Hilo - With a population of 43,263, it is the largest settlement (it's not officially a city) on the big island of Hawaii, and county seat of Hawaii county. Located on the eastern coast of the island, this area has been inhabited since at least 1100 AD, when the Polynesian settlers arrived at the Hawaiian islands. According to oral history, the name means "to twist". It's location in a somewhat funnel-shaped bay also makes it vulnerable to tsunamis, with particularly destructive ones that occurred in 1946 and 1960, and there is even a museum focused on tsunamis, the only one of its kind in the state.