Hanalei Bay Pier

The wetlands of Hanalei Bay were used to grow taro by ancient Hawaiians. By the 1860s, the shrinking population of native Hawaiians was being replaced by ethnic Chinese people when their contracts expired on sugar plantations in Hawaii, such as the one directly to the north in Princeville. The new crop was rice, which was shipped to Honolulu to become the second largest export crop of the islands. After the annexation of Hawaii to the US in 1898, Hawaiian rice could not compete with rice grown in California and shipments declined. The pier was originally built of wood before 1892. In the early 1900s work began to extend the pier, and it was eventually lengthened to 340 feet (100 m) in 1912. In 1921 the legislature authorized US$25,000 for a new concrete deck, as the wooden deck was too difficult to maintain in the tropical climate. Conney and Morris were selected as contractors, and finished the construction of the new deck by the end of 1922. A shed roof was constructed at the far end of the pier in the 1940s.