The lighthouse board reasoned that a light at the site would assist in landfall for ships approaching from Cape Horn and the newly opened Panama Canal.

Nonetheless, these requests were not heeded until 1928, when a 32 feet (9.8 m) wooden tower was erected, with an automatic acetylene beacon.

[5] Cape Kumukahi lies at the end of the east rift zone of the slopes of Kilauea, and the light was threatened several times by eruptions.

The most serious threat came from the 1960 eruption which destroyed the town of Kapoho; lava flows continued downslope toward the light, and destroyed the keepers' houses and an orchard which Joe Pestrella, who had been keeper there since 1938, had planted by the light station;[1] but when the lava reached the tower, it split into two streams and flowed into the sea to either side, sparing the structure.

In addition, NOAA maintains a sampling facility for the Global Monitoring Division of the Earth System Research Laboratories on the grounds of the light, as the trade winds bring fresh oceanic air to the site at all times.