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 James Cook Captain James Cook (7 November 172814 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. Cook made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755. He saw action in the Seven Years' War and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the Saint