THE SUGAR MONUMENT

KOLOA, KAUAI

The Sugar Monument is located behind a beautiful shower tree across the street from old Koloa Town’s shops. This monument commemorates Hawaii’s first commercial sugar plantation beginning in 1835 in Koloa. In the mid 1800’s, sugar replaced the whaling and sandalwood industries to become the principal industry of Hawaii.

As a result of the sugar industry’s boom, approximately 350,000 immigrants from around the world came to Hawaii to work in the sugar plantations. Although tourism supplanted sugar as Hawaii’s major industry (Kauai’s last sugar mill closed in 1995), the legacy of the era lives on in the unique ethnic diversity of Hawaii’s people today.

The Sugar Monument itself is a circular, concrete sculpture suggesting a mill stone. Inside, there is a captivating bronze sculpture depicting the eight principal ethnic groups that brought the sugar industry to life (Hawaiian, Caucasian, Puerto Rican, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, and Filipino). The sculpture opens up to face the remnants of the Koloa sugar mill’s stone chimney, built in 1841.

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> Learn more about the Koloa Heritage Trail