Nīnole (also spelled Hinole, Ninole, or Ninoli) is the name of two

unincorporated communities An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

on the island of

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

Hawaii County Hawaiʻi County (; officially known as the County of Hawaiʻi) is a county in the U.S. state of Hawaii in the Hawaiian Islands. It is coextensive with the Island of Hawaiʻi, often called the "Big Island" to distinguish it from the state as a wh ...

, United States. In the

Hawaiian language Hawaiian (', ) is a critically endangered Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family, originating in and native to the Hawaiian Islands. It is the native language of the Hawaiian people. Hawaiian, along with English, is an offi ...

''Nīnole'' means "bending". Nīnole also has the highest percentage of people of Italian descent in Hawaii.

Kaū

One Nīnole is in the Kaū District south of Route 11 (Hawaii Belt Road) adjacent to the south of Punaluu Beach. It was on Nīnole Cove, a small bay at the shore of what is now Sea Mountain Golf Course. The village was the birthplace of Henry Ōpūkahaia (1792–1818) who inspired the missionary movement that forever changed Hawaii. It was mostly destroyed by a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

after the

1868 Hawaii earthquake The 1868 Hawaiʻi earthquake was the largest recorded in the history of Hawaii island, with an estimated magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). The earthquake occurred at 4 p.m. local time on April 2, 1868, and ...

. Its elevation is 85 feet (26 m). Because the community has borne multiple names, the

Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal gover ...

officially designated it "Nīnole" in 2000.

Hāmākua

The other Nīnole is on the Hāmākua Coast north of

Hilo Hilo () is the largest settlement in and the county seat of Hawaii County, Hawaiʻi, United States, which encompasses the Island of Hawaiʻi, and is a census-designated place (CDP). The population was 44,186 according to the 2020 census. I ...

along Route 19 (Māmalahoa Highway) south of Pāpaʻaloa and north of Hakalau. It has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

with the ZIP code 96773. It is located at . Retrieved November 8, 2010.

References

Italian-American culture Unincorporated communities in Hawaii County, Hawaii Populated places on Hawaii (island) Unincorporated communities in Hawaii {{Hawaii-geo-stub