The Hanapēpē River is a river on the Hawaiian island of
Kauai
Kauai (), anglicized as Kauai ( or ), is one of the main Hawaiian Islands.
It has an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), making it the fourth-largest of the islands and the 21st-largest island in the United States. Kauai lies 73 m ...
. It begins at the confluence of the
Kō'ula River with the Manuahi Stream and flows generally south, with a total length of
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
accessed November 10, 2019 to its mouth at
Hanapepe and
Eleele in the Pacific Ocean. The watershed covers an area of 27.7 square miles, draining roughly a twentieth of the island. The name Hanapepe translates to "crushed bay," which may refer to landslides in the area.
The river drains the fertile Hanapepe Valley, a region that was historically used for growing rice, taro, coffee, and sugarcane.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the valley attracted Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Filipino immigrant workers, many of whom started their own farms or businesses.
More recently, the Hanapepe Valley was used for filming parts of the 1993
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...
film ''
Jurassic Park
''Jurassic Park'', later referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton, centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of De-extinction#Cloning, cloned dinosaurs. It bega ...
''.
Near its mouth in Hanapepe, the river passes under the Hanapepe Swinging Bridge. The footbridge was built in 1911 to provide Hanapepe residents with a way to cross the river, and was restored in 1992 after
Hurricane Iniki
Hurricane Iniki ( ; Hawaiian: ''iniki'' meaning "strong and piercing wind") was a hurricane that struck the island of Kauai on September 11, 1992. It was the most powerful hurricane to strike Hawaii in recorded history, and the only hurricane to ...
. Considered a local tourist attraction, the bridge is popular with children due to its tendency to rock back and forth.
References
External links
Rivers of Kauai
{{Hawaii-river-stub