Wailuku, HI

The Battle of Kepaniwai took place in ʻĪao Valley in 1790, when Kamehameha defeated Kalanikūpule and the Maui army during his campaign to unify the islands. Wailuku stands at the valley’s mouth, just west of Kahului, and serves as the Maui County seat; it had 17,697 residents in 2020. The community lies at the base of the West Maui Volcano on the northern edge of the isthmus connecting East and West Maui. Its built history includes Kaʻahumanu Church, dating to 1876, and the Wailuku Civic Center Historic District. The nineteenth-century Bailey House, once a seminary and residence, now contains a museum of Hawaiian and missionary-era materials and the Maui Historical Society. Nearby Halekiʻi and Pihanakalani heiau preserve much older Native Hawaiian religious sites.