Puako Beach

Another part of Hawaii Island I recently learned more about was the little community along the South Kohala Coast is Puako. Puako is very rich in history and still shows it to this day the living history that it has to offer those who explore it. Over the years, Puako started as a little fishing then began to flourish into a sugar plantation farm, then evolved the honey farms, and later became a feeding station for cattle drives coming down from the ranches around Kohala. Years later, it was turn into a residential community which was subdivided into 160 lots in days of the Territory of Hawaii and sold for at least $1,000 or more each and homes were built on those lots within 5 years of purchase. Still, to this day, those house still stand as contemporary part of Puako's history.

Since then, Puako's residential community flourished as well from a quiet little village into a multi-million dollar paradise for oceanfront homes along the one of the most luxuries coastline on Hawaii Island. Puako hasn't averted disasters over the years as well, one most recent scenario was back in October 2007, where a major brush fire threaten the small community and caused a major evacuation of all residents during the Hawaii Fire Departments battle to contain it from destroying any homes in Puako. Fire was deemed in suspicious since 7 other brush fires occurred at the same time burning thousands of acres in the South Kohala district. Another disaster that they faced was Tsunamis. March 2011 was probably most well known one to hit Hawaii Island, causing millions of dollars in damage along the Kona-Kohala Coast. But since then, Puako has recovered and done many things to prepare themselves for emergencies that were to occur again in the future.

If you do plan on visiting the Puako beach area in the future, please be mindful and also respectful to the residents in the area as you are walking into their backyards.