Solomon Islands · SB

Bloody Ridge National Historical Park

Perched on a low ridge along the Kukum Highway on Guadalcanal, Bloody Ridge National Historical Park is the Solomon Islands' first national park — a place where one narrow hillline changed the course of the Pacific War. In September 1942, approximately 840 U.S. Marines under Lieutenant Colonel Merritt "Red Mike" Edson held this ground against a Japanese force nearly three times their size for two consecutive nights. Had the ridge fallen, Henderson Field and the allied air campaign on Guadalcanal would likely have been lost. Today, a granite monument bearing the 1st Marine Raider Battalion insignia marks the spot where that desperate defense unfolded. More than a battlefield landmark, Bloody Ridge honors the Solomon Island scouts and coastwatchers whose intelligence warnings gave the Marines time to prepare. It is a site of shared remembrance — where American, Japanese, and Solomon Islander histories intersect on a ridge barely 29 meters above sea level.