KILAUEA, Kaua'i — A devoted band of Kilauea Point Lighthouse lovers aims to restore the rapidly deteriorating structure that has guarded Hawai'i's northernmost coastline for almost 100 years.

"Mother Nature and Father Time won't wait for the economy to get better," longtime Kilauea resident Gary Smith said during a recent tour, flicking flakes of rust from the top of the lighthouse to the green lawn dotted with tourists below.

A community campaign to raise at least $1 million for the lighthouse's restoration was announced this month and continues through the summer.

The Kilauea residents felt that if federal funding could not be obtained in time, they will have to keep the lighthouse standing.

Lighthouses are a key part of maritime history. Most historic lighthouses have been replaced by electronic beacons that don't need tending like their aging predecessors.

Around the world, preservation groups have worked to restore retired lighthouses for posterity.

Kilauea will be the first of Hawai'i's lighthouses to undergo a major restoration, said Coast Guard spokesman Lt. John Titchen. It's among seven lighthouses in Hawai'i recognized as historically significant by the Maritime Heritage Program of the National Park Service.

The Coast Guard still operates lights at all but Kilauea, Titchen said.

Kilauea has the most intact historic light station in the Hawaiian Islands and its French-made Fresnel lens is one of only seven of its type in its original position in the U.S., according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which runs the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge that includes the lighthouse.

The Kilauea Point lighthouse was particularly significant as a mid-Pacific guidepost for trade between the Americas and Asia.

"As the most intact light station remaining within the Hawaiian Islands, the historical significance of Kilauea Point is recognized on local, statewide and national levels," said Barry Stieglitz, Fish & Wildlife Service project leader for the Hawaiian and Pacific islands refuges. "The lighthouse has played important roles in American maritime and aviation history, and in the history of the surrounding community. We are very proud to be working hand-in-hand with the Kilauea Point Natural History Association to ensure this beautiful site is protected for generations to come."

As the fundraising went public with a ceremony at the lighthouse April 9, U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye pledged that the federal government will invest $1 million in the coming year toward the estimated $2.5 million restoration cost for the entire lighthouse complex.

"It is important that we preserve this beacon which has guided ships to safe harbor in years past, continues to light the way as a functional lighthouse, and serves as an icon of hope for brighter days to come," Inouye said.

'IT'S AN OLD FRIEND'

With 500,000 visitors a year, the lighthouse ranks among Hawai'i's most-visited attractions.

With private contributions, Inouye's pledge makes restoration plans look brighter.

Money raised in the "ka lama kuhikuhi no na hanauna (beacon for the generations to come)" campaign will all be directed to the lighthouse itself, and $250,000 of the federal money Inouye announced will go toward it, said Sanae Tokumura, a consultant to the campaign.

The remainder of the money Inouye announced will be used to renovate other historic structures within the lighthouse complex, which are now used as working buildings by the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, she said.

"Beautiful is the revolving light of Kilauea, that flashes to the walls of the heavens. It shows forth its beauty, an exceedingly bright light," is the English translation of the opening lines of "Nani Wale Ka Huila o Kilauea," a chant by Wahineikeouli Paa celebrating the lighthouse.

Smith, who grew up in Kilauea as the son of Kilauea Sugar Co. manager Ernest Smith, calls the lighthouse "the lifeblood for our community. It's our history, an institution that's served our community almost 100 years."

"It's an old friend that needs help," he said.

RUSTING AWAY

First lit in 1913, the lighthouse's original Fresnel lens is an 8-ton masterpiece of glass prisms that amplified a single kerosene lantern to reach 20 miles across the dark Pacific waters.

But since it was mothballed as a working lighthouse in 1976, rust and corrosion have been at work.

"It's urgent. ... Either you do something, or face the fact that it's going to come down," said Don McConnell, lighthouse restoration committee chairman for the Kilauea Point Natural History Association.

The nonprofit group runs the gift shop at the wildlife refuge and funnels about $60,000 a year to environmental education programs for Kaua'i's youth.

When professional assessment showed the lighthouse needed $1.5 million worth of work to preserve it, the group took on the task of finding at least $1 million.

The Fish & Wildlife Service has helped with preliminary studies of what's needed to fix the lighthouse itself. And the agency expects up to $236,000 in regular budget and economic stimulus funds this year for restoration of the keeper's cottage and other historic structures on the grounds.

The lighthouse's architecture has a number of significant points, including early use of reinforced concrete.

Looking from the lighthouse to pricey houses on the clifftops along Kaua'i's North Shore, Smith asked: "These people who capitalize on their view of the lighthouse, how would they like looking at a lighthouse with no top?"

"All of Hawai'i should feel a tug at their heart," Smith said. "And we hope a tug at their wallets."

No amount is too small to give, Smith and McConnell said, noting that several thousand dollars a week is collected in small bills at the lighthouse itself.

TOURIST BEACON

Both tourists visiting the lighthouse and locals working in Kilauea town endorse the value of restoring it.

"It's fantastic," said Nick Fuller of London. "I'm sure the short-term financial cost will be worth it in the long run. If they don't do it, they'll regret it."

Matt Byrnes of Los Angeles, who was visiting the lighthouse with his wife, Dawn, and their two daughters, said: "It's a gorgeous piece of work, that lens. It would be lovely to see it restored. You don't want to lose history."

Kilauea is one of the most intact lighthouse stations in the country.

The 31-acre complex — the concrete lighthouse, three fieldstone keepers' quarters, a fuel oil shed, cisterns and a supply landing platform — has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979.

"It's amazing how many people travel to see lighthouses all over the world," Smith said. Once they're here, they often marvel at the rich bird and marine life they can see at the refuge, just steps from the parking lot.

Humpback whales, monk seals, sea turtles and dolphins are often seen from the lighthouse point.

The primary purpose of the wildlife refuge is as a haven for nene geese (the Hawai'i state bird), and thousands of migratory seabirds, including Laysan albatrosses, red-footed boobies, brown boobies, red-tailed and white-tailed tropicbirds, great frigatebirds and wedge-tailed shearwaters. The refuge also protects bird habitat and rare and endangered plants.

"Quite a few people stop and ask where it is," as they pass through Kilauea, said Dolly Wijas, whose Kilauea Travel Group is on Lighthouse Road. Like many businesses in this former plantation town, an image of the lighthouse is part of her company logo.

"If the lighthouse wasn't there, people would drive right by," said Dan Miller, owner of Kilauea Video, Ice Cream and Candy, where he offers a Lighthouse Sundae. "It's a great landmark."

BIG DEAL IN 1913

Linda Paik Moriarty, whose late husband, Dan, was refuge manager from 1979 to 1990, refers to the lighthouse as a "land star for the people here" in written comments about the restoration effort.

"It has guided cross-Pacific ships, coastal vessels and aircraft to safety over the ages. It has just as importantly silently witnessed the transition of our island community from a plantation to a tourist-based economy, stood through the increase of population, and the diversification of our people," Moriarty said. "It has been a lighthouse station and is now a wildlife refuge and a center of a major environmental education resource of the island."

On May 1, 1913, when the lighthouse was first lit, people came out from miles around to witness it.

The Garden Island newspaper's lengthy headline on May 6, 1913, read: "Biggest lamp in the world flings signal to the sailor boy — Mountains and shores are dotted for miles around by anxious throng eager to see the first gleam — Light can be seen for 20 miles, is 180 feet above waterline and 'winks' at old Neptune every 10 seconds."

Come 2013 with the restoration completed, Smith and McConnell said, they want the lighthouse's 100th anniversary party "to be a big thing, too."