The lives of the Parker family and Hawaiian royal families are forever entwined in Hawaii’s history.
John Palmer Parker was befriended by King Kamehameha I in the early 1800s and granted the exclusive right to hunt—and sell—maverick cattle that roamed the upper plains of Waimea. This historic partnership marked the birth of Hawaii’s cattle industry.
Parker later married the king’s granddaughter, Kipikane, and together they purchased the first two acres of ranch land for the sum of $10. Through subsequent generations, the ranch grew to 500,000 acres, for a time becoming the largest independently owned ranch in the United States. Today, at 130,000 acres, it is the fifth largest.
From one generation to the next, through times of dramatic change, conflict and intrigue, uncertainty and prosperity Parker Ranch was sustained by the shared values of family, loyalty, and love of the land—as it remains today with the Parker Ranch Foundation Trust and the town of Waimea.