HIGenWeb Counties
Hawaii County consists of the "big island" of Hawaii, with over half the state's total land area. It is the site of Mauna Kea, the tallest unbroken base-to-peak mountain in the World, and the famous active volcanos Mauna Loa and Kilauea.
Date Created: 1905
County Seat: Hilo
County Coordinator: Doreen Harunaga-Ewing
County Coordinator: Honolulu County (officially known as the City and County of Honolulu, formerly Oahu County) consists of the island of Oahu, and the entire Hawaiian Archipelago northwest of Kauai County except the Midway Islands, which are not part of the State of Hawaii. Honolulu County includes the overwhelming majority of the state's population. It is also the nation's longest county, extending over 1300 miles from Kure to the southeastern tip of Oahu.
Date Created: 1905
County Seat: Honolulu
County Coordinator: Doreen Harunaga-Ewing
Kalawao County consisted of Father Damien's famous Molokai Leper Colony which, due to the nature of the disease, allowed no contact with the outside world and required a separate, independent county administration, which was mostly merged into Maui County in the 1970's and 1980's. Now that Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) is treatable, the Colony is closing and becoming Kalaupapa National Historic Park. This county does still officially exist, however, and is the nation's smallest in area, at 13 square miles, and in population, currently around 60.
Date Created: 1905
County Seat: Kalaupapa
County Coordinator: Doreen Harunaga-Ewing
Kauai county consists of the islands of Kauai and Nii'hau.
Kauai is the oldest and northernmost island within the hawaiian island chain.
It is know as the "Garden Isle" because of the 300 plus inches of rain the center of the island receives annually resulting in tropical rainforests, forking rivers and cascading waterfalls.
Nii'hau is known as “The Forbidden Island” in Hawaii.
A single family has owned the island for more than 150 years and — even though it’s only 17 miles from resort-lined Kauai — Niihau remains surprisingly insulated from the outside world.
Date Created: 1905
County Seat: Lihue
County Coordinator: Bob Jenkins
Maui county consists of the islands of Maui, Lanai, Molokai and Kaho'olawe.
Maui takes its name from a Polynesian demigod. It was created by two volcanoes, Puu Kukui and Haleakala, which constitute east and west peninsulas connected by a 7-mile- (11-km-) wide valleylike isthmus that has earned Maui the nickname of the “valley isle.” In the early 1820s both whalers and missionaries began to arrive. Whaling began to decline in the 1860s as the sugar industry grew. About a century later, sugar was supplanted by tourism. Lanai..... On its northern side is Shipwreck Beach, known for its offshore wreck of a WWII tanker, plus views of Molokai and Maui islands. In the northwest, long, secluded Polihua Beach attracts green turtles. Humpback whales sometimes appear past its shoreline. Inland is the Garden of the Gods, a lunar landscape of rock towers and boulders.
Molokai - On the island's northern Kalaupapa Peninsula is a steep path leading to Kalaupapa National Historical Park, an isolated former leper colony below towering cliffs. Kahoʻolawe is the smallest of the eight main volcanic islands in the Hawaiian Islands. Kahoʻolawe is located about seven miles southwest of Maui and also southeast of Lanai, and it is 11 mi long by 6.0 mi wide. For years was used as a bombing range by the US Navy.
Date Created: 1905
County Seat: Wailuku
County Coordinator: Bob Jenkins