Located in the district of South Kona, about 20 minutes south of Kailua-Kona, the town of Captain Cook is nestled in the Kona coffee belt and covers around 12 square miles with a population of approximately 3,400 people. Before the 1960s much of the land in the area was part of the Kealakekua Ranch, originally founded by Henry Greenwell in the 1850s.
The town was originally named after the British explorer, Captain James Cook, who was killed on the shores of nearby Kealakekua Bay in 1779. The town was so-named due to the fact that the post office for the district was located in the Captain Cook Coffee Company building in the early 1900s, and so became the Captain Cook post office. The Captain Cook Coffee Company dominated the coffee industry in the area at the time by acting as one of the intermediaries between the coffee farmers and the coffee market.
The Captain Cook Monument, which is a white obelisk 27 feet in height, was installed in 1874 and is located near the site of his death. The land on which the obelisk sits is in fact owned in the name of the British Consul General. Inverted cannons surround the monument and were added along with a number of coconut trees. In the area behind the obelisk, within the forest, are the ruins of the ancient Hawaiian village of Ka’awaloa. Access to the obelisk is via the Ka’awaloa Trail, a 3.6 mile hike down to Kealakekua Bay.
In early 2022 a resolution petitioning to rename Captain Cook as Ka’awaloa did not precede past the committee stage. The resolution would have renamed the area for its original historical name. However, the measure was deferred indefinitely. Prior to Captain Cook’s arrival the area was known as Ka’awaloa for the Hawaiian village as well as the royal residence which was also in the area.
