Old Sugar Mill of Koloa

The ruins of the Old Sugar Mill of Koloa stand at the north edge of town as a compact but resonant memorial to Hawaii's plantation era. What remains is the stone chimney stack and the shell of the mill building, preserved in place since the mill closed in 1996. Bronze statues of the ethnic groups who worked the plantation — Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Portuguese, and Hawaiian workers — stand nearby, one of the more honest acknowledgements of the plantation labour system that you'll find anywhere in the state.

The site is free to visit and takes about 20 minutes. A short interpretive trail explains the sugar-making process and the mill's history. It's worth combining with a look at Koloa town itself, which retains several original plantation-era buildings along its main street — small wooden storefronts that predate the resort development of Poipū by several decades.

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A story
When the Ladd & Company mill started crushing cane here in 1835, it launched an industry that would reshape Hawaii more profoundly than almost any other force: within decades, sugar plantations covered the islands, and the labour demands brought waves of contract workers from China, Japan, Portugal, Korea, and the Philippines whose descendants make up much of Hawaii's present population. The mill itself ran until 1996 — 161 years of continuous operation.

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