Cook Landing Site (Waimea) Cook Landing Site (Waimea) The Cook Landing Site in Waimea on Kauai island in Hawaii, is where Captain James Cook landed at the mouth of the Waimea River on January 20, 1778. Cook was the first European reported to have sighted the Hawaiian Islands, and the January 20 landfall on southwestern Kauai was his first arrival upon Hawaiian soil. Cook Landing Site was registered as a National Historic Landmark on December 29, 1962. Hofgaard Park is a small county park in Waimea, a few blocks from the actual landing, that commemorates the historic events of Cook's landing. It is suspected
James Cook Ayer James Cook Ayer James Cook Ayer (5 May 1818 in Groton, Connecticut – 3 July 1878 in Winchendon, Massachusetts) was the wealthiest patent medicine businessman of his day. At the age of 13, he moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, and resided there with his uncle. Ayer was also brother of wealthy industrialist Frederick Ayer. His education was obtained at the public schools, where at one time he was a classmate of Gen. Butler, and subsequently at the Westford Academy, after which he was apprenticed to James C. Robbins, a druggist in Lowell. While there he studied medicine, and later he graduated