Qualla: Old Sugar Mill of Koloa https://qualla.com/old-sugar-mill-of-koloa en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:09 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/8/7/y/s/old-sugar-mill-of-koloa-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Old Sugar Mill of Koloa https://qualla.com/old-sugar-mill-of-koloa Old Sugar Mill of Koloa: Introduction https://qualla.com/old-sugar-mill-of-koloa/ Photo credit Rhilgendorff, CC BY-SA 3.0. A stone chimney and an overgrown trough are what remain of the mill that launched an empire. In 1835, three New England merchants founded a sugarcane plantation in Koloa, on the south shore of Kauai, and it worked. Not the first attempt at sugar in Hawaii, but the first to turn a profit. From that modest beginning grew the industry that would dominate the Hawaiian economy for more than a century and a half, transforming the islands' demographics, politics, and landscape beyond recognition.

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Image: Rhilgendorff | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/7/y/s/old-sugar-mill-of-koloa-wp/87ys-old-sugar-mill-of-koloa-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Old Sugar Mill of Koloa: Missionaries, Rum, and Ambition https://qualla.com/old-sugar-mill-of-koloa/ Photo credit Joel Bradshaw, Public domain. The idea of using Hawaiian soil for commercial agriculture had been floating around the mission stations for years. Joseph Goodrich at the Hilo mission and Samuel Ruggles at the Kona Mission had experimented with farming to support their work and employ their students. But sugarc...

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Image: Joel Bradshaw | Public domain

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/7/y/s/old-sugar-mill-of-koloa-wp/87ys-old-sugar-mill-of-koloa-missionaries-rum-and-ambition.mp3 0:06 2 full Old Sugar Mill of Koloa: The Workforce and Its Costs https://qualla.com/old-sugar-mill-of-koloa/ Photo credit Joel Bradshaw, Public domain. The plantation's early labor relations set a pattern that would repeat across Hawaii for generations. Managers expressed open contempt for Hawaiian laborers, and as the sugar industry expanded across the islands, planters turned to imported workers from China, Japan, Portugal, an...

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Image: Joel Bradshaw | Public domain

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/7/y/s/old-sugar-mill-of-koloa-wp/87ys-old-sugar-mill-of-koloa-the-workforce-and-its-costs.mp3 0:06 3 full Old Sugar Mill of Koloa: 161 Years of Sugar https://qualla.com/old-sugar-mill-of-koloa/ Photo credit Ed Goforth, CC BY 2.5. The plantation that Ladd and Company started in 1835 operated, under various owners, until 1996. Over those 161 years, the sugar industry drove nearly every major development in Hawaii: the overthrow of the monarchy, the push for annexation by the United States, the construction ...

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Image: Ed Goforth | CC BY 2.5

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/7/y/s/old-sugar-mill-of-koloa-wp/87ys-old-sugar-mill-of-koloa-161-years-of-sugar.mp3 0:06 4 full Old Sugar Mill of Koloa: What the Ruins Remember https://qualla.com/old-sugar-mill-of-koloa/ Photo credit Joel Bradshaw, Public domain. Today the Old Sugar Mill of Koloa is a ruin that speaks more eloquently than most monuments. The stone chimney rises above a tangle of vegetation, and a bronze sculpture by Jan Gordon Fisher commemorates the workers who built the industry. A National Historic Landmark plaque, pla...

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Image: Joel Bradshaw | Public domain

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/7/y/s/old-sugar-mill-of-koloa-wp/87ys-old-sugar-mill-of-koloa-what-the-ruins-remember.mp3 0:06 5 full