Place Names | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

July 18, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lēʻahi

Lēʻahi, also known as Diamond Head, is a nearly circular crater of approximately two-thirds of a mile in diameter.

Diamond Head is different things to different people:
• Homes of Hawai‘i’s Kings, Queens and Royal Families were in its shadow
• It’s an internationally-recognized visitor industry icon
• It’s the backdrop to the famous Waikīkī Beach
• It served an integral role in the island military defenses
• It is present home and command center for State Civil Defense
• It’s an easy walk to the summit for spectacular views of the ocean and coastline
• It is a backdrop to a transformation of social, political and religious events

Diamond Head was given its name by British sailors who found natural calcite crystals on the slopes of the mountain and mistook them for diamonds. Hawaiians called the volcanic cone Lēʻahi, Laeʻahi or Lae-ahi. Translations include: “brow of the ʻahi” and “cape of fire.”

In the legend of Pele and Hi‘iaka, Hi‘iaka is said to have compared Diamond Head to the brow of the ‘ahi: Me he i‘a la ka Lae o Ahi; E kalali au ae nei i ke kai – Like a fish is the Brow-of-the-ahi Resting high above the sea.

Other names for Diamond Head include Point Rose (given to the geologic feature in 1786 by Captain Nathaniel Portlock in honor of the secretary of the British treasury), Diamond Hill and Conical Mountain.

Geologically speaking, Diamond Head is a dormant volcanic tuff cone, with a variable-height rim surrounding the recessed interior area; the eruption of Diamond Head took place well over 150,000-years ago.

The highest point (at 761-feet) on the southwest rim of Diamond Head is known as Lēʻahi Summit (most of the rim is between 400-500-feet.) The crater is on the southern coastline of Oʻahu, approximately one-and-a-half miles south of the Koʻolau range.

From at least the 15th century, chiefly residences lined the shore of Waikīkī, and cultivated fields spread across the Waikīkī plain to the foot of the crater and inland to the Ko‘olau valleys. There were several heiau in Waikīkī, of which several were located around Diamond Head.

One of Kamehameha’s main heiau (also suggested as a surfing heiau,) Papaʻenaʻena (also called Lēʻahi Heiau,) was situated at the base of the southern slopes.

Other heiau in the vicinity include Kupalaha Heiau, which may have been connected with Papaʻenaʻena, Pahu-a-Maui Heiau on the crater’s eastern cliffs overlooking the ocean (the site of the present Diamond Head lighthouse), Kapua Heiau near the present Kapiʻolani Park, and Ahi Heiau on the peak of Diamond Head.

In the early years of the 19th century, people tended gardens in the crater and one visitor described finding “an abundance of melons and watermelons growing wild, upon which we feasted”.

In 1831, the botanist, Dr. FJF Meyen, noted the crater contained a small pool of water “which was completely covered with plants”. (The crater pond was filled-in by military bulldozing; now, there is a seasonally-moist wetland where standing water can occasionally be seen.)

Some have suggested there is little likelihood for archaeological sites of pre-contact Hawaiian or early post-contact origin in the crater. The archival research suggests that the only Hawaiian activity that might have taken place in the crater was dryland farming (dating to 1822.)

In the Great Māhele division of lands between the king and his high chiefs, Diamond Head, which lies within the ¬ʻili of Kapahulu in the ahupua¬ʻa of Waikīkī, was awarded to William C. Lunalilo, the future king of Hawaiʻi (1873-1874).

In the early 1860s, Mark Twain commented, “On the seventh day out we saw a dim vast bulk standing up out of the wastes of the Pacific and knew that that spectral promontory was Diamond Head, a piece of this world which I had not seen before for twenty-nine years.”

“So we were nearing Honolulu, the capital city of the Sandwich Islands – those islands which to me were Paradise; a Paradise which I had been longing all those years to see again. Not any other thing in the world could have stirred me as the sight of that great rock did.”

In 1884, the Kapahulu portion of Lunalilo’s Māhele award was subdivided by the Lunalilo Estate. Diamond Head was transferred from the estate to the Hawaiian Government.

The summit of Lēʻahi affords an excellent and unobstructed view of the ocean from Koko Head in the east, to beyond the ʻEwa Plain to Wai‘anae in the west. The utility of Diamond Head did not go unnoticed by the U.S. Army.

In 1906, the US government acquired the 729-acres of Lunalilo’s property from the Hawaiian Government, as well as other adjacent lands (including Black Point), to create Fort Ruger Military Reservation, the easternmost of the coastal defense forts.

From 1963 to 2001, the FAA had its air traffic control facilities in Diamond Head crater, which guided Hawai‘i-bound aircraft from 250 miles outside the Islands to within 20 miles of their intended airport.

Diamond Head State Monument was first officially established under an Executive Order by Hawaiʻi’s Governor Quinn in 1962; nearly 500-acres of land now make up the Monument.

This early designation covered about 145-acres in a horseshoe configuration preserving the famous profile and the south and west exterior slopes from the crater rim down to Diamond Head Road. Subsequently, Executive Orders have added additional lands to the Monument.

The interior of the crater had been closed to the public from 1906 until 1968. (Remember the Sunshine Festivals back then?) In 1976, DLNR’s Division of State Parks became the agency responsible for the planning and management of the Monument – it is now open every day.

Two major tunnels (Kāhala Tunnel and Kapahulu Tunnel) provide pedestrian and vehicular access into the crater.

Two separate trail systems (interior and exterior) address different needs and purposes. The exterior trail system has a dual function as a jogging and bicycle path traversing the mauka end of the Monument and along the existing trail on the lower ʻEwa-makai slopes. The interior trail system leads to the summit of Lē¬ʻahi (1.6-mile round trip.)

Diamond Head is open daily 6 am to 6 pm, every day of the year including holidays, with entrance Fees of $5.00 per car or $1 per person for pedestrians (the money goes to State Parks.) Mountain Biking is not allowed on this trail. No dogs allowed in Diamond Head State Monument.

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Overlooking Waikiki-1929

Waikiki-Diamond_Head-1940

1935 Chevrolet convertible with Diamond Head and Waikiki Beach in the background

Waikiki_Beach-Boats-1935

Waikiki with Diamond Head in the background-hawaii-gov-1934

Joseph_Dwight_Strong_-_’View_of_Diamond_Head’,_oil_on_canvas-1880s

Joseph_Dwight_Strong_-_’Hawaiians_at_Rest,_Waikiki’,_oil_on_canvas,_c._1884

From_Mccully_to_Diamond_Head-1900

Diamond_Head-LOC-aep-his180

‘Diamond_Head_from_Waikiki’,_oil_on_canvas_painting_by_Enoch_Wood_Perry,_Jr.,_c._1865

Diamond Head & Honolulu from the Punchbowl-(vic&becky)-1953

Automobile with Diamond Head and Waikiki in background, 1933

Alexander_Scott_-_Diamond_Head_from_Tantalus’,_oil_on_canvas,_c.1906-8

Clipper plane passes Diamond Head-1935

Diamond_Head_Lighthouse-Transpac_Finish

July 17, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pālama Settlement

Central Union Church dates back to the days of the Seaman’s Bethel Church in 1828. It was formally founded in 1887 and it moved into its present location in 1924.

In addition to developing new institutions within the church, the congregation made great strides in the field of missionary work in the city of Honolulu, including the beginning of the present Pālama Settlement.

Pālama, then a sleepy neighborhood of neat little cottages and taro patches, was chosen by philanthropist and Central Union members Mr. and Mrs. PC Jones as the site for a new chapel.

On the makai side of King street, opposite Liliha Street, the chapel was dedicated on June 1, 1896, and presented to Central Union by the Joneses, on the condition that the church …

… “maintain public preaching there on Sundays, a weekly prayer meeting, sustain a Sabbath school and also an occasional social for the residents of Pālama, the services to be conducted in the English language.”

Located west of Nuʻuanu Stream, near Downtown Honolulu, Pālama was home to mostly working-class Hawaiian families.

Walter F. Dillingham, long active in philanthropic endeavors in Honolulu, once observed of Pālama: “One must picture Honolulu at the end of the century with its mixture of races, their variety of foods, dress, cultures, customs and living habits. All this gave Honolulu a character and personality not duplicated in any American city.”

“The business section was composed mainly of low framed buildings with corrugated iron roofs near the water front. Streets were unpaved, horse-drawn vehicles, with the ox-cart was a common sight. Taro patches, duck ponds and even sugar cane grew in the section of Palama. It was in such a section that Palama Chapel was built and which grew to be Palama Settlement.” (HJH)

In 1900, as Honolulu health officials attempted to rid the nearby Chinatown area of bubonic plague, fire destroyed a four-block section. Displaced residents took up residence in newly built tenements in Pālama, changing the physical, social and economic make-up of the community.

The chapel’s staff located housing for many of the displaced and took care of the injured and children. It also ministered to the needs of immigrants who moved into the Pālama area soon after arriving in the Islands.

Social worker James Arthur Rath, Sr. and his wife, Ragna Helsher Rath, turned Pālama Chapel into Pālama Settlement (in September 1906,) a chartered, independent, non-sectarian organization receiving contributions from the islands’ elite.

“… they called them ‘settlement houses,’ the philosophy being that the head worker, as they called them, settled in the community. Instead of going in to spend the day working and coming out, they settled in, raised their families there and in that way learned …”

“… one, what the people needed; two, gained their confidence so that they could help them fulfill their needs; and then, three, went ahead and designed programs for exactly what the people needed.”

“So they were settlers and therefore they called them settlement houses. Which is what the origin of Pālama Settlement was because my father and my mother settled there and all five of us children were born and raised in our home in the settlement.” (Robert H. Rath, Sr)

The Raths established the territory’s first public nursing department, a day-camp for children with tuberculosis, a pure milk depot, a day nursery, a night school, and low-rent housing.

In 1908, an indoor swimming pool was opened, and a year later, a gymnasium and bowling alley were built above it. Later, outdoors, a playground, tennis court, and basketball court were added.

Also that year, a new Parish House was erected on an adjacent property at Richards Street, to be used for Sunday School classes and midweek meetings

After a territory-wide fund-raising effort, in 1925 Pālama Settlement moved to its present location with nine buildings spread over eight acres of land on Vineyard and Pālama streets.

Over the years, a medical clinic, an outpatient clinic and the Strong-Carter Dental Clinic were established along with annual circuses, athletic competitions, social and community-service clubs, boardinghouses for women and a preschool. Classes and events relating to music, arts, vocations, and athletics were also offered.

World War II and the postwar era brought about widespread changes in Hawai‘i’s social, economic, and political environment. These developments, in turn, led to changes in the way social agencies such as Pālama Settlement addressed community needs.

Observers noted that Pālama Settlement was departing from its original settlement house philosophy by offering programs for fees and catering to a broad cross section of people regardless of where they lived.

The 1960s and 1970s were periods of re-evaluation, adjustment, and growth, with the settlement’s programs becoming more people-centered rather than activity-centered, stressing human and community needs as opposed to uncoordinated, departmentalized activities, following the large-scale social and economic programs being implemented nationally.

Civil rights and anti-poverty legislation brought large amounts of federal monies to Pālama Settlement for local programs geared to at-risk youth and community development.

Pālama Settlement – a smaller one due to the widening of Vineyard Boulevard and the construction of the H-1 Freeway – continues to exist as a nonprofit, nongovernmental agency dedicated to helping needy families and at-risk youths.

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Palama Chapel-(centralunionchurch-org)-circa 1897-1901

Original Palama Settlement at King and Liliha streets-(HJH)-circa 1912

Palama_Settlement-(palamasettlement-org)

James Arthur Rath (1870-1929) and Ragna Helsher Rath (1879-1981)founded Pälama Settlement in 1905-(honoluluadvertiser)

Palama_Settlement

Palama Settlement Swim Meet-(hawaii-edu)-1932

Palama_Settlement

If you had a toothache in 1935, you could get dental work done at Palama Settlement

July 16, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Nihoa

Nihoa was reportedly inhabited sometime between 1000 and 1500 AD. Archaeological surveys on Nihoa have documented numerous archaeological sites and cultural material.

The sites included; habitation sites such as massive platforms; rockshelters, terraces and enclosures; heiau that are small terraces with single linear arrangement of upright stones and numerous pieces of branch coral laying on surface; extensive agricultural terraces and burial sites.

The heiau (place of worship) and platform foundations with upright stones found on Nihoa resemble other Hawaiian wahi pana on the islands of Maui at Haleakalā, Hawai‘i Island on top of Mauna Kea and the island of Kaua‘i Kea Ali‘i heiau in Waimea.

It is believed that the first Native Hawaiians to inhabit the archipelago and their descendants frequented Nihoa for at least a 500- to 700-year period.

Archaeologists believe that the terraces were planted with sweet potatoes. They estimate that the 12-16 acres under cultivation might have supported about 100 people.

The only tree on the island is the loulu palm; a total of 515 palms were counted in 1923. Its fan-like leaves were used for plaiting (braiding,) and its trunk could have been used for building shelters or for firewood (however, if cut for firewood, the supply would eventually be depleted.

Without forest products, islanders could not have provided themselves with canoes, wood containers, nets, fishing line, clothing and blankets, mats, and medicines. So, some of these were probably supplied from Kauai or Ni‘ihau.

Fish, shellfish, crabs, lobsters, turtles, and seals, as well as seabirds and their eggs are abundant sources of food. Food and water supply was sufficient for subsistence, but that the lack of firewood would have created a hardship.

Also referenced as Bird Island and Moku Manu, Nihoa is the closest island northwest of the main Hawaiian chain, about 155-miles northwest of Ni‘ihau and 250 miles from Honolulu.

It’s the largest and tallest of ten islands and atolls in the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI;) total land area is about 171-acres (about a mile long, a quarter mile wide.) It is the summit of a huge volcanic rock with two main peaks, Miller’s Peak (895-feet) and Tanager Peak (852-feet.)

Landing on the island is difficult. High, sheer cliffs prevent landing on the east, north, and west sides; the island slopes down to the south, but the shoreline is rocky and unprotected from the surge of southerly swells.

By the time of Western European contact with the Hawaiian Islands, little was collectively known about the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) by the majority of the population, as relatively few individuals traveled to these remote islands and had seen them with their own eyes. However, families from Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau voyaged to these islands to fish.

The first Westerner to see Nihoa was Captain James Colnett of the ‘Prince of Wales,’ on March 21, 1788.

Within the next century, a number of expeditions were initiated by Hawaiian ali‘i to visit these islands and bring them under
Hawaiian political control and ownership.

Having heard chants and stories about the island of Nihoa, in 1822, Queen Ka‘ahumanu organized and participated in a royal expedition to the island, under the charge of Captain William Sumner. Reportedly, the waterfront area around Ka‘ahumanu Street in Honolulu was named Nihoa in honor of the visit.

The following is a part of the story related to the direction from which the winter rains come:

‘Ea mai ana ke ao ua o Kona,
‘Ea mai ana ma Nihoa
Ma ka mole mai o Lehua
Ua iho a pulu ke kahakai

The rain clouds of Kona come,
Approaching from Nihoa,
From the base of Lehua,
Pouring down, drenching the coast.

In 1856, Nihoa was reaffirmed as part of the existing land mass of Hawai‘i by authority of Alexander Liholiho, Kamehameha IV (March 16, 1856 Circular of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i).

In 1885, the most famous visit by Hawaiian royalty was made by then princess Lydia Lili‘uokalani and her 200-person party who visited Nihoa on the ship ‘Iwalani.’ They brought back artifacts – a stone bowl, a stone dish, a coral rubbing stone and a coral file.

While I have visited the NWHI, now the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, I have never been to Nihoa. However, in 2003, I had the good fortune to fly over the island and capture a few images of Nihoa.

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Hokulea_Nihoa-(PapahanaumokuakeaManagementPlan)

Nihoa

July 8, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Haiku Valley Communications … and Stairway

With World War II underway, the Navy recognized the need to be able to communicate across the Pacific.

A plan was proposed in the early spring of 1942; a group of radio experts determined a superpower radio station with pan-Pacific range might be built provided that the antenna could be raised high enough above the ground.

The greater the power to be radiated, the higher and larger must be the antenna system and the network of ground wires under it.

An Alexanderson Alternator was the sending source; it is a rotating machine invented in 1904 for use as a radio transmitter (as a technology, it was later replaced by vacuum tube transmitters.)

The Navy discovered that, rather than the conventional steel radio tower, the best way to accomplish that was by stringing copper cable between the peaks of two mountains with vertical drops.

The solution was to find a topographic feature that would act like the “unbuildable” tall tower. Using technology developed pre-World War I, they strategically positioned four Alexanderson Alternators; one was located in Haiku Valley.

Haiku Valley with its horseshoe shape and sheer side-walls filled the prescription perfectly, except for the logistical nightmare of constructing in an all but inaccessible area.

Then stepped forward (and up) two pioneers, Bill Adams and Louis Otto, who in 21-days, climbed the vertical cliffs in Haiku Valley, pounding in iron spikes into the face of the cliff (to be used as supports for a ladder and wooden staircase up the mountain.)

The Navy then installed a lift to haul up materials and strung cables across the valley. The Alexanderson Alternator radio system, transmitting Morse code across the Pacific, was operational in 3-months.

The equipment at Haiku provided reliable transoceanic radiotelegraph communication and was able to send signals to submarines during World War 2 – while they remained underwater – as far away as Tokyo Bay.

The Navy maintained the Haiku system from 1943 to 1970, when they reconfigured the facility as an OMEGA radio navigation system: it then became part of a network of worldwide OMEGA stations (two US stations (Haiku and North Dakota,) joined by Argentina, Norway, Liberia, France, Japan and Australia.)

When the eight station chain became operational, day to day operations at Haiku were managed by the United States Coast Guard and was used by several airlines flying long range routes over water, as well as by military forces. The new station could radiate transmissions at a power of 10,000-watts and over an 8,000-mile radius.

The OMEGA antenna system reaches 7,200-feet across Haiku Valley and is 1,250-feet above the ground. The anchors weigh over 180,000-pounds. Unlike the original construction for the Alexanderson Alternator (climbing the cliff,) a helicopter, helium balloons and hot air balloons were used in erecting the anchors and placing the wires.

OMEGA was the first truly-global radio navigation system and had the ability to achieve a four-mile accuracy when fixing a position for aircraft.

Using receiver units, it enabled ships and aircraft to determine their position by receiving very low frequency radio signals transmitted by a network of fixed terrestrial radio beacons. The Haiku OMEGA facility became operational around 1971 and was shut down in 1997.

Initially, the system was to be used for navigating nuclear bombers across the North Pole to Russia. Later, it was found useful for submarines and aircraft.

With the Global Positioning System (GPS) being declared fully operational, the use of OMEGA had dwindled to a point where continued operation was not economically justified; it ended on September 30, 1997.

Obviously, all of this ultimately leads us to a discussion on the Haiku Ladder, Haiku Stairs – the Stairway to Heaven.

The Stairway is a 3,922-step ladder/stairway ascending the summit of the Koʻolau mountain range. First built by the Navy in 1942 to access transmission facilities at the top of the ridge, the wooden stairs were replaced in 1955 with ones built of galvanized metal.

In 1997, after the OMEGA facility was abandoned and plans were underway to remove the Stairs, Mayor Harris requested that the Coast Guard transfer the Stairs to the City. The City then spent $875,000 to repair the Haiku Stairs.

The City had planned to reopen the Haiku Stairs in October 2002. But from 2002 to 2003, the popular hiking attraction became a point of contention with area residents.

They complained that as many as 200-hikers a day were trespassing through their property, parking on their streets, blocking mail delivery and trash pickup and arriving early in the morning, causing dogs to bark and waking residents.

Then, in 2005, Mayor Hannemann tried to transfer the Stairs to DLNR. I was DLNR Director then. While I believe the stairs are an excellent climbing (and vertigo) experience, I do not believe its ownership and operation is a state concern. (It is certainly not a natural trail, that’s the kind of stuff DLNR deals with.)

We recommended that a private entity step forward and manage the stairs – for the City or lease it from them. We believed that an operator could charge a fee for hikers to climb the stairs and use the revenue for operations and insurance.

The Stairs remain closed.

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Junction of Haiku Road and Kamehameha Highway.-(DavidJessup)-

Black arrow points out the 60 foot tower on the North cliff. The white arrow indicates the lower hoist A frame-(DavidJessup)-

Bomb proof transmitter building - view east-(DavidJessup)-

CCL house at the peak showing the upper hoist house-(DavidJessup)-

Cement headed for the top of the South cliff-(DavidJessup)-

View West. Cage for the South hoist.

Construction of four antennas, each over a mile in length, had just begun-(DavidJessup)-1943

Kaneohe_Omega_Transmitter_with_CH-53_1987

Looking down from Transmitter Building-(DavidJessup)-

Very Low Frequency Alternator transmitted 200,000 watts of radio signal at a frequency of 16.8 Khz-(DavidJessup)-

Wooden_Ladder-cliff_falls_away_on_each_side-(DavidJessup)-

July 5, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kuapā Pond

Kuapā Pond, also known as Keahupuaomaunalua (“the shrine of the baby mullet at Maunalua”) was once the largest loko kuapā on O‘ahu, estimated at approximately 523-acres.

Kuapā Pond was apparently created near the end of the ice age, when the rising sea level caused the shoreline to retreat and partial erosion of the headlands adjacent to the bay formed sediment that accreted to form a barrier beach at the mouth of the pond, creating a lagoon.

Early Hawaiians used the natural lagoon as a fishpond and reinforced the natural sandbar with stone walls.

Kuapā literally means “wall of a fish pond” and a loko kuapā is one type of fishpond made by building a wall on a reef. The wall at this fishpond was about 5,000 feet long.

One of the main harvests was mullet because the combination of freshwater and shallow sand or mud flats that the ponds created were ideal for growing the algae that mullet fed off of.

Hawaiian Historian Kamakau writes of Kamehameha I participating in the restoration of the Maunalua fishpond., “While he (Kamehameha) lived on Oahu he encouraged the chiefs and commoners to raise food and he went fishing and would work himself at carrying rock or timber … He worked at the fishponds at Ka-wai-nui, Ka‘ele-pulu, Uko‘a (in Waialui,) Mauna-lua, and all about O’ahu. (Kamakau 1961:192)

In 1900, the island of Oahu had a total of 100 documented, working fishponds, providing thousands of pounds of fish for the community throughout the year.

Missionary Levi Chamberlain, during his Trip Around Oahu on June 21, 1826, noted: “I descended with my attendant, and near the shares of a large pond containing a surface of many hundred acres I came to a little settlement called Keawaawa and stopped e few moments to enquire the way & to allow my attendant the luxury of a whif of tobacco.”

“Thence I walked on by the side of the pond in a southerly direction about a mile having the eminences Mounalua (Maunalua) on my left- I then came to a narrow strip of land resembling a causeway partly natural and partly constructed extending in a Northwest direction across what appeared to be considerable of a bay forming a barrier between the sea and the pond.”

“At the further end of this causeway sluices are constructed & the waters of the sea unite with the pond and at every flood tide replenish it with a fresh supply of water. Near the middle of this causeway there is a settlement of 18 houses belonging to Kalola called Mounalua (Maunalua.)”

It is said that the pond was partially constructed by Menehune, a legendary race of small people and was connected through an underground tunnel to Kaʻelepulu fishpond in Kailua.

In J. Gilbert McAllister’s 1933 Archaeology of Oahu, he notes: “Keahupua-o-Maunalua Fishpond—The pond is said to connect by means of an underground tunnel with Kaelepulu pond in Kailua.”

“From time to time great schools of mullet disappear from the Maunalua pond and are to be found in the Kailua pond. At the same time the awa, which were in the Kailua pond, appear in the Maunalua pond. When the mullet reappear in the Maunalua pond the awa disappear. Kanane, the fish warden, tells me that this occurs even today, but cannot be explained by the Japanese who leases the pond.”

The ownership of the ‘ili of Maunalua passed to Bernice Pauahi Bishop and thus to the Kamehameha Schools.

To a lot of people, Kuapā is now referred to as “Koko Marina,” the result of development in the 1960s by Henry J Kaiser.

In 1961, Bishop Estate leased a 6,000-acre area, which included Kuapa Pond, to Kaiser Aetna for subdivision development. The development is now known as “Hawaii Kai.”

Kaiser Aetna dredged and filled parts of Kuapa Pond, erected retaining walls and built bridges within the development to create the Hawaii Kai Marina.

They increased the average depth of the channel from two to six feet and also created accommodations for pleasure boats and eliminated the sluice gates.

The East Honolulu region (including Hawaii Kai,) has a population of approximately 49,100 people (2010,) 5.2% of O‘ahu’s population. Hawai‘i Kai is one of O‘ahu’s larger bedroom communities. The pond now serves as a marina for small boats, and is open space in this growing community.

Lots of good stuff is going on to protect and restore the nearshore waters and bring attention to the region by Mālama Maunalua and Maunalua Fishpond Heritage Center.

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