Visitors to Pu‘uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, the popular City of Refuge on South Kona’s shores, now have access to a trail that runs through the historic lands of South Kona’s Kauleoli Fishing Village.

The 59-acre Kauleoli Fishing Village is the first historic site to be acquired by the Trust for Public Land and transferred to the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail, a unit of the National Park Service, which was formed in 2000. The purchase is part of an effort to preserve the 175-mile corridor of the King’s Trail. The ancient trail runs from Upolu Point on Hawaii island’s northern tip down the Kona Coast and around South Point to the eastern boundary of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in Puna. It traverses hundreds of ancient Hawaiian settlement sites and over 200 ahupuaa, traditional sea-to-mountain land divisions.

The purchase, which was completed using $3.5 million in federal Land and Water Conservation Funds, extends public access to the King’s Trail at the City of Refuge, which is a popular cultural and tourist spot. In ancient times the puuhonua provided refuge for rule breakers, who could elude the death penalty by reaching its shores. Walkers can now access a 1.5-mile stretch of ancient pathways from the fishing village of Kiilae at the southern border of the puuhonua.

“It seems more and more visitors are interested in hiking and getting off the beaten path. Because the entrance is through Pu‘uhonua o Honaunau, I think this will be a popular hike,” said Laura Kaakua, Native Lands project manager for The Trust for Public Land. “It gives visitors a much richer experience.”

Kaakua said this latest step is only part of a broader effort to get as much of the King’s Trail opened to the public as possible. Next up is the Kaunamano property along the Kau coastline where Kaakua said the late Mary Kawena Pukui spent her summers gathering and drying fish with her tutu.

“Because she grew up in Kau, Mary Kawena Pukui had a special aloha for the place, and much of the information that we have about it is from her writing,” she said. “It was once a thriving fishing village, but no one lives there anymore.”

The trust works with local and Native Hawaiian communities to protect the places that are most important to their identity, Kaakua said. Since 1972 The Trust for Public Land has protected more than 3.3 million acres and completed more than 5,400 park and conservation projects. Federal funding made the most recent Kauleoli purchase possible.

“We hope it will be available for other projects as well. Support from Hawaii’s congressional delegation was the key,” she said.

The trust began discussing preservation of Kauleoli with its former private landowner Tom Pace as far back as 2010, Kaakua said.

“The acquisition of the Kauleoli Fishing Village is a compelling example of how federal investment from the Land and Water Conservation Fund protects Hawaii’s natural and cultural resources,” U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono said in a press release. “As a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I worked to pass legislation to permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and I will keep pushing to see that the president signs it into law.”

Plans for Kauleoli’s entire 59-acre site are in development, but the trail extension opens immediately. Kaakua said preserving Kauleoli allows the public to experience and appreciate the mastery of traditional Hawaiian dry-stack masons, trail building, agricultural terracing and salt gathering and drying — examples of the cultural richness of South Kona.

“The trail provides a good example of how life was back in ancient days and how resourceful the people were,” she said. “Maintenance and care of the trail was a cultural practice just as it is today. Every island had a coastal trail; it was how you went to see your family and how taxes were collected. This is a rare glimpse of a coastal trail that has not been paved over.”

Kaakua said safeguarding Kauleoli provides a crucial habitat for threatened and endemic species such as green sea turtles, migrating humpback whales, opae ula and the Orangeblack Hawaiian damselflies that live in pools formed in lava basins on the shore. It also protects the culture of the people who once lived in the neighborhood.

“Permanently protecting Kauleoli and removing the development threat allows descendants to reconnect in meaningful ways — they can literally walk the path of their ancestors,” she said.

The purchase is important to Kaleo Paik, an Ala Kahakai Trail Association board member whose Kauleoli roots go back seven generations from her great-great grandfather to her own grandchildren, who now walk the trail with her.

“I am so relieved and grateful that Kauleoli is protected, and that with the support of Ala Kahakai NHT, we can always maintain our connection to this coastline where my ancestors helped to build the trail, where my ‘ohana is buried, and where my dad was raised,” Paik said in a press release.

Prior to the purchase some locals avoided the trail because access required crossing private lands, said Dennis Hart, a descendent of Kauleoli and the Ala Kahakai Trail Association president.

“My mom walked the hard walk back to Ki‘ilae before she died. She started rocking and pounding her chest and sobbing, ‘Uwe uwe.’ I held her. She told me you have to take care of this place, our ancestors are buried here,” Hart said in a press release.