In 1933, 11 sugar plantations operated on Kauai: Kilauea, Kipu, Koloa, Lihue, Grove Farm, Makee, McBryde, (Hawaiian Sugar Co. until 1941, then renamed Olokele), Gay & Robinson, Waimea and Kekaha.
Then, beginning with Makee Sugar Co. in 1934, and ending with Gay & Robinson in 2009, all these plantations closed.
Plantation employees and their families lived in camps, of which only Gay & Robinson’s Kaumakani and Pakala camps exist today.
Among these camps were: Ahukini Camp, razed 1960s.
Camp 35 on Olohena Road below Kapaa Stable Camp on Kaapuni Road.
Grove Farm’s Puhi Camp, built circa 1917, occupied part of what is now the campus of Kauai Community College.
Halehaka Camp on Halehaka Road, Lihue, a short distance downhill from Japanese graveyard.
Hanamaulu Camp, laid out in the early 1900s.
Kapaa Stable Camp, just mauka of the intersection of Kaapuni and Olohena roads, where my wife, Ginger, and our children resided during 1971.
Kaumakani Camp, constructed in 1947 to replace camp housing erected in 1888.
Kealia Camp, Kealia.
Kekaha Sugar’s Pah On Camp, Mana, below Niu Valley, a community of Chinese immigrant men.
Kilauea Sugar’s Down Camp below the mill, and Up Camp.
Kilipaki Camp, near Lihue mill, later called Korean Camp.
Kipu Sugar Co. camps Halfway Bridge, Aakukui, Seki, Rice and Huleia Valley.
Koloa Sugar Co.: Stable Camp, by the Koloa mill; Portuguese Camp, alongside the road leading from town directly to the mill; Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Filipino camps.
Kumukumu Camp off Kealia Road above Kealia.
Lihue Camp, razed early 1960s, situated south of Poinciana Street, extending southward nearly to the mill.
Lihue Camp A, now a residential neighborhood once the property of Lihue Plantation, behind Kentucky Fried Chicken; streets named after Kauai servicemen KIA during World War II.
Mana Camp, located along the Waimea side of Kaumualii Highway, about midway between PMRF and Kamokala Ridge.
McBryde camps 1 through 7 at Wahiawa, and Numila and Camp 9 by the McBryde mill.
McBryde Sugar Co.’s Camp 11, atop the western edge of Lawai Gulch above Lawai Bay.
Pakala Camp at Pakala.
Pueo Camp, southeast quadrant of the Kapaa Bypass turnabout.
Waimea Sugar Mill Camp, Waimea town.