It isn’t easy to find Fort Elizabeth just outside of Waimea on the island of Kauai.  It used to be named “Fort Elizabeth Historical State Park.”  That is still on the maps handed out by car rental companies and the tourist association. It is what Google tells me to look for.   But if I was looking for that I would have driven right past.  The park is now named Pa’ula’ula (“red enclosure” in Hawaiian).  All reference to Russia has been removed from the road signs but is still on the interpretive signs.  The State changed the name after Russia invaded Ukraine, but the name change is really part of a larger “de-colonialization” process.   If I hadn’t remembered that the Hawaiian name started with a “P” and had some apostrophes I would have driven right by.

I understand the indigenous Hawaiian desire for decolonization.  The same thing is happening in Sitka.  Sitka took its statue of Alexander Baranof, the Director of the Russian American Company (RAC) off its pedestal and put it in a museum.   Baranof elementary school was renamed Xόots (Brown Bear) and castle Hill is now also identified in interpretive signs by its original Tlingit name Noow Tlein.    

There have been some strange shenanigans surrounding the park’s renaming including the involvement of an alleged Russian spy.  I’m not going to try to explain it, and no one source will give you the whole story but google “Russian Fort in Hawaii” and you will find some bizarre stuff.   Here is one example.    https://www.sfgate.com/hawaii/article/hawaii-kauai-russian-fort-paulaula-19829530.php

In the early 19^th century Alexander Baranof ran a trading empire from Sitka with tentacles stretching to outposts westward in Kodiak and the Aleutians southeast to Fort Ross in Northern California (which the RAC sold to John Sutter in 1841, timing is everything) and southwest to Kauai.  The episcopal see in Sitka included the Russian Far East.

The Russian American Company was interested in Hawaii as a source of food for Sitka and source of sandalwood to supplement its sea otter fur trade with China.

King Kaumuali’i of Kauai was trying to maintain independence for his island from King Kamehameha, who was trying to unite all of Hawaii under his rule.  When Captain Yuri Lisiansky (a name familiar to Alaska friends in Pelican) arrived in Waimea Bay Kaumauali’i offered to put his island under Russian protection if Lisiansky would help him against Kamehameha.  Lisiansky declined the offer. 

Russian ships frequently traded with the Hawaiian Islands.  Baranof had good trading relations Kamehameha who sent food to Sitka in return for furs and was credited with saving Sitka from famine.

In 1815 Baranof dispatched Georg Schaffer to Hawaii to establish a post and to recover goods held by Kaumauali’i after the Russian ship “Bering” ran aground. 

Schaffer first met with Kamehameha who was friendly but offered him no assistance.  On Kauai Kaumauali’i (who had agreed to submit to Kamehameha in 1810 but broke the treaty two years later) met Schaffer.  Seeing an opportunity, he offered to place his kingdom under Russian Protection.  Shaffer agreed, signed a treaty, and built two small posts on Hanalei Bay on the north shore of Kauai (near to the lookout that we described in the last post) and designed a stone fort for Waimea Bay.  Schaffer used a modified star layout based on an Italian model.  The walls were erected by 300 Hawaiian laborers.  There are some reports of a small Orthodox church built in the fort.  If true, this would have been the first Orthodox church in Hawaii.

The Tsar and the Russian American Company in St. Petersburg denied the request to establish a protectorate and ordered Baranof to fire Shaffer.  When word reached Hawaii Schaffer was ejected from the country and in October 1817 the Hawaiian flag replaced the Russian flag at the fort. 

The only time the Fort saw battle was when the forces of Kamehameha II defended it against an insurgency led by the son of Kaumauali’i.  The Shaffer affair was partially responsible for the RAC sending a delegation to Sitka to investigate Baranof and replace him.  He was relieved of his post in 1818 at the age of 71.     

Today the red rock walls are crumbling and overgrown, returning to the soil, but you can still see the outline and even the steps up to the top.

A new statue to Kaumauali’I was raised in the park in March, 2021 is now one of its main features.