Captain George Vancouver Monument

This monument marks the landing of British explorer Captain George Vancouver on the shores of Maui. Vancouver visited the Hawaiian islands three times in the seventeen nineties, charting the coasts and meeting the chiefs. He anchored along this Kihei shoreline and found western Maui ravaged by years of warfare between rival chiefs.

He enjoyed good relations with the leaders he met, among them Kamehameha. Vancouver's most lasting gift came in seventeen ninety-three, when he presented Kamehameha with a few head of cattle. Those animals, protected by royal decree, multiplied into vast wild herds.

Within a generation they gave rise to the paniolo, the Hawaiian cowboy, and to a ranching tradition that still shapes the islands today. The monument here commemorates his visit and his gifts to the islands.