Hawaii Volcanoes National Park | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

May 26, 2019 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Uncle George

George Lycurgus (1858–1960) was a Greek American businessman who played an influential role in the early visitor industry of Hawaiʻi.

He was instrumental in the development of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.

In 1893, Lycurgus leased a small guest house on Waikīkī Beach. He expanded it and renamed it the “Sans Souci” (French for “without care” and named after the palace of Frederick the Great in Germany.)

It became one of the first Waikīkī beach resorts (that end of Waikīkī is still called “Sans-Souci Beach.”) Among its guests was Robert Louis Stevenson.

Stevenson wrote in the guest book: “If anyone desires such old-fashioned things as lovely scenery, quiet, pure air, clean sea water, good food, and heavenly sunsets hung out before their eyes over the Pacific and the distant hills of Waianae, I recommend him cordially to the Sans Souci.”

“In 1893 Sans Souci was a rambling hostelry, nestled among the coconut and palm trees of Waikiki Beach. The guests occupied small bungalows, thatched-roof affairs about ten by twelve, the bed being the principal article of furniture.”

“It was in one of these bungalows that Stevenson had established himself, propped up with pillows on the bed in his shirt-sleeves.” Scribner’s Magazine, August, 1926.

By 1898, the Spanish American War had increased American interest in the Pacific. Hawaiʻi was annexed as a territory of the United States and Lycurgus applied for American citizenship.

He opened a restaurant called the Union Grill in Honolulu in 1901. He later invested in a logging venture in 1907 and also bought the Hilo Hotel in 1908.

In 1903, when he returned to Greece to visit his mother, he met and married Athena Geracimos from Sparta. She was probably the first Greek woman in Hawaiʻi.

In December 1904, George and his nephew (Demosthenes Lycurgus) became principal stockholders of the Volcano House Company and took over the management of the Volcano House hotel on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.

His nephew always introduced him as “Uncle George” to the guests, which earned him his new nickname.

He worked with Lorrin Thurston and others for ten years, starting in 1906, to have the volcano area made into Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.

In January 1912, geologist Thomas Jaggar arrived to investigate the volcano. A building for scientific instruments was built in a small building next to the hotel. Jaggar stayed in Volcano for the next 28 years.

In 1921, George Lycurgus sold the Volcano House to the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company and moved to Hilo. During the Great Depression the company was going bankrupt and Lycurgus bought it back.

A fire destroyed the hotel in 1940, ironically from a kitchen oil burner, not volcanic activity. Only a few artifacts, such as a koa wood piano, were saved.

At the age of 81, he traveled to Washington, DC to have the construction of the new park headquarters building farther back from the lip of the crater.

That allowed him, in 1941, to build a more modern hotel at the former Hawaiian Volcano Observatory site. He reopened the new Volcano House (designed by notable architect Charles William Dickey.)

After another eruption in 1952, at the age of 93, he arranged a publicity stunt involving riding a horse to the rim of the erupting vent and tossing in his ceremonial bottle of gin. (The offering of gin became a regular at Volcano after that.)

Uncle George died in 1960 at the age of 101.

The National Park recently announced that Hawaiʻi Volcanoes Lodge Company has been selected to operate the Volcano House Hotel, Nāmakanipaio cabins and campground and other commercial services within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. The facility is scheduled to reopen in late-2012.

Volcano has been a special place for me.

As a kid, our family often visited Volcano and regularly stayed at the Volcano House. I remember seeing and meeting Uncle George while he was sitting before the continuously-burning fireplace at the Volcano House.

Decades later, I purposefully went to Volcano to plan the formation of my first business; the initial planning was on cocktail napkins at the Volcano House bar (the business succeeded.)

Today, the Young siblings own a house at Volcano our mother built; I used to visit there once a month, but now get back to it less frequently.

The Volcano Art Center Gallery is located in the 1877 Volcano House Hotel (now adjacent to the Volcano Visitor Center) under a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.

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Uncle George Lycurgus

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San Souci Beach Area – large house (Mitchell) is where Natatorium is now located-1886

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September 6, 2018 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Kahuku Ranch

On July 8, 1861 184,298 acres of Kahuku, the entire ahupua‘a was assigned by King Kamehameha IV to Charles Coffin Harris under Patent 2791 for $3,000. As with most grants it recognized the “ancient boundaries” and reserved “the rights of native tenants.”

Harris, a graduate of Harvard learned the Hawaiian language and set up a law practice in Hawai`i. His service to the kingdom included Minister of Finance, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hawai`i’s first Attorney General, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and then Chief Justice, 1877-1881, police magistrate and legislative member.

Kalākaua studied law under Harris at the age of 17 making it no surprise Harris became the King’s adviser. While no record of Harris’ activities in Kahuku could be found the land may not have been used for ranching until the next owner. (Helen Wong Smith)

Ownership of Kahuku Ranch transferred from Harris to Theophilus Brown of Groton Connecticut on April 3, 1866 for the price of $5,250. Theophilus’ brother Captain Robert Brown operated the Ranch bringing his family with him.

A visitor to the ranch during these years was Mrs. Alura Brown Cutler wrote the ranch had miles of stone walls enclosing gardens, cattle yards, calf pasture, goat and pig pens.

The gardens contained fig and peach trees as well as bananas and mulberries. She reported the house was located seven miles from the sea and five stone houses for families working for the ranch were provided. (Helen Wong Smith)

Then, “On Friday, March 27, 1868, at 5:30 a.m., several whaling ships anchored in Kawaihae Harbor noticed a dense column of fume reflected by a bright light southwest of the summit of Mauna Loa.”

“An eruption near Moku`āweoweo had taken place, lasting several hours before subsiding. Pele’s hair had drifted down upon the residents of Ka‘ū and South Kona, indicating the presence of lava fountains above. (HVO; Helen Wong Smith)

“This was the scene that opened before us as we ascended the ridge on Friday (April 10, 1868). At the left were these four grand fountains playing with terrific fury, throwing blood-red lava and huge stones, some as large as a house, to £ varying from 500 to 1,000 feet.”

“The grandeur of this scene, ever changing like a moving panorama, no one who has not seen it can realize. Then there was the rapid, rolling stream, rushing and tumbling like a swollen river, down the hill, over the precipice and down the valley to the sea, surging and roaring like a cataract, with a fury perfectly indescribable.”

“This river of fire varied from 200 to 800 feet in width, and when it is known that the descent was 2,000 feet in five miles, the statement that it ran at the rate of ten to twenty-five miles an hour will not be doubted.”

“We waited till night, when the scene was a hundred fold more grand and vivid. The crimson red of the lava now doubly bright, the lurid glare of the red smoke-clouds that overhung the whole, …”

“… the roaring of the rushing stream, the noise of the tumbling rocks thrown out of the crater, the flashes of electric lightning, and the sharp quick claps of thunder – altogether made the scene surpassingly grand.” (HM Whitney, editor of the Honolulu Advertiser, April 13, 1868)

“The 1868 flow destroyed the house of Capt. Robert Brown …. The flow advanced so quickly on the house that Captain Brown and his family escaped with only the clothes on their backs.”

“Soon after the eruption, Theophilus sold the ranch to a hui (group) that included George Jones, who bought out his partners’ interests to became sole owner in 1877.”

“Another Mauna Loa eruption in 1887 produced an ‘a‘ā flow to the west of the 1868 eruption. From vent to ocean, the flow advanced 24 km (15 mi) in about 29 hours and came close – but did not damage – Jones’ residential compound.”

“The real impact of the 1887 eruption on Jones’ ranch was the flow of sightseers. George was known as a very hospitable man and, for several weeks, was forced to suspend operations in order to accommodate the hordes of curious visitors.”

“About a year-and-a-half after the 1887 eruption, Jones sold the ranch to Col. Samuel Norris. Norris, described as eccentric and peculiar, was not hospitable to his fellow Caucasians.”

“Another Mauna Loa eruption in 1907 produced lava flows to the west of the 1887 and 1868 flows, further reducing pasture lands. Tourists flocking to the new flows were not welcomed by the new ranch owner.”

“Norris was 66 when he bought the ranch. In 1910, when he realized he was dying, Norris essentially gave away the ranch, “selling” it to his long-time friend, Charles Macomber, for a dollar, complaining that lava flows had devalued the property. Norris died a few months later.”

“The upper reaches of the ranch were overrun by lava in 1903, 1916, and 1926 but these eruptions did not precipitate a sale as the earlier ones had.“

“In 1912, Macomber sold the ranch to A.W. Carter for inclusion in the famed Parker Ranch.” “During this ownership 1,200 head of cattle were largely run on the land nearest the highway, marginally using the land above the 1,400 foot elevation”

“On February 6, 1947 Parker Ranch sold Kahuku to James W Glover founder of the general construction firm bearing his name …. During his ownership Glover planted koa for logging and continued the installation of smooth wire fencing.”

“After Glover’s death, the ranch was sold under court order by the Hawaiian Trust company, the executor of his estate to pay estate debts including inheritance taxes amounting to almost a million dollars. The trustees of the Samuel M. Damon Estate made the winning bid in 1958”. (HVO; Helen Wong Smith)

On July 3, 2003, the National Park Service partnered with the Nature Conservancy to purchase the 116,000-acre Kahuku Ranch from the estate of Samuel Mills Damon as an addition to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, increasing the size of the park by 50% to 333,086 acres. (Vacation and event rentals remain for remnants of the former Kahuku Ranch, makai of the highway)

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Kahuku Ranch-NPS

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January 10, 2018 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

‘Āinahou

Hawai’i Island was the birthplace and stronghold of Hawai’i’s ranching industry and paniolo (cowboy) culture. The first cattle were brought by Captain George Vancouver in 1793 and 1794 as a gift to Kamehameha I who turned them loose and placed a kapu (taboo) on their slaughter until 1830.

By that time, a dozen cattle had proliferated into a numerous and feral population, which was wreaking havoc on native ecosystems and seemed impossible to control.

Kamehameha III then sent an ambassador to Mexico to bring back some vaqueros (Mexican cowboys) to teach local people to ride horses, rope cattle, and tame wild cattle.

Between 1850 and 1900 many different breeds of cattle were imported throughout the Hawaiian Islands and large-scale ranching operations emerged, particularly on Hawai‘i Island – the chief industries elsewhere in the state were sugarcane and pineapple.

The entire ahupua‘a of Keauhou (at Volcano) was awarded to Victoria Kamāmalu, a granddaughter of Kamehameha I. Between 1866 and 1884, the ownership of Keauhou was successively inherited by members of the Kamehameha lineage upon the deaths of previous heirs until the death of Princess Bernice Pauahi.

At that time, her husband Charles Bishop established BP Bishop Estate to administer Keauhou and other properties in Pauahi’s inheritance. Congress purchased the lower portion of Keauhou from BP Bishop Estate and established Hawai‘i National Park in 1916.

In 1921, Bishop Estate leased other portions of Keauhou to May K and Arthur W Brown and they established Keauhou Ranch. In August 1937, the lease was transferred to the Brown heirs. In November 1937, William H Shipman, Ltd purchased the Brown heirs’ Keauhou Ranch lease as well as all animals, structures and land improvements on the property.

Herbert Cornelius Shipman sought the property as a safe retreat in case of a Japanese invasion for himself, his sisters and his father. He renamed it ‘Āinahou (new land) Ranch.

Herbert C Shipman was the only son of William Herbert Shipman, one of East Hawai‘i’s best known ranchers and businessmen. (Herbert Shipman took over the business after his father’s death in 1943.)

Herbert C Shipman was a locally renowned businessman, cattle rancher, wildlife conservationist, philanthropist, and descendant of one of the oldest missionary families in Hawai’i.

The ‘Āinahou Ranch is located within Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, approximately four miles south and down slope from Kilauea Caldera, the world’s most active volcano.

Construction of the ‘Āinahou Ranch House began in 1940 and ended in July of the following year, just before the World War II broke out.

During and after the war, the ranch house was also used as a base of operations for ‘Āinahou Ranch, which supplied beef to military and domestic outlets. After World War II, the ranch supplied meat to Hilo outlets for approximately 20 years.

After the war, ‘Āinahou was used as his personal retreat and a place to entertain friends. An ‘Āinahou guest book contains the signatures of several hundreds of people who were invited by Shipman between 1945-1965.

Among his guest were actresses Joan Crawford and Janet Gaynor, Sir Peter Buck and well known Pacific archaeologists Kenneth Emory and Marian Kelly.

Over the years, elaborate gardens surrounded the ranch house. Shipman moved a surviving flock of nene (Hawaiian goose and State bird) from his coastal residence in Kea‘au to ‘Āinahou Ranch after a tsunami hit the Island of Hawai’i on April 1, 1946, devastating the local nene population. The ranch was used as a nene sanctuary.

Shipman is credited with the saving of the nene from the brink of extinction by initiating a controlled breeding program. At that
time, the total population of the species had been reduced to a few dozen birds.

In 1969, when Kilauea Volcano became active, threatening Shipman’s property, Shipman decided to evacuate all personnel, but left the nene.

In 1971-72, as the lava approached the property within 2/3 of a mile, an agreement was reached where Shipman received payment from the Park Service for the improvements, Bishop Estate terminated Shipman’s lease due to an imminent danger clause and sold the land fee simple to the National Park Service.

The property was purchased by the National Park Service under the authority of the Endangered Species Act, requiring that part of the land be set aside for activities related to preserving endangered species and a portion is currently being used to care for the nene.

Since the National Park Service acquired the property, the house has been used intermittently as a retreat, hostel for visiting work crews and overnight lodging for social groups.

Herbert, who never married, died childless in 1976. In accordance with his will, most of his assets went to establish a philanthropic foundation.

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Ainahou Ranch House and Gardens-NPS-1949

Ainahou Ranch House under construction

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August 11, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ford Tough

“When this earth was created, Nature, it seems, was more concerned with things other than road making, as witness the (attached) illustration.”

“The pictures shown herewith were taken during one of Professor T. A. Jaggar’s daily trips along one of the stretches which Nature forgot to pave with crushed stone and asphalt.”

“Professor Jaggar, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a noted volcano specialist, and most of his work is done around the craters of the smouldering mountains he studies.”

“As director of the Hawaii Volcano Observatory, he has devoted nearly all of his attention to the famous Mauna Loa and Kilauea craters, living right at the scene of his activities and experiments for the past twelve years.”

“Although hazardous, Professor Jaggar makes it his business to get as close as possible to the scenes of eruption and volcanic action in order to obtain first-hand photographs, lava samples, temperature readings, and other valuable scientific data.”

“In this field of work one needs a ‘business car’ just as much as in any other calling, and so the scientist got himself a car that would be not only easy of operation but would stand the terrible strain of volcano climbing as well.”

“The professor bought a Ford and made a few alterations to suit his particular needs, with the result that the machine became more efficient than beautiful.”

“If you will refer to the picture, you will note that the fenders and doors are stripped, and that dual wheels are installed on the rear axle, which enable the car to travel over boulders 10 and 12 inches high with little difficulty, and also to go through deep sand and “aa,” which is the Hawaiian for clinker lava.”

“After having seen about half a dozen years of the most strenuous service imaginable, the car is still ‘going strong.’”

“Mauna Loa is the largest, although not the highest, volcano in the world, being 13,760 feet above sea level ; Kilauea crater is an immense cavity three miles long by two miles wide on the east slope of Mauna Loa.”

“These immense caldrons are reached by means of a very steep, rough trail, which more than proves the marvelous durability of the only car that has ascended it.”

“At the present time nothing but a pack trail leads to the summit of Mauna Loa, and so the Ford cannot be driven to the top, but it has plenty to do in the vicinity of Kilauea and also on the vast flanks of Mauna Loa, where various eruptions have taken place.”

“About a mile distant from Kilauea is a smaller, extinct crater known as ‘Little Kilauea.’ While it is no longer a sea of molten lava, like its near-by active brothers, nevertheless its surface is hot enough in places to be detrimental to the rubber tires on Professor Jaggar’s Ford, and uncomfortable for the feet of his dog.”

“The machine is often ‘cruised’ over freshly flowed lava that is not yet cool in order to make scientific investigations.”

“Professor Jaggar has set up a drilling rig here for the purpose of getting down into the hot lava bed directly beneath the surface to determine the subterranean temperatures and to take samples of gases.”

“The Ford car has been of indispensable assistance in transporting the equipment to and across the terribly rough crater floor; also in carrying the large quantity of water needed when drilling into the hot lava.”

“Heavy photographic equipment is easily taken care of by the car, and specimens are often gathered which have to be taken back to the observatory for study.”

“Because of these and numerous other services rendered by the car, no limit can be placed upon its value to the expedition.”

“At times, the lava in the crater rises rapidly and overflows, spreading destruction on its path. Occurrences like this have been the occasion for several intensive and hazardous expeditions by Professor Jaggar and his party.”

“Professor Jaggar has discovered many facts of scientific importance, and is working on plans for utilizing the heat of the volcano for commercial purposes. He believes that ways can be found to generate a large amount of electricity.”

“First, he hopes that a near-by hotel can be supplied with all the current needed; and eventually, if practical ways are found for harnessing the energy, the entire island will get its power from the volcano.” (This entire post is from Ford News, July 22, 1923.)

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Jaggar-Ford Tough-FordNews-July 22, 1923

February 16, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Whitney Laboratory of Seismology

When a hotel on the rim of Kilauea caldera became a permanent facility in 1866, its series of guest registers became a repository of reports and observations by the guests, an almost daily record (by observers who varied from the scientist to the joker) of earthquakes felt and unfelt and of volcanism seen and unseen on Kilauea and Mauna Loa.

In the hope that science could close the gaps in geological knowledge and learn to predict earthquakes and eruptions, some New Englanders were willing for humanitarian reasons to finance foreign trips and support work abroad for scientists.

For instance, the Springfield (Massachusetts) Volcanic Research Society supported, at least in part, the travels and studies of Frank A. Perret, an electrical engineer and inventor turned volcanologist who became well known for his studies at Vesuvius, Etna, and Stromboli. The Springfield society also helped support Perret’s 1911 work at Kilauea.

It was in this climate of opinion that the trustees of the estates of Edward and Caroline Whitney gave to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) the sum of $25,000 for a memorial fund; the principal and interest were to be expended at MIT’s discretion for research or teaching in geophysics, especially seismology.

Investigations in Hawaii were recommended. The Whitney fund was deeded to MIT by the trustees on July 1, 1909, and three years later a group of twelve other New Englanders supplied MIT with supplemental funds for geophysical research in Hawaii.

MIT gave Thomas A Jaggar a leave of absence in December 1911 and directed him to Kilauea to continue the investigations made in the summer of 1909. Jaggar arrived at Kilauea on January 17, 1912.

Work then started on what would be the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (Observatory.) A cellar excavation on the north rim of Kilauea caldera started on February 16, 1912, marking the beginning of permanent facilities for the Observatory.

The Observatory was largely the creation of Jaggar (1871-1953), then a MIT professor, who recognized the advantages, for the study of volcanism, of onsite facilities at an active volcano.

Wooden stakes marked the corners of a rectangle about 24-feet long by 22-feet wide only about 20-feet from the cliff-like rim of Kilauea caldera on the Island of Hawaii.

A hole was to be dug by hand. The diggers were prisoners of the Territory of Hawaii, sentenced to a term of hard labor. The prisoners dug through almost six feet of volcanic ash and pumice to a layer of thick pahoehoe lava – a firm base for the concrete piers on which seismometers would be anchored.

Jaggar had contracted with Hackfeld for the forms and concrete work for the seismometer vault, and for the wooden structures that were to stand over and adjacent to the vault – the rim-side facilities of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

The result was “a basement room, eighteen feet square, with piers and floor of concrete, reposing upon the upper surface of the basalt, and high walls of concrete (and became known as) the Whitney Laboratory of Seismology.” A building was built above.

“A constant emanation of hot steam from cracks in contact with the concrete walls keeps this room at a fairly uniform temperature and thus improves it for the purposes of seismology.” (Apple)

“Concrete tables on the floor of the cellar held the pair of east-west and north-south horizontal pendulums, recording with delicate pens on smoked paper, stretched over a chronograph drum.”

“These paper records, removed every day and fixed with shellac varnish, became the seismograms of the permanent files. Long belts of wavy lines on each paper exhibited seconds, minutes, and hours; and when a sharp zigzag in one of the lines occurred, it was evidence of either a local or a distant earthquake.” (Jaggar)

However, the “oppressive warmth caused by the natural steam heat” added challenges to the scientists’ daily lives. Scientists through the active life of the vault bundled up in wooly sweaters, scarfs, and raincoats to walk to the vault through the chilling rains and fog at 4,000-foot altitude and then peeled clown to undershirts when they entered the vault to attend the instruments.

Being a basement vault with a building above also created problems. Even in calm weather, movements of the building were recorded by the seismometers in the vault below.

Winter Kona storms swept high winds from the south across Kilauea caldera, hitting with full force against the north rim and causing such rocking and trembling of the building above as to mask the records on the seismograms.

In the winter of 1915-16, gale-force winds stripped the sheets of corrugated iron from the roof of the building. Rain water in the offices above poured into the vault to wash away the seismograms on their drums, flood the floor, and soak the instruments. Repairs took weeks.

On December 19, 1921, the nearby Volcano House began to run a generator for the first electric lights at Kilauea. Variations in the engine speed as well as the exact times of starting and stopping were duly recorded by seismometers in the Whitney vault.

On February 11, 1940, the main Volcano House burned to the ground, and this led to the relocating of the Observatory facilities. (The present Volcano House was opened for business in November 1941.)

That year, the building above the observatory was dismantled, and a reinforced-concrete slab was poured by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to become the vault’s new roof. The slab was covered with 18-inches of topsoil (the vault mound is on the crater side of the Volcano House.)

On December 28, 1947, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory was transferred within the Department of the Interior from the National Park Service to the United States Geological Survey.

In 1948, the Observatory was moved to a building at the top of Uwekahuna Bluff on the northwest rim of Kilauea caldera; a new and larger building there was completed in 1986. (The bulk of the information here comes from Russell Apple’s (retired National Park Service historian) history of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.)

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