Hamakua | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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December 30, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kaiwiki Sugar Company

“Sugar is now the great interest of the islands. Christian missions and whaling have had their day, and now people talk sugar. Hawaii thrills to the news of a cent up or a cent down in the American market.”

“There are 200,000 acres of productive soil on the islands, of which only a fifteenth is under cultivation, and of this large area 150,000 is said to be specially adapted for sugar culture.”

“Herein is a prospective Utopia, and people are always dreaming of the sugar-growing capacities of the belt of rich disintegrated lava which slopes upwards from the sea to the bases of the mountains.” (Isabella Bird, 1872)

One such operation was Kaiwiki Sugar Company that began in the 1860s when the sugar industry was young and sugar production was more an individual effort than a corporate venture.

“Then there is the sugar plantation of Kaiwiki, with its patches of bright green cane, its flumes crossing the track above our heads, bringing the cane down from the upland cane-fields to the crushing-mill, and the shifting, busy scenes of the sugar-boiling season.”

“This is a most picturesque spot, the junction of two clear bright rivers, and a few native houses and a Chinaman’s store are grouped close by under some palms, with the customary loungers on horseback, asking and receiving nuhou, or news, at the doors.”

“There we met parties of natives, all flower-wreathed, talking and singing, coming gaily down on their sure— footed horses, saluting us with the invariable ‘Aloha.’”

“Every now and then we passed native churches, with spires painted white, or a native schoolhouse, or a group of scholars all ferns and flowers. The greenness of the vegetation merits the term ‘dazzling.’ We think England green, but its colour is poor and pale as compared with that of tropical Hawaii.”

“The unique beauty of this coast is what are called gulches – narrow deep ravines or gorges, from 100 to 2,000 feet in depth, each with a series of cascades from 10 to 1,800 feet in height.”

“I dislike reducing their glories to the baldness of figures, but the depth of these clefts (originally, probably, the seams caused by fire torrents), cut and worn by the fierce streams fed by the snows of Mauna Kea, and the rains of the forest belt, cannot otherwise be expressed.”

“The cascades are most truly beautiful, gleaming white among the dark depths of foliage far away, and falling into deep limpid basins, festooned and overhung with the richest and greenest vegetation of this prolific climate … Each gulch opens on a velvet lawn close to the sea, and most of them have space for a few grass houses, with cocoanut trees, bananas, and kalo patches. “

“There are sixty-nine of these extraordinary chasms within a distance of thirty miles! … The descent into some of them is quite alarming. You go down almost standing in your stirrups, at a right angle with the horse’s head, and up, grasping his mane to prevent the saddle slipping.” (Isabella Bird, 1872)

“The plantations … enjoy special advantages, for by turning some of the innumerable mountain streams into flumes the owners can bring a great part of their cane and all their wood for fuel down to the mills without other expense than the original cost of the woodwork.”

“Mr A has 100 mules, but the greater part of their work is ploughing and hauling the kegs of sugar down to the cove, where in favourable weather they are put on board of a schooner for Honolulu. This plantation employs 185 hands, native and Chinese, and turns out 600 tons of sugar a year.”

“I have made a second tour through the factory, and am rather disgusted with sugar making. ‘All’s well that ends well,’ however, and the delicate crystalline result makes one forget the initial stages of the manufacture.”

“The cane, stripped of its leaves, passes from the flumes under the rollers of the crushing-mill, where it is subjected to a pressure of five or six tons. One hundred pounds of cane under this process yield up from sixty-five to seventy-five pounds of juice.”

“This juice passes, as a pale green cataract, into a trough, which conducts it into a vat, where it is dosed with quicklime to neutralize its acid, and is then run off into large heated metal vessels. At this stage the smell is abominable, and the turbid fluid, with a thick scum upon it, is simply disgusting.”

“After a preliminary heating and skimming it is passed off into iron pans, several in a row, and boiled and skimmed, and ladled from one to the other till it reaches the last, which is nearest to the fire, and there it boils with the greatest violence, seething and foaming, bringing all the remaining scum to the surface.”

“After the concentration has proceeded far enough, the action of the heat is suspended, and the reddish-brown, oily-looking liquid is drawn into the vacuum-pan till it is about a third full; the concentration is completed by boiling the juice in vacuo at a temperature of 150 degrees, and even lower.”

“As the boiling proceeds, the sugar boiler tests the contents of the pan by withdrawing a few drops, and holding them up to the light on his finger; and, by certain minute changes in their condition, he judges when it is time to add an additional quantity.”

“When the pan is full, the contents have thickened into the consistency of thick gruel by the formation of minute crystals, and are then allowed to descend into an heater, where they are kept warm till they can be run into ‘forms’ or tanks, where they are allowed to granulate.”

“The liquid, or molasses, which remains after the first crystallization is returned to the vacuum pan and reboiled, and this reboiling of the drainings is repeated two or three times, with a gradually decreasing result in the quality and quantity of the sugar.”

“The last process, which is used for getting rid of the treacle, is a most beautiful one. The mass of sugar and treacle is put into what are called ‘centrifugal pans,’ which are drums about three feet in diameter and two feet high, which make about 1,000 revolutions a minute.”

“These have false interiors of wire gauze, and the mass is forced violently against their sides by centrifugal action, and they let the treacle whirl through, and retain the sugar crystals, which lie in a dry heap in the centre.”

“The cane is being flumed in with great rapidity, and the factory is working till late at night. The cane from which the juice has been expressed, called “trash,” is dried and used as fuel for the furnace which supplies the steam power. The sugar is packed in kegs, and a cooper and carpenter, as well as other mechanics, are employed.” (Isabella Bird, 1872)

After several acquisitions and changes in operation by it and other sugar plantations, in 1909, the defunct O‘okala Sugar Company (it was bankrupt and the controlling interest passed to Theo. H. Davies & C) was sold to Kaiwiki and it was renamed Kaiwiki Sugar Company.

O‘okala Sugar Company owned a total of 8,679 acres, its cane land was limited to 1,405 in fee simple and 3,005 acres of leased land. Located between the Hāmākua district and the rain-drenched lands of the Hilo district, the land rose to an elevation of 1,800 feet, with steep slopes and a frontage on the sea of about 4 ½ miles and a depth of 2 ½ miles.

Kaiwiki Sugar Company’s almost fifty years of existence ended when the company and neighboring Laupahoehoe Sugar Company merged on January 3, 1957. It should not be confused with Kaiwiki Milling Company.

Kaiwiki Milling Company was formed by 150 stockholders holders (all were Portuguese homesteaders) who built a mill near their properties just outside of Hilo.

Ookala Sugar Mill-Malecek

August 9, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hotel Honokaʻa Club

In 1878, three commercial sugar plantations (Honokaʻa Sugar Company, Paʻauhau Sugar Company and Pacific Sugar Mill) existed in Hāmākua in the vicinity of a village that later became Honokaʻa.

A labor shortage beginning in the mid-19th century prompted the importation of foreign workers. The Chinese were the first to arrive, followed by Japanese, Portuguese, Korean, Puerto Rican and Filipinos over the next 40 years.

The workers, many married with families, were housed in 13-camps along the Hāmākua coast near Honokaʻa. As these workers completed their contracts with the plantations, many moved to Honokaʻa and began businesses, providing the impetus for the development of the town.

As Honokaʻa grew and evolved, a variety of businesses, offering wide-ranging choices of goods and services, eventually made Honokaʻa the largest town on the Hāmākua coast and the second largest on the island (behind Hilo.)

In 1910, the population of Honokaʻa stood at 9,037, a population sufficient to support a hotel along with lodging for travelers, salesmen and laborers in transit to the plantations to support the growing village.

Hotel Honokaʻa Club did not have a name when it first opened, and was allegedly labeled as the result of a vote by club “members,” who were likely boarders and community members who frequented the hotel.

The “Club” in the name reflects the use of the establishment from its inception as a nexus for entertainment and drinking, while the hotel portion served as a residence and lodging for immigrants, unmarried sugar cane workers, paniolo (cowboys), and travelling salesmen. (Star Bulletin; March 25, 1948; NPS)

“At that time the majority of the key plantation men were unmarried, and it was their custom to convene on Saturday nights for merry and lengthy sessions at the hotel. They came on horseback and departed the same way although not always with the same horse.”

“As years went by the hotel became the ‘club’ with all its members and eventually in a duly called ‘committee’ hearing the name was voted to become the Honokaa Club Hotel.” (Star Bulletin; March 25, 1948; NPS)

The original site of the hotel complex lay along the Government Road (Māmane Street) on the Hilo-side of the present Bank of Hawaiʻi.

The hotel/club functioned as a local gathering place that provided accommodations, temporary sales space for the display of commercial samples and wares by traveling salesmen, and a dining room and bar facility (that was the site of numerous local social occasions and get-togethers from the 1920s through the 1960s and beyond.) (SHPD)

Salesmen who stayed at the hotel were known as “drummers” commercial travelers, runners or “gripmen” (“grip” referring to the trunk or suitcase carried by salesmen.) These sales personnel travelled through Hāmākua and Kohala approximately every two weeks in a circuit from Honolulu to Kawaihae to Laupāhoehoe to Hilo “drumming up” business. (Star Bulletin, March 25, 1948; NPS)

The Hotel Honokaʻa Club is an example of the small hotels built at the turn of the 19th century by Japanese immigrants to mainly serve their countrymen in towns such as Captain Cook, Waiʻōhinu, Kohala and Honokaa.

Opened in 1912 by Kumakichi Morita, the original Honokaʻa Hotel Club was styled like a modern motor court, with rooms strung together in a row.

By 1915 it is listed in the local business directory as the “Honokaʻa Hotel Club – A First Class Hotel and Boarding House, Rates $3.00 per Day and Up.” By 1920 rates had increased to $4.00 per day. The Hotel Honokaa Club was at the present location by about 1927.

Kumakichi Morita, the hotel’s first manager/owner, trained as a chef in American cuisine and became chef to Prince Jonah Kūhīo Kalanianaʻole. Unfortunately, the Prince did not appreciate the American cuisine and Kumakichi looked elsewhere for employment, arriving in Honokaʻa to cook for the manager of the Honokaʻa Sugar Company.

From 1943-1945, over 50,000 US Marines lived and trained in and around Waimea and the Kohala Coast. Camp Tarawa was originally built by the 2nd Marine Division, but upon the 2nd’s deployment to Saipan, the 5th Marine Division moved in to train for the Battle of Iwo Jima.

Alfred Carter (manager of Parker Ranch) had historically limited the availability of liquor in Waimea, so when the Marines came they found that town dry.

The soldiers simply followed the Waimea ranch cowboys down the hill to “wet” Honokaʻa. Hotel Honokaʻa Club was one of many “watering holes” in Honokaʻa that benefited from the servicemen’s patronage. Camp Tarawa closed in November 1945.

After the war, the hotel expanded its activities focusing on locals, hosting weddings, high school group gatherings and lūʻau events. In 1948, the hotel expanded, adding a second story containing six bedroom suites. Five new bedrooms were added downstairs and new bathrooms were attached to the original bedrooms.

In 1960, the Moritas added a cocktail lounge dubbed the “Waipiʻo Room,” and in the 1970s they inaugurated a bar named the “Dan McGuire Left-Handed Martini Room,” after the well-known sports writer.

Further pranks related to the Martini Room included Jim Nabors’ (Gomer Pyle) dedication of the “Jim Nabors Right-handed Pay Toilet.” (Honokaa Historical Project)

Hotel Honokaa Club is a two story-wood frame “plantation style” commercial building. Defining features include a totan (corrugated metal) roof, single wall construction with vertical wood planks, and numerous double-hung windows.’

The building has three floor levels that include the main floor, a rear second story addition and a basement area. (Lots of information here is from Historic Honokaʻa Project and NPS.)

Hotel-Honokaa-Club-1950 Honokaa High School yearbook advertisement

Hotel-Honokaa-Club-1958 Honokaa High School yearbook advertisement

Hotel-Honokaa-Club-Victor Morita with hotel guest ca. 1940s

Hotel-Honokaa-Club-Alex, Robert, and Henry Morita standing in front of the Hotel Honokaa Club sign

Hotel-Honokaa-Club-group gathering

Hotel-Honokaa-Club-Victor Morita preparing food in the kitchen with unidentified waitress, ca. 1940s

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Hotel-Honokaa-Club-Victor (left of center) and Tomiko (right of center) Morita’s wedding party. Mother Kane Morita is in white, ca. 1920s

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Hotel-Honokaa-Club room

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Honokaa-Club-Layout-top floor

January 24, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Laupāhoehoe

The northeastern coast of the island of Hawaiʻi presents an almost continuous succession of valleys, with intervening uplands rising gently for a few miles, and then more abruptly toward the snows of Mauna Kea and the clouds.

The rains are abundant on that side of the island, and the fertile plateau, boldly fronting the sea with a line of cliffs from fifty to a hundred feet in height, is scored at intervals of one or two miles with deep and almost impassable gulches.

The streams reach the ocean either through rocky channels worn to the level of the waves, or in cascades leaping from the cliffs and streaking the coast from Hilo to Waipiʻo.

In the time of Līloa, and later, this plateau was thickly populated, and requiring no irrigation, was cultivated from the sea upward to the line of frost. A few kalo patches are still seen, and bananas grow, as of old, in secluded spots and along the banks of the ravines. (Kalākaua)

“Lapahoi (Laupāhoehoe – leaf of lava) is a small stony flat with a few huts and sweet potatoes and taro patches scattered over it. It lies at the extremity of a deep ravine, the declivities on either side nearly 500 feet in height and extending to the sea beach, terminating in a rocky precipice.”

“The coast all the way to Lapahoi was intersected by many deep ravines, many of which had large rivers forming beautiful waterfalls that fell over the outward cliffs into the ocean, the angry surf of which broke a long way up upon the rocks underneath.” (Macrae, 1825)

“The country, by which we sailed, was fertile, beautiful, and apparently populous. The numerous plantations on the eminences and sides of the deep ravines or valleys, by which it was intersected, with the streams meandering through them into the sea, presented altogether a most agreeable prospect.”

“The coast was bold, and the rocks evidently volcanic. We frequently saw the water gushing out of hollows in the face of the rocks, or running in cascades from the top to the bottom.”

“After sailing very pleasantly for several hours, we approached Laupāhoehoe: although we had come upwards of twenty miles, and had passed not less than fifty ravines or valleys, we had not seen a spot where we thought it would be possible to land without being swamped”.

“(A)lthough we knew we had arrived at the end of our voyage, we could discover no place by which it seemed safe to approach the shore, as the surf was beating violently, and the wind blowing directly towards the land.” (Ellis, 1823)

In January 1834, David Douglas (a fir tree was named after him) visited the island of Hawai‘i, traveled around the base of Mauna Kea – including the upper Laupāhoehoe forest zone – and ascended Mauna Kea; while on his second visit to the island, he died at a location near the mauka boundary of Laupāhoehoe and Humuʻula.

In 1859, Abel Harris and FB Swain entered into a partnership and secured a section of land on the Laupāhoehoe peninsula and lower plains; they ran a trading station and attempted to undertake several business ventures, including, collection of pulu (down) from hāpuʻu tree ferns, hunting bullocks in the upper forest lands, and cultivation of sugar cane on the lowlands.

The lowlands of the Laupāhoehoe region became the focus of sugar plantation efforts as early as the 1850s. But it was not until 1876, that a full-scale plantation was incorporated, and a mill established.

At the industry’s peak in the 1930s, Hawaiʻi’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar.

As elsewhere, sugar cultivation exploded on the Big Island. As a means to transport sugar and other goods, railroading was introduced to the Islands in 1879. All the sugar grown in East Hawaiʻi, in Puna and on the Hāmākua Coast, was transported by rail to Hilo Harbor, where it was loaded onto ships bound for the continent.

The rail line crossed over 12,000-feet in bridges, 211-water openings under the tracks, and individual steel spans up to 1,006-feet long and 230-feet in height.

Some of the most notable were those over Maulua and Honoliʻi gulches, the Wailuku River and Laupāhoehoe. Over 3,100 feet of tunnels were constructed, one of which, the Maulua Tunnel, was over half a mile in length.

While the main business of the railroad remained the transport of raw sugar and other products to and from the mills, it also provided passenger service.

Targeting tourists to augment local passenger and raw sugar transport, the Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway ran sightseeing specials under the name “Scenic Express.”

Not for the faint of heart, rail trips included a stop on the trestles, where passengers disembarked to admire the outstanding scenery.

But the end was near for the railway. Early in the morning of April 1, 1946, a massive tsunami struck Hawaiʻi. The railroad line between Hilo and Paʻauilo suffered massive damage; bridges collapsed, trestles tumbled and one engine was literally swept off the tracks.

At Laupāhoehoe Point, waves destroyed teachers’ residences and flooded school grounds, killing twenty-five people, including sixteen students and five teachers of Laupāhoehoe School.

(The 1946 tsunami killed 159-people and caused $26-million in property damage throughout the islands. To prevent such widespread loss of life and property, the territory-wide Tsunami Warning System was put in place in 1948 and successfully utilized for the 1952 and 1957 tsunamis.) (hawaii-edu)

At the time of the tsunami, plantations were already phasing out rail in favor of trucking cane from the field to the mill. It was inevitable that trucking would also replace rail as the primary means of transporting sugar to the harbor. The tsunami accelerated that transition.

A few remnants of the railway are still visible. In Laupāhoehoe, a concrete platform remains where Hula dancers once performed for tourists. And the Laupāhoehoe Train Museum is housed in the former home of Mr. Stanley, the superintendent of maintenance.

Laupahoehoe village-PPWD-5-4-021-1885

Laupahoehoe-PP-30-2-015-1935

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Hawaii Consolidated Railway Train

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Bridge on the Hamakua Coast, Hawaii, c.1930

David Douglas-Memorial-Kaluakauka

Roughed out Canoe at the 4,500’ Elevation in Dense Koa forest-Sept 11, 1885

Laupahoehoe

November 27, 2015 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Hāmākua Ditch

As a result of the 1902 Arthur S Tuttle report commissioned by the Bishop Estate to study the feasibility of bringing water to the Hāmākua area, two major ditches were proposed – the Upper Ditch and the Lower Ditch.

“The object of the Hawaiian Irrigation Company, Limited, is in brief, the supplying of mountain water, by means of one upper and one lower irrigation canal, from the large watershed and permanent streams of the Kohala mountains, Hawaii …”

“… to the sugar estates in the Hāmākua district, where a large area, which is capable of considerable extension, is now under cultivation.” (Hawaiian Star, July 2, 1910)

The Hawaii Irrigation Company was originally known as the Hāmākua Ditch Company, Ltd., which was incorporated on February 9, 1904. Among the local bond subscribers were FA Schaefer & Co, Honokaa Sugar Co, Pacific Sugar Mill, Allen & Robinson, H Hackfeld, Mr Ahrens and Mr Jorgensen.

Sometime between August 1908 and April 1909, the Hāmākua Ditch Company changed its name to Hawaiian Irrigation Company, Ltd.

“Efforts to obtain water on a large scale for the ‘dry’ Hāmākua section of Hawaii had begun, however, prior to the active association of Mr. McCrosson with the projects. In 1884 Claus Spreckels, WG Irwin, HP Baldwin and others had surveys made and did considerable preliminary work, but the scheme was abandoned owing to the decision of Mr. Baldwin to concentrate his energies and capital upon the island of Maui.”

“In 1892 LA Thurston, then minister of the interior, made an official survey of the country (with a view to devising a scheme for taking water into Hamakua.) These several surveys formed the basis of Mr McCrosson’s later operations and the survey basis of the three great systems as they appear today.” (Hawaiian Star, July 2, 1910)

Water sources for the Upper Hāmākua Ditch were the Kawainui and the Alakahi streams, as well as general runoff from the watershed into the ditch; construction apparently commenced in April 1906. The Ditch was completed in January of 1907 and was initially able to deliver 15 MGD (million gallons per day.)

John T McCrosson oversaw the construction of the ditch. The Upper Ditch was approximately 23-miles in length and some 15 miles of it ran through Honokaa Sugar Co. and Pacific Sugar Mill land. Originally the Upper Ditch consisted of dirt ditches and galvanized flumes patched with lumber.

The Lower Ditch construction began in June 1907 (water sources were the Kawainui, Alakahi, Koeawi, and later, the Waimea streams,) but serious construction work did not start until September 1908. The ditch was opened on July 1, 1910 with a delivery of 30 MGD.

It was the occasion of two days of banquets, speeches and merry-making … “According to rumors aboard the Mauna Kea, the Hamakua Ditch opening on Friday will be the scene of an immense gathering, if the weather be favorable. It is understood that the entire population of the district will foregather there…” (Hawaiian Star, June 30, 1910)

The original length of the Lower Ditch was approximately 24 miles. Later on it was extended about 5 miles to supply water to Pauʻuilo Plantation.

“(F)rom the water head to the exit from Waipio Valley a distance of nearly nine miles, the ‘ditch’ is no ditch at all but a continuous tunnel with only three breaks where it comes out of the face of the bluff to span a narrow gorge and plunge into the face of the opposite precipice once more to bury itself in the lava depths …”

“… and that there are as yet unused possibilities for the incidental development of 8000 horsepower which can be distributed as electric energy all over the Island of Hawaii, give some conception of what the Great Ditch means.” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 5, 1910)

Japanese laborers built the ditch tunnels, the tunnel of the Lower Ditch, traveling the 8.9-miles from the Kawainui intake to the weir at Kukuihaele, was one of the longest in Hawai‘i. It was further distinguished by being quite large, approximately 10 X 12 feet in diameter. In 1920, another tunnel was constructed through Lalakea Gulch.

Apparently, three people were killed as a result of the building of the ditch. In July 1909, an engineer, Thomas F Kelly, drowned (with his horse) in Waipi`o Valley as he was returning from Kukuihaele with supplies.

A month later, a Japanese laborer was “pinned down by a large rock falling on him; he died shortly after the accident.” There is mention of a third, a Japanese workman, who, during the cutting of a trail across the face of the pali, was struck by a falling rock, “and he tumbled to death hundreds of feet below.” (EnvHawaii)

Due to various disputes , by February of 1915, Hawaiian Irrigation Co. was taken over by new management (essentially that of Honokaa Sugar Co.)

The company became involved in the growing and selling of rice. A rice mill was operated and became a source of revenue. There were also a few small independent poi factories located in the valley. The records also reflect other attempts regarding diversified agriculture in the valley.

In 1960, Honokaa Sugar Co. bought the remaining outstanding shares of the Hawaiian Irrigation Company, making Hawaiian Irrigation Company a wholly owned subsidiary of that firm.

For half a century it was the sole source for potable water for the communities along its path. The Hāmākua Ditch is woven into the history and culture of the local communities beyond its length. The ditch continues to serve the needs of the Hāmākua community.

The demise of the sugar industry, including the closure of Hāmākua Sugar in 1994, left a void in communities on the Big Island and throughout the state. At that time, the community expressed a strong desire to retain an agricultural lifestyle, which helped define the character of the community.

A movement toward growing a diversified agricultural community began with an eye on the highly desirable lower elevation lands. The Hāmākua Ditch remained a critical and important piece in this vision.

The Hamakua Ditch Work Group (comprised of local farmers and ranchers, representatives from the Hāmākua Farm Bureau and Hāmākua/North Hilo Cooperative, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, State Department of Agriculture, State Legislators and Kamehameha Schools) formed shortly after the 1994 closing of the plantation and has focused on maintenance and preservation of the Hāmākua Ditch system. (Takamine)

“John T McCrosson, the builder of the Hāmākua ditch, was born In Delaware, and arrived in the Islands first in March, 1880, going to Kohala plantation, where he had charge of theo traction engines. Remained there and at other plantations until 1885, when he went to San Francisco and engaged in the machinery business.”

“While at Kohala, Mr McCrosson studied deeply into the water problem of that rich country, and worked out during the years at San Francisco the great systems which are now under way there.”

“He returned to the Islands in 1895 and, with the exception of business visits to Washington, London, and other cities, has been here ever since. The Kohala ditch was the first planned and carried out by Mr. McCrosson.”

“This was completed June 11, 1906, and was the occasion of a monster ‘celebration’ in which almost the whole Island of Hawaii joined.” (Hawaiian Star, July 2, 1910) (Lots of information here is from HSPA, EnvHawaii and Takamine.)