Kauai

Kauai or Kauai is geologically the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands. With an area of 562.3sqmi, it is the fourth largest of these islands and the 21st largest island in the United States. Known also as the "Garden Isle", Kauai lies 105mi across the Kauai Channel, northwest of Oahu. This island is the site of Waimea Canyon State Park.The United States Census Bureau defines Kauai as census tracts 401 through 409 of Kauai County, Hawaii, which comprises all of the county except for the islands of Ka'ula, Lehua and Niihau. The 2010 United States Census population of the island was 67,091. The most populous town was Kapaa.HistoryIn 1778, Captain James Cook arrived at Waimea Bay, the first European known to have reached the Hawaiian islands. He named the archipelago after his patron the 6th Earl of Sandwich, George Montagu.During the reign of King Kamehameha, the islands of Kauai and Niihau were the last Hawaiian Islands to join his Kingdom of Hawaii. Their ruler, Kaumualii, resisted Kamehameha for years. King Kamehameha twice prepared a huge armada of ships and canoes to take the islands by force, and twice failed; once due to a storm, and once due to an epidemic. In the face of the threat of a further invasion, however, Kaumualii decided to join the kingdom without bloodshed, and became Kamehameha's vassal in 1810. He ceded the island to the Kingdom of Hawaii upon his death in 1824.