The land was purchased from the Kilauea Sugar Plantation Company in 1909 for one United States dollar. What the government got for its money was a narrow finger of lava rock protruding from Kauai's northernmost point, surrounded by churning surf and steep cliffs. The setting was ideal for a lighthouse and terrible for construction. No usable roads connected the site to the harbor at Nawiliwili, so all building materials had to arrive by sea. The lighthouse tender Kukui would anchor offshore, dispatch small boats to a cove near the point, and workers would anchor those boats to cleats cemented into the lava rocks. A boom derrick on a ledge above the water hoisted supplies to a loading platform 110 feet above the waterline. Every beam, every pane of glass, every component of the massive clamshell lens was lifted to the clifftop this way. The lighthouse was completed and lit in 1913, its lens so precisely engineered that it floated on 260 pounds of mercury, rotated by a weight-driven clockwork mechanism.

A radio beacon was added in 1930, and the light was converted from oil to electricity. Originally rated at 250,000 candlepower, the beacon was upgraded to an extraordinary 2,500,000 candlepower by 1958, making it visible far out to sea and serving as a primary navigation aid for ships and aircraft approaching the Hawaiian Islands from the north and west. The lighthouse stood as the northernmost point in the main Hawaiian chain, the first American light that transpacific travelers would encounter. Its role in the 1927 Maitland-Hegenberger flight was the most dramatic demonstration of its value, but for decades it served the quieter purpose of guiding freighters, fishing boats, and military vessels through waters where Kauai's north shore cliffs offered no safe harbor and few visual references at night.

In 1985, the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge was established around the lighthouse, starting with the original Coast Guard station and expanding to preserve the surrounding coastal habitat. A visitor center was built in 1988. Then Hurricane Iniki struck in September 1992, damaging the buildings and the lighthouse itself. Restoration repaired the structure but could not restore the lens to full operation. The original design required the clamshell lens to float on 260 pounds of liquid mercury so it could rotate smoothly, and modern understanding of mercury poisoning made that impractical. Today the lamp is lit only for ceremonial occasions and does not rotate. On May 1, 2013, the lighthouse's centennial anniversary, it was officially renamed the Daniel K. Inouye Kilauea Point Lighthouse in honor of the longtime U.S. Senator from Hawaii who had died the previous December.

The wildlife refuge that surrounds the lighthouse has become one of the premier seabird viewing sites in Hawaii. Laysan albatrosses, red-footed boobies, wedge-tailed shearwaters, great frigatebirds, and nene -- the endangered Hawaiian state bird -- nest on the cliffs and grassy slopes around the point. The location that made the promontory ideal for a lighthouse also makes it ideal for seabirds: exposed to open ocean winds, surrounded by productive fishing waters, and largely inaccessible to ground predators. From the visitor center, the spectacle of thousands of birds wheeling around the lighthouse tower against the backdrop of the open Pacific is one of the most striking wildlife experiences in the Hawaiian Islands. The lighthouse itself, its beacon now ceremonial, has been upstaged by the creatures that always shared its promontory. The light that once guided pilots and sailors across the Pacific now draws a different kind of visitor, one who comes not to navigate but to watch.