in the case of Kalaupapa is Sunday.

The program requires the new owners to maintain the facilities as functioning lighthouses according to strict historic preservation guidelines and to open the facilities to the public.

State Health Director Bruce Anderson believes the Park Service is the logical agency to take control of the Kalaupapa Lighthouse.

"I would hope that if NPS isn't willing to maintain it, then we find some other group to maintain it in its current condition," Anderson said.

The state Health Department maintains the Kalaupapa Settlement for 43 Hansen's disease patients. As department director, Anderson is mayor of Kalawao County, which includes the settlement and the Kalaupapa Peninsula.

At 138 feet, the lighthouse is the tallest in the Pacific. Harry also considers it the nicest.

Construction of the octagonal tower was completed in 1909. Its lamp was turned on Sept. 1 of that year, sending beams of light from a rotating lens that could be seen from 21 miles away. In 1966 the lighthouse was automated with the installation of a new strobe light.

The lighthouse is in the middle of the 10,726 acres of the Kalaupapa National Historic Park, which includes the Kalaupapa Peninsula and three nearby valleys. The Park Service and the state Health Department share joint management of the area.

The two agencies signed another 20-year joint management agreement earlier this month.

Access to Kalaupapa requires sponsorship from a resident or state Health Department or Park Service escort.