Joint-Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

March 28, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lualualei

Hiʻiaka (Pele’s sister) passed along the kula (plain) of Māʻili, and then turned to look at the uplands. She saw the dazzling light of the sun on the uplands of Lualualei and chanted:

Wela ka la e! Wela ka la e!
Ua wela i ka la ke kula o Lualualei.
Ua nau ia e ka la a ‘oka‘oka.

The sun is hot! The sun is hot!
The heat of the sun is on the plain of Lualualei.
The sun chews it up entirely.” (Maly)

Two meanings are suggested for the place name Lualualei; one meaning “the valley of the flexible wreaths,” a kaona, and the other meaning “beloved one spared.” (Sinoto)

A reference to Lualualei ahupuaʻa is found in Kamakau where he recounts Kākuhihewa’s birth and upbringing. Taken to ʻEwa and raised on “the sweetness of the poi of Kamaile; the soft mullet of Lualualei…,” it is evident that the Waiʻanae coast was beloved, especially for its coastal resources and quality of kalo. (Sinoto)

Further evidence that Lualualei must have been a favored locality for settlement is indicated by the remnant agricultural terraces in the inland areas and the fact that Kamehameha III kept the ahupuaʻa for himself. For that reason, the number of Land Commission Awards is limited to only six mauka lands. (Sinoto)

In 1921, Congress designated 2,000-acres at Lualualei for Hawaiian Homelands. Then, in the early-1930s, Territorial Governor Judd, through Executive Orders, granted all but 475-acres to the US Navy. (This removed a chunk of land from Hawaiian Homelands.)

The transfers under the EOs were later disputed and in 1998 an agreement was reached between the State and Feds where DHHL gained control of lands at Barber’s Point Naval Air Station (at Kalaeloa) and the Navy had continued use of the Lualualei property.

The agreement was signed in a ceremony at Washington Place with Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Governor Ben Cayetano signing the memorandum of agreement, with Deputy Assistant Navy Secretary William Cassidy in attendance.

The Navy has used Lualualei as an ammunition depot (initially Naval Ammunition Depot Oʻahu, now Naval Magazine Pearl Harbor) and a communications facility (Lualualei Naval Radio Transmitting Facility) since 1934.

Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Lualualei Annex’s primary tenant is Naval Magazines whose mission is to receive, renovate, maintain, store and issue ammunition, weapons and technical materials for the Navy, Air Force, Army and other activities and units as designated by the Chief of Naval Operations.

Kolekole Pass forms a low crossing point through the Waiʻanae Mountains. A prehistoric trail crossed Kolekole pass linking Waiʻanae Uka with Waiʻanae Kai.

Kolekole Pass Road is located on the federal lands connecting these military facilities on Waiʻanae coast of Oʻahu to Schofield Barracks Army Installation in Central Oahu. The Army’s 3rd Engineers corps constructed vehicular passage in 1937.

The Magazine facility, a terminus for the Kolekole Pass road, contains 255 aboveground storage structures capable of housing 78,000 tons of ammunition and explosives. (hawaii.gov) The shipping and receiving center is located at West Loch, Pearl Harbor.

The Lualualei Naval Radio Transmitting Facility is used to transmit state-of-the-art radio signals for the navigation of Navy vessels throughout the Pacific. It is the primary Department of Defense long-range transmitter installation in Hawai‘i. The Navy and Coast Guard jointly use the facility. (hawaii-gov)

The very low frequency (VLF) transmitters communicate with submerged submarines in the Pacific and Arctic regions. VLF signal can travel to extreme depths enabling submarines to receive messages without surfacing and are used 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week.

The most notable features related to this are two 1,500-foot cable-stayed steel truss mast antennas of the Navy’s communication systems at Lualualei (built in 1972) which are the state’s highest structure.

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From Pohakea Pass. Puu Paheehee at right.

From Pohakea Pass. Cone at left is Puu o Hulu. Cone at right is Puu Mailiili.

Lualualei Radio Transmitter-048252pv-LOC

Lualualei Radio Transmitter-048253pv-LOC

Lualualei Radio Transmitter-048255pv-LOC

Lualualei Radio Transmitter-048258pv-LOC

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Lualualei-Low_Frequency_Power_Input_Station-(Kessler)-1958

Lualualei-Low_Frequency_Transmitter-(Kessler)-1958

On duty inside lo Freq F. O’Neill 1946.

Gate to Radio Station

Lualualei-Railroad Tracks-(Walker-Moody)

Lualualei-Sick_Bay-Barracks-(Kessler)-1958

Low Freq 1946

Lualualei-Very_Low_Frequency_Transmitter-console

VIEW OF ANTENNA TOWER S-109 FACING NORTH. - U.S. Naval Base, Pearl Harbor, Lualualei Radio Transmitter-048253pv-LOC

VIEW OF ANTENNA TOWER S-111 FACING NORTHWEST. COMMUNICATIONS CONTROL LINK BUILDING (BLDG NO. 205)-048257pv-LOC

April 4, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Timeline Tuesday … 1930s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1930s – sugar production peaks, Pan-Am Clipper service begins, Hickam Airfield is constructed, ‘Aloha Shirt’ is trademarked and Doris Duke builds Shangri La. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

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Timeline-1930s

July 8, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honolulu Sugar Company

A little over 100-years after it started, its buildings were almost refurbished and saved from demolition … to serve as a headquarters and factory for Crazy Shirts Hawaiʻi.

For nearly 50 years the mill and refinery buildings were surrounded by thousands of acres of sugar cane fields with linkages by railroad to other mills and cane field sources.
It began as the Honolulu Sugar Company, but over the years it went by a lot of names – but to most folks it was known as the ʻAiea Sugar Mill.

Let’s look back.

September 1, 1888, Bishop Estate leased about 2,900-acres for a period of twenty years, until September 1, 1908 to James I Dowsett.

At about this same time, (1898,) the Hālawa Plantation Company was organized, with 4,000-acres from the coastal plain around Pearl Harbor up the hillsides to 650 feet. A year later Hālawa Plantation Company was reorganized as Honolulu Plantation Company. (NPS)

Dowsett died and on August 1, 1898, the administrator of his estate sub-let the land to the Honolulu Sugar Company (formed in San Francisco and headed by John Buck.) That year, the Honolulu Sugar Company built a sugar mill in ‘Aiea.

Almost two months later, Honolulu Sugar Company assigned the lease to the Honolulu Plantation Company. (US District Court) Operations expanded; the plantation and mill prospered.

ʻAiea was named for a small shrub (Nothocestrum – used by ancient Hawaiians for thatching sticks (ʻaho) and fire-making) that once grew profusely there; it was plowed under to make way for sugar. The town of ʻAiea was created because of, and grew up around, the mill.

Labor for the fledgling company was problematic; many workers had to be imported: “We have some 200 Contract Japanese Laborers now on the plantation and another hundred at the Quarantine Station in Honolulu which will swell our daily labor to about 500 men, there being nearly 300 Chinese, Japanese, Native and Portuguese free laborers now on the plantation.” (Klieger)

The plantation expanded along the inshore and upland areas of Pearl Harbor – it extended from ʻAiea westward as far as Mānana and Waiawa Streams. It included lands where the present Honolulu International Airport and Hickam Base are located. (Cultural Surveys)

By 1901, Honolulu Plantation Company had started its own railroad. On the Hālawa property, the narrow-gauge rail line extended through the lower canefields (at what is now Honolulu International Airport,) crossed the OR&L at Puʻuloa Station (near the present Nimitz Gate at Pearl Harbor), skirted the southern edge of Makalapa Crater, wound its way past the fields at the confluence of Kamananui and Kamanaiki Streams, and climbed the grade up to the ʻAiea mill site. (Klieger)

In December 1914, a newspaper article reported that “Generally, the first request of a visitor to Honolulu who wishes to see the sights and has but a few hours in which to do so is to be shown a sugar mill, and in nearly every instance the sugar mill of the Honolulu Plantation Company at Aiea is the one visited.”

“Malihinis receive their first impressions of sugar-making here, and they are always lasting, for the mill of this corporation is an up-to-date and model institution, incorporating all the latest devices and improvements in the manufacture of sugar, and in some instances putting into use innovations.” (NPS)

By the early-1900s, all of the ʻEwa plains was transformed and planted in sugar; by the mid-1930s, Honolulu Plantation Company had more than 23,000-acres of land in and around ʻAiea.

In 1910 the Honolulu Plantation Company helped with the reforestation of ridges and uplands; about 125,000 trees were planted in the fall of 1910 and 1911.

In the 1930s the Honolulu Plantation Company employed about 2,500 people and refined more than 40,000 tons of sugar annually.

Pre- and post-World War II impacts and military needs affected not only the expansion, but also transformed the future of Honolulu Plantation.

The beginning of the end of ʻAiea as a plantation came in 1935 when the US government took 625-prime cane acres to build Hickam Field. With the advent of WWII, the company lost more of its best lands to military operations, roads and rapidly developing commercial and housing areas. (NPS)

In 1942, the Army built a cupola or lookout tower on top of the refinery and manned it day and night for the next three years.

In 1944 and 1945, despite having lost nearly 50% of its lands to the Army and Navy, the company supplied the mid-Pacific area with 70,000-tons of white sugar – noted as “a remarkable wartime achievement.” Two years after the war, plantation operations were discontinued and houses sprouted in ʻAiea where sugar cane once grew. (NPS)

Honolulu Plantation was forced out of business by rising labor costs, low sugar yields and military confiscation of half its canefields and went bankrupt in 1946; the plantation acreage was sold to Oʻahu Sugar Company and most of the mill equipment went to a Philippines firm.

Taking over the mill enabled C&H to refine raw sugar intended for the Hawaiʻi market in the Islands, instead of sending it to California for refining and shipping it back for use here. By 1954, the ʻAiea mill’s refined sugar output, to Hawai’i retailers, manufacturers and pineapple canneries, reach 62,000 tons. (HHF)

Alexander & Baldwin Properties bought the site in 1993 and soon added a new liquid-sugar refinery in order to satisfy an increasing demand for soft-drink sweeteners. But granulated sugar production was becoming unprofitable.

A&B sought to scrap the site and develop an industrial park. In steps Rick Ralston from Crazy Shirts to save the historic structure, restoring some to maintain the historic sugar flavor, as well as refurbish and reuse parts for the shirt production.

However, costs for clean-up mounted and forced abandonment of the restoration – Bank of Hawaiʻi took over the property. The ʻAiea Mill was demolished in 1998. The ʻAiea Sugar Mill property was bounded by Ulune Street, ʻAiea Heights Drive, Kulawea Street, Hakina Street, and ʻAiea Intermediate School.

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honolulu_plantation_williams_1915

C. Brewer’s Honolulu plantation mill (1898-1946) located at ‘Aiea, O’ahu, ca. 1902

Aiea Mill-Sugar Plantation, Oahu, TH-Feb 26, 1940-Babcock

14-1-14-17 =aiea mill looking toward Pearl Harbor- Kamehameha Schools Archives

Aiea Halawa-Sugar cane fields and sugar mill at Aiea, Oahu, T.H. Alt. 800' Aug 4, 1933-Babcock

Possibly-Aiea_Sugar-aep-his276

Pearl Ridge Hill-Sugar cane fields at Aiea, Oahu, T.H. Altitude 800′-Aug 4, 1933-Babcock

Burning off a field of sugarcane, Aiea, Oahu, TH-Aug 1, 1932-Babcock

Aiea-Nothocestrum

Aiea-Nothocestrum_breviflorum_(4740368749)

Honolulu_Sugar_Company-Reg2643

May 13, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Watertown

As a means of solidifying a site in the central Pacific, the US negotiated an amendment to the Treaty of Reciprocity in 1887. King Kalākaua in his speech before the opening session of the 1887 Hawaiian Legislature stated (November 3, 1887:)

“I take great pleasure in informing you that the Treaty of Reciprocity with the United States of America has been definitely extended for seven years upon the same terms as those in the original treaty, with the addition of a clause granting to national vessels of the United States the exclusive privilege of entering Pearl River Harbor and establishing there a coaling and repair station.”

From 1901 to 1908, the Navy devoted its time to improving the facilities of the 85 acres that constituted the naval reservation in Honolulu. Under the Appropriation Act of March 3, 1901, this tract of land was improved with the erection of additional sheds and housing. The station grew slowly, and not always at an even pace. (navy-mil)

On May 13, 1908, the US Congress affirmed Pearl Harbor’s strategic importance by appropriating funds and authorized and directed the Secretary of the Navy “to establish a naval station at Pearl Harbor, Hawaiʻi, on the site heretofore acquired for that purpose”. (Congressional Record)

Until the transfer of the Naval Station to Pearl Harbor, the naval reservation in Honolulu remained nothing more than a rather elaborate coaling station. The major interests were the shipping and weighing of coal and the checking of invoices. (navy-mil)

Immediate improvements included dredging the entry channel; constructing the necessary infrastructure and other naval facilities; and building a drydock.

Congress further noted that Secretary “may, in his discretion, enter into contracts for any portion of the work, including material therefor, within the respective limits of cost herein stipulated, subject to appropriations to be made therefor by Congress, or may direct the construction of said works or any portion thereof under the supervision of a civil engineer of the Navy.” (Congressional Record)

“A small army of men, looking for work at Pearl Harbor, besieged the Naval Station this morning. … Men, who have been turned away from time to time with the promise that they might find something, when the necessary papers arrived, this morning thronged to the place to get the precious slips. … The men are to be put to work as soon as Washington has been heard from and building at Pearl Harbor begins.” (Evening Bulletin, August 6, 1908)

On December 5, 1908, the newly-formed “Hawaiian Dredging Company of Honolulu was found to have made, the lowest figure of the six bidden ($3,560,000,) which included two Honolulu concerns and four mainland companies.” (Evening Bulletin, December 1, 1908)

Hawaiian Dredging apparently initially intended a partner, “The contract for the dredging of the Pearl Harbor channel… will be handled in a combination with the San Francisco Bridge Company”. (Hawaiian Star, December 18, 1908) However, shortly thereafter, it was noted that Hawaiian Dredging “is now controlled and owned entirely by the Dillingham interests”. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 22, 1908)

“The contract was signed December 24, 1908, and actual dredging operations began March 1, 1909.” (Congressional Record) The period from 1908 to 1919 was one of steady and continuous growth of the Naval Station, Pearl Harbor. (navy-mil)

That leads us to this piece’s title and the focus of this summary – Watertown.

With all the work underway at Pearl Harbor, Hawaiian Dredging created a camp, more like a small city, to house and provide for the workers and their families.

It was called ‘Watertown,’ because of the frequent leaks in its water main, which was installed so hastily that much of it lay above ground. (McElroy) (It was alternatively known as “Dredger’s Row” or “Drydock Row.” (Waller))

It was situated “on the Waikīkī or Honolulu shore of the channel … just below Bishop Point, and mauka of Queen Emma Point (Fort Kamehameha.)” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser; Papacostas)

Watertown was a 2,000-acre settlement containing numerous large structures, roads, rail lines, port facilities and an ethnically diverse population of laborers responsible for the dredging of Pearl Harbor. In the early 1930s the population of Watertown numbered 1,000 laborers and their families, including 300 school-aged children. (McElroy)

The residents were made up of Japanese, Russians, Chinese, Portuguese and a score of Americans who were the employees of the dry-dock, machinists, launch hands, laborers and native Hawaiian fishermen. (Fletcher)

In addition, off-duty inspectors overseeing the dredging operations lived at Watertown in quarters provided by Hawaiian Dredging and ate their meals at a restaurant conducted by Chinese. (While on duty they slept and ate on the dredges which were located from one-half to two miles from shore in the channel.) (Fletcher)

The town included a schoolhouse and adjacent Catholic Church, a theater, post office, at least one hotel and a number of stores and offices.

In addition to housing its resident population, Watertown was noted as a recreation hub for the entire region, complete with gambling, drink and prostitution. (McElroy)

By the early-1930s, Watertown was falling into disrepair and businesses were declining. Demolition began in 1935 and had disappeared by December 11, 1936, when an Army air base (later Hickam Air Force Base) replaced the town (however, the former Watertown school buildings were initially used by the construction crew associated with the Hickam construction.) (Waller)

The image shows dredging at Pearl Harbor. (honoluluadvertiser) In addition, I have included more related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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February 5, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

HNL

John Rodgers, Commanding Officer of the Naval Air Station at Pearl Harbor from 1923 to 1925, left to command the Navy’s historical flight between the West Coast and Hawaiʻi.

On August 31, 1925, Rodgers and his crew left San Francisco to attempt the first flight across the Pacific Ocean from the Mainland US to Hawaiʻi. The seaplane was forced to land in the ocean after running out of fuel, about 365 miles from Oʻahu.

After three days of waiting to be picked up, the crew crafted sails from the wings of the plane and sailed toward Hawaiʻi. On the tenth day, they spotted Kauaʻi. Ten miles off shore they met a submarine which towed them safely to shore.

(Rodgers lived only one year after the Hawaiian flight. While serving as the Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, he was killed in a single engine plane crash in the Delaware River near the Naval Aircraft Factory, Philadelphia on August 27, 1926.)

In response to the growing demand to accommodate aviation presence, the Territorial Legislature appropriated funds for the acquisition and improvement of an airport and/or landing field on the Island of Oʻahu, within a reasonable distance of Honolulu.

According to the Act, Territorial Treasury funds needed to be matched with private funding; the Chamber of Commerce raised the matching money from local businessmen.

From these funds, about 119-acres of fast (dry) land and 766-acres of submerged land were purchased from the SM Damon Estate as an airport site.

John Rodgers Airport (named in honor of Rodgers) was dedicated March 21, 1927 and placed under the jurisdiction of the Territorial Aeronautical Commission – then, construction began.

In 1929, a runway 250-300 feet wide and 2,050-feet long was completed as well as considerable clearing on the balance of the area.

Over the next few years, the facility faced various stages of expansion, on land and in the water – the layout included a combined airport and Seadrome, with seaplane runways in Keʻehi Lagoon adjacent to John Rodgers Airport.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, all airports were taken over by the US armed forces. The Army Corps of Engineers began to build four runways at John Rodgers Airport which would become Naval Air Station Honolulu (NAS 29) and home base for an Army and Navy Air Transport Command.

Dredged material from the seaplane runway was used to fill some of the submerged land and raise the elevation of the airport to about eight feet. The land area was increased from about 200-acres to more than 1,000-acres. Over the years, the facilities expanded.

The Navy completed construction of a terminal building, control tower and maintenance hangars for land planes operated by the Naval Air Transport Services. On the north side of the field, the Navy built the Naval Air Station Honolulu to support the Naval Air Transport operations and to house about 5,000-men.

The airport was officially designated as Naval Air Station Honolulu, with the primary mission of maintaining and operating a base for Naval Air Transport Units, Pacific Wing. During the war years, John Rodgers Airport was also home base for the Naval Utility Flight Unit, Naval Air Transport Service, 1522d AAF Base Unit, 15th Air Service Squadron and 19th Troop Carrier Squadron.

Full scale operations commenced at US Naval Air Station Honolulu for both land and sea planes on April 1, 1944 (by the end of World War II the seaplane runways were obsolete.)

In 1946, John Rodgers Airport was one of the largest airports in the US and comprised over 4,000-acres. It had four paved land plane runways, 200 feet wide and with lengths varying from 6,200 linear feet to 7,650 linear feet. There were three seaplane runways, each 1,000 feet wide with an average length of approximately 2.7 miles.

Space for federal agencies was provided, including the CAA Control Tower, Airways Traffic Control and Communication Center. Also US Customs, US Immigration, US Department of Agriculture, US Public Health and US Weather Bureau.

John Rodgers Airport was returned to the Territory on October 1, 1946; the following year the name changed from John Rodgers Airport and Keʻehi Lagoon Seaplane Harbor to Honolulu Airport. In 1951, its name changed to Honolulu International Airport.

Recognizing the importance of making visitors welcome in Hawaiʻi, Lei Stands replaced cars and trucks, that previously had parked on the airport entry road.

Then, in 1953, Honolulu International Airport’s combine Hickam/Honolulu 13,097-foot runway was officially declared the longest runway in the world by the Airport Operators Council.

By 1959, most major airlines serving Hawaiʻi decided to purchase jet aircraft and have them in operation between Hawaiʻi and the mainland; the next expansion of the airport was timed to the schedules of the major airlines.

On February 5, 1959, a groundbreaking ceremony was held to mark construction to accommodate “jet age facility (that was) the first of our major public improvements when Hawaiʻi becomes a state” and “a facility which Hawaiʻi will be proud of.” (Governor William F Quinn) The first jet service from the mainland US and Hawaiʻi started later that year.

In 1962, Hawaiʻi Visitors Information Program was established to welcome passengers at Honolulu International Airport and Honolulu Harbor, to encourage travel to the Neighbor Islands, and to provide information and other help to airport and harbor visitors.

A Joint Use Agreement between Hickam AFB and Honolulu International Airport was signed in 1963. It specified that for the purpose of overall aerial and ground operation, Hickam AFB and HNL comprised a single airport complex.

Construction of the first phase of the long-awaited Reef Runway over the fringe reef began in 1972; the runway was completed and dedicated for use on October 14, 1977.

HNL (identifying Honolulu International Airport) is part of the 3-letter airport and 2-letter airline codes administered by the Montreal-based International Air Transport Association (IATA.) It was patterned after the National Weather Service 2-letter identification system, giving a seemingly endless 17,576-different combinations.

Honolulu got HNL; to ease the transition for existing airports, an X was placed after the 2-letter weather station code (i.e. Los Angeles became LAX, Portland became PDX and so on.) At the historic sand dune in Kitty Hawk, where the first flight occurred, the US National Parks Service maintains a tiny airstrip called FFA—First Flight Airport. (Lots of info here is from hawaii-gov.)

The image shows John Rodgers Airport, Honolulu, 1928. In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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