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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Honuapo

ghost town on the island of Hawaii

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ54871788 ↗
Source-derived summary

Honuapo or Honuʻapo is a ghost town on the island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It was a thriving port town from the 1870s to the 1930s. The port was used to transport Colocasia esculenta (taro), and sugarcane. Little of the town remains today other than the pier, which was destroyed in 1946 by a tsunami.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Honuapo” as ghost town on the island of Hawaii. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Honuapo, ghost and town.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1946—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Honuapo, ghost and town providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Honuapo”, the useful work is to connect “ghost town on the island of Hawaii” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q54871788. Authority coordinates are 19.088, -155.548. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1946.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Honuapo”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Honuapo primary sources, Honuapo archive and Honuapo research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Honuapo”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Honuapo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.