Kualoa Ranch is the landowner of Kaʻaʻawa Valley, also commonly known as Kualoa Valley, on the windward coast of the island of Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi. This place was sacred to ancient Oahuans from the 13th to the 18th century, as it was where Laʻa-mai-kahiki settled after visiting Kauaʻi and before returning to Tahiti. It was also the site of the sacred drums of Kapahuula and Kaahu-ulapunawai as well as the sacred Hill of Kauakahi-a-Kahoʻowaha, the key to the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Oahu.
Kualoa Ranch is open for tourist activities such as horseback riding and hiking, but is best known as a film location for productions such as Jurassic Park, Mighty Joe Young, Pearl Harbor, Windtalkers, Godzilla, and Lost.
It is located at coordinates on Kamehameha Highway, Hawaii State Route 83,[1] between Kaaawa and Waikane.
A sugar plantation was started here by Gerrit P. Judd in the 19th-century, operated by his son-in-law Samuel Garner Wilder. It was the site of Kualoa Airfield during World War II.[2] The entire ahupuaʻa (traditional land division of ancient Hawaii) was added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Oahu as the Kualoa Ahupua'a Historical District, site 74000718 on October 16, 1974.[3]