Kahana

December 28, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ka-uhi-‘īmaka-o-ka-lani

Ka-uhi-‘īmaka-o-ka-lani (‘the observant cover of the heavens’) was a demigod who had come to Hawaiʻi from (Kahiki) Tahiti with the fire goddess Pele and her followers.

When the followers made their home at Kahana, Ka-uhi-‘īmaka-o-ka-lani was sent to the ridge as a watchman to protect the valley – he was turned to stone.

While Hi‘iaka the goddess (Pele’s younger sister) was returning to meet with Pele, as she approached Kualoa, she came upon a mo‘o (dragon) who tried to stop her.

Hi‘iaka crushed the evil mo‘o and left a piece of his tail as a landmark – Mokoli‘i at Kualoa (his body became the foothills below the steep Kualoa cliffs (‘long back’.))

Today, because of the obvious shape of the island, many generally refer to Mokoli‘i island as “Chinaman’s Hat.”

Moving up the coast, Hi‘iaka came upon Ka-uhi-‘īmaka-o-ka-lani. Ka‘uhi looked down “with eye-sockets moist with the dripping dew from heaven.”

He wished to go with Hi‘iaka. He asked her to free him and when she refused, the tried to tear himself loose and rose to a crouching position.

Today, this rock formation is called “Crouching Lion.”

(Note that ancient Hawaiians never had any Lions, or cats for that matter; the context of what you see is not the same as what they saw – today’s reference is based on modern interpretations of the stone formation.)

Just below the rock formation is the former home of George F. Larsen, a Honolulu contractor who emigrated from Norway; the main structure was a family residence in the mid-1920s.

George and Agnes had six children.

George Jr. became the first Chief of Police on Maui in 1939. Stanley rose to the ranks of 3 star general after attending West Point; he fought in the Pacific during World War II. Young Agnes was well known in the 1930s and 1940s as a ceramicist and sculptor.

The house was at first to be their weekend retreat. Later, they lived there full time and the kids commuted over the Pali to Punahou each day.

Mr. and Mrs. Larsen slept upstairs in a bedroom, while everyone else used the Hawaiian style hikie‘e (a large couch – literally translates to ‘upon your bed’) placed around the great room below.

The construction had 12-by-12 timbers, used for the exterior and interior – the massive logs used in the framework were floated to Kahana Bay (‘cutting or turning point’) – the practice of putting the logs in salt water was used to help discourage termite infestation.

In 1937, the home was sold and in the 1940s it became a Roadside Inn.

In 1952, the landmark property in Ka‘a‘awa (‘the wrasse fish’) opened as a restaurant by John Lind (father to Ka‘a‘awa resident, Ian Lind,) back in 1952.

John Lind was in the hotel and restaurant supply business and saw the building and site as a great round-the-island stopover restaurant.

It changed hands after that.

Like many others, while traveling along the Koʻolauloa coast, we often stopped at the Crouching Lion Inn for a meal – and always paused or looked out the window every time we passed “Crouching Lion” (Ka-uhi-‘īmaka-o-ka-lani) as we drove by.

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The Crouching Lion Inn Kaaawa

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September 5, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ahupuaʻa ʻO Kahana State Park

Ahupuaʻa ʻO Kahana State Park (formerly Kahana Valley State Park) is located in Ko‘olauloa on the windward side of O’ahu, between Kane’ohe and Laʻie, and 26 miles from Honolulu. Kahana is a relatively unspoiled valley, and one of only a few publicly owned ahupuaʻa, or ancient Hawaiian land division, in the state. (DLNR)

In 1965, John J. Hulten (real estate appraiser and State Senator) prepared a report for DLNR noting that Kahana was ideally suited to be a regional park, offering seashore water sports, mountain camping, and salt and freshwater fishing, and a tropical botanical garden. “Properly developed it will be a major attraction with 1,000,000 visits annually.”

The “proper development” he had in mind included 600 “developable acres” for camping, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, and swimming, and foresaw over 1,000 camping sites plus cabins, restaurant, and shops.

He said that a hotel and other commercial buildings could be developed, and wanted the creation of a 50 acre lake. All of this development would be assisted by a botanical garden and a mauka road from Likelike Highway to Kahana.

Instead from 1965 to 1969, the State initiated eminent domain proceedings to acquire the land as a way to prevent a proposed resort development and to retain the open space and rural character of the area. (DlNR)

In 1965, the State condemned the property for park purposes with a $5,000,000 price, paid in five annual installments (which included some federal funds.) By 1969, the State owned Kahana free and clear.

The State acquired the ahupua‘a ‘o Kahana in 1969 from the estate of Mary Foster and six individual lessees. The State was prompted to do so by a 1965 report that portrayed Kahana as a blank slate to be developed in a highly commercial way, including 1,000 camping sites, hotel, cabins, restaurant, a botanical garden, a manmade lake, and shops.

An additional factor supporting state acquisition was that it was one of the few, if not the only, ahupua`a left under virtually sole ownership and in a relatively pristine state.

The families living in Kahana at that time had long-standing ties to the valley, and lobbied the Legislature to allow them to stay in the park and preserve their lifestyle. (Legislative Reference Bureau)

In 1970, a Governor’s task force proposed the concept of a living park that would allow the families to stay and in some way participate in the park. The Governor recommended the concept to the Department of Land and Natural Resources. The residents were allowed to stay on the land under revocable leases.

On December 1, 1993, the Board issued thirty-one leases to families living in Kahana, and in most cases the lessees relocated, as a condition for receiving the leases, from their traditional homes near the coast to new residential subdivisions within Kahana and outside of the coastal flood zone. (Legislature)

In lieu of a monetary payment, the State determined that as a condition of their lease each Kahana family would contribute interpretive services per month to the park, to preserve, restore, and share the history and rural lifestyle of the ahupua‘a with the public.

Each family had to have its adult members contribute twenty-five hours of “interpretive services” each month to the park in exchange for their land lease. The scope of the term “interpretive service” was not well defined, which was soon to become a real problem.

Although the original plan was to delay the interpretive requirements for a year to allow residents to build their homes, the interpretative services were not actually required until February 1996. (LRB)

Over the years, communication difficulties have created challenges between park personnel and residents to the detriment of the cultural interpretive program. Some residents are fully up to date in their required hours, some have partially fallen behind, while others are not participating in the program at all. (DURP, 2013)

Requirements for eligible programs included residents’ interest in the program. This requires programs to be reviewed by a committee working with Park Manager and recommended for action. All aspects of scheduled activities (planning, presenting, clean up, etc.) must be voluntary.

Family members over 14 were accepted as eligible to provide counted working hours. The number of interpretive hours was also fixed to 25 hours per family per month required and a lessee could earn an excess of credit hours (maxing out at 150 hours per year). (DURP, 2013)

In 2017, a resolution in the legislature noted, “lessees are required to contribute twenty-five hours per month of cultural interpretive activities to the park in lieu of lease rent, and although most of the residents are of Hawaiian ancestry and a number have tenure in Kahana going back several generations, many of the current lessees are not engaging in cultural practices”.

That resolution also acknowledged that, “lack of consistent lessee participation and documentation of interpretive hours per the lease requirement makes it evident that the “Living Park” concept has not succeeded in the current form and should be reconsidered”. (There was no action on the resolution by the legislature.)

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November 15, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Huilua Fishpond

Aquacultural fishpond technology allowed the ancient Hawaiians to move beyond mere harvesting of fish and other marine products (i.e. crustaceans, shellfish, and seaweed) to intensive fish production and husbandry.

Reportedly, a total of 449 ponds that were constructed prior to A.D. 1830, most during the prehistoric period. They were built on all the major islands.

Broad shallow reef flats or natural embayments provided an environment where ponds could be constructed easily in sweeping semicircular arcs out from the shoreline.

Along the shoreline were ponds with (kuapa, or pa) and sluice gates (mākāhā). The distinctive feature of the kuapa ponds was the sluice gates.

The mākāhā was stationary with no moveable parts. This was the technological innovation, probably an adaptation from an earlier form used in irrigation agriculture (taro), that enabled the Hawaiians to progress from tide-dependent fishtraps to artificial fishponds which could be controlled at all times of the tide.

Ponds varied in form, construction, methods of operation, and in the species of fish raised. Ponds or loko, were divided into two major categories: shore and inland ponds.

Huilua Fishpond at Kahana Valley in Koʻolauloa on the Island of Oʻahu has been traditionally classified as a loko kuapa pond. It was a working fishpond (with modifications) until the late-1960s.

Huilua Fishpond is one of only six remaining fishponds out of an estimated ninety-seven such structures that once existed on
coastal Oahu and one of the few ancient Hawaiian fishponds that were still operational well into this century.

It is also one of only ten ponds left in the Hawaiian Islands which have not been denuded of their archeological sites during the course of historic coastal development. A large majority of ponds throughout the Islands have also been destroyed by natural agencies such as tsunamis (tidal waves) and sea storms.

Huilua is a shallow, brackish water enclosure of approximately 4 ½-acres that is roughly shaped as a right triangle with the right angle of the base forming the northwest or seaward corner of the pond.

The base or western wall abuts and partially deflects the effluent from the Kahana estuary as it discharges into Kahana Bay. This wall, approximately 500 feet in length.

At the extreme south end of the western wall are located two parallel mākāhā or sluice gates. The makai gate is longer by approximately 10 feet than the mauka gates.

Huilua Pond has been an important element in the long-term habitation of Kahana Valley and is expressive of that habitation. It was an important part of the valley’s cooperative subsistence economy from the late 19th Century until the late-1960s.

At that latter time, the konohiki fishing rights for Kahana Bay were condemned and acquired by the State of Hawaiʻʻi to allow public access to the bay.

Huilua Pond became a part of Kahana Valley Cultural Park, a ‘living park’ concept developed by the Hawaii Department of Lands and Natural Resources whereby approximately 150 persons, many of whom grew up there, reside in the Park.

The ancient Hawaiians believed that walled fishponds of the loko kuapa type were inhabited by moʻo (water spirits) who were also akua (gods) and kiaʻi (guardians) and relied upon them to protect the ponds in order to assure an abundance of fish.

Ritual pollution included the violation of kapu (taboos, i.e., women could not fish nor be involved in the work of the pond), neglect of ritual obligations associated with the pond, poaching, and so on.

Informants on the Kahana Valley oral history project related: ‘Huilua Fishpond has a moʻo that lives in a deep hole at the northwest corner of the fishpond where the western wall meets the northern.’

When the moʻo leaves the pond and then later returns ‘there are always dried leaves floating on the top of the water to indicate its presence’.

Oral history informants from Kahana Valley also related that their elders and grandparents propitiated the traditional fish god Kuʻula, otherwise the fish might disappear from the pond.

While the koʻa was not used within living memory, they reported that a fish stone (pohaku kuʻula) required prayers and proper care in order to keep the fish in the pond. The location of the sacred stone is not clear. (Lots of information from NPS and DLNR.)

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March 4, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ka ua leina hua o Kaʻanapali
The rain of Kaʻanapali that leaps and produces fruit
ʻOlelo Noʻeau – Pukui

The song Moloka‘i Nui A Hina, primarily about Molokaʻi starts ‘Ua nani nā hono a Pi‘ilani’ ‘How beautiful are the bays of Pi‘ilani,’ referencing the view across the channel at northwest Maui, the district the ancients called Kaʻānapali.

In the 1500s, Chief Piʻilani (“stairway to heaven”) unified West Maui and ruled in peace and prosperity. His territory included the six West Maui bays, a place he frequented.

There are six hono bays: from South to North, Honokōwai (bay drawing fresh water), Honokeana (cave bay), Honokahua (sites bay,) Honolua (two bays), Honokōhau (bay drawing dew) and Hononana (animated bay).

This area was extensively terraced for wet taro (loʻi) in early historic and later times. Honokahua Valley has been described as having loʻi lands. Sweet potatoes were reportedly grown between the Honokōhau and Kahakuloa Ahupuaʻa.

In this area, between that ahupuaʻa of Honokōwai and Honokeana, was Kahana (cutting or turning point,) another ahupuaʻa of the moku (district) of Kāʻanapali.

Settlement patterns in the region followed patterns elsewhere, permanent habitation around the coastal and near shore lands, as well as the inland valley land. The forested and ridge-top lands were used for gathering forest products, and for forest plantings of various utilitarian Hawaiian plants.

Ancient Hawaiian villages on Maui were generally placed at the mouths of the larger gulches or at least within sight of the sea. Both pre-contact and historic features have been identified in the coastal and nearshore lands region. It can be inferred that the coastal lands were settled since the pre-contact period and extensively used during the historic period. (Cultural Surveys)

Handy notes, “ … the flat coastal plain all the way from Kihei and Māʻalaea to Honokahua, in old Hawaiian times, must have supported many fishing settlements and isolated fishermen’s houses, where sweet potatoes were grown in the sandy soil or red lepo (soil) near the shore.”

“For fishing, this coast is the most favorable on Maui, and, although a considerable amount of taro was grown, I think it is reasonable to suppose that the large fishing population, which presumably inhabited this leeward coast, ate more sweet potatoes than taro with their fish.”

“…the Kahana settlement pattern in AD 1848 consisted of houselots, and at least one small fishpond, extending several miles inland along the banks of Kahana Stream. No houselots were claimed beyond a few hundred feet inland. This pattern also appears to hold for at least the next three ahupuaʻa to the north of Kahana – Mailepai, ʻAlaeloa and Honokeana.” (Engledow)

When chief Kekaulike died, his younger son Kamehamehanui (uncle to Kamehameha I) was named heir to rule Maui. In 1738, Kauhi‘aimokuakama (Kauhi,) his older brother, began to wage war to win the title of ruling chief.

Battles were fought across West Maui. Kamehamehanui engaged the forces of his uncle from Hawai‘i to fight with him, whose troops numbered over 8,000, and Kauhi brought troops of warriors from O‘ahu. (Fornander)

The war ended with the battle Koko O Nā Moku (“Bloodshed of the Islands.”) Over several days, the blood of fallen warriors from both sides flowed from a stream into the shorebreak and caused the ocean to turn red. (Kamehamehanui won.) (Kāʻanapali Historical Trail)

Several socio-economic factors influenced the later evolution of West Maui. Kahana was right in the middle of these changes and played a role in the transformation.

For a couple of decades after 1812 West Maui was an important shipping point for the sandalwood trade. It became a well-known point of call for trading and exploring vessels, whose captains found the open roadstead a safe and convenient anchorage.

In 1819, the first American whaling ships reached the islands, and by 1822 there were 34-whalers making Hawaiʻi a base of refreshment. From that time the number increased rapidly. Although Honolulu was originally the port most favored by the whalers, West Maui often surpassed it in the number of recorded visits, particularly from about 1840 to 1855.

Another factor to affect the change, growth and social structure of West Maui was the arrival of the first missionaries in the Islands during 1820. The first missionaries to be established at Lāhainā, the Rev. CS Stewart and the Rev. William Richards, arrived in 1823. They came at the request of Queen Mother Keōpūolani, who moved to live in Lāhainā that year.

It was not until 1823 that several members of the Lāhainā Mission Station began to process sugar for their own use. The first commercially-viable sugar plantation, Ladd and Co., was started at Kōloa on Kaua‘i in 1835. It was to change the face of Hawai‘i forever, launching an entire economy, lifestyle and practice of mono-cropping that lasted for well over a century. By the 1840s, efforts were underway in West Maui to develop a means for making sugar a productive commodity.

James Campbell, who arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1850 ‐ having served as a carpenter on a whaling ship and then operated a carpentry business in Lāhainā ‐ started a sugar plantation there in 1860. The small mill, together with cane from Campbell’s fields, manufactured sugar on shares for small cane growers in the vicinity. His operation became Pioneer Mill.

Historically Maui’s second largest industry, pineapple cultivation, had also played a large role in forming Maui’s modern day landscape. The pineapple industry began on Maui in 1890 with Dwight D Baldwin’s Haiku Fruit and Packing Company on the northeast side of the island.

West Maui’s roots in the historic pineapple industry began in 1912, when of Honolua Ranch manager, David Fleming began growing pineapple there; almost overnight the pineapple industry boomed. The ranch was soon renamed Baldwin Packers; at one time they were the largest producer of private label pineapple and pineapple juice in the nation; it later became Maui Land and Pineapple.

As sugar and pineapple declined, tourism took its place ‐ and far surpassed it. Like many other societies, Hawaii underwent a profound transformation from an agrarian to a service economy. Resorts in Kāʻanapali (1962) and Kapalua (1978) popped up. In 1987, Hawaiian Airlines built the Kapalua Airport (situated within the Kahana ahupuaʻa.)

The visitor destinations of Lāhainā-Kāʻanapali-Kapalua continue to lead the neighbor islands in room occupancy and they lead the state in average daily room (ADR) rates and revenue per available room (ADR x occupancy rate.)

Kahana (situated in the middle of the West Maui resort community) has its share of commercial, condo, timeshare, hotel and other resort improvements along its shore.

West Maui is a full‐fledged tourist resort second only to Waikīkī. Tourism is the activity most responsible for Hawaiʻi’s current economic growth and standard of living.

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October 3, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kahana

Forever I shall sing the praises
Of Kahana’s beauty unsurpassed
The fragrance of beauteous mountains
By the zephyrs to thee is wafted
(Written for Mary Foster and her country home at Kahana)

The island of Oʻahu is divided into 6 moku (districts), consisting of: ‘Ewa, Kona, Koʻolauloa, Koʻolaupoko, Waialua and Waiʻanae. These moku were further divided into 86 ahupua‘a (land divisions within the moku.)

Kahana (Lit., the work, cutting or turning point;) approximately 5,250-acres, is one of the 32 ahupua‘a that make up the moku of Koʻolauloa on the windward and north shore side of the island. It extends from the top of the Koʻolau mountain (at approximate the 2,700-foot elevation) down to the ocean.

The ahupuaʻa of Kahana, like all land in Hawai`i prior to the Great Māhele of 1848, belonged to the King. It is estimated that a population of 600 – 1,000 people lived here at the time of the arrival of Captain Cook (1778,) and about 200 at the time of the Māhele.

Much of the lower marshland surrounding the river was planted with taro; the higher dryland area leading to the ridges on both sides of the river was planted with trees, sugar cane, banana and sweet potato. Groves of bamboo, ti leaves, kukui and hala trees at various locations indicate significant areas of ancient dwelling places. (Kaʻanaʻana)

Ane Keohokālole, mother of King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani received the bulk of the ahupuaʻa of Kahana at the Māhele; several kuleana awards to makaʻāinana (commoners) were scattered in the valley, as well as land for a school and roads.

Keohokālole received 5,050-acres, and the kuleana awards totaled less than 200-acres (the kuleana lands included the house lots and taro loʻi of the makaʻāinana.) The remainder of the ahupuaʻa included undeveloped uplands.

In 1856, Keohokālole and her husband Kapaʻakea created an asset pool, a type of trust. As trustee, Keohokālole later sold Kahana (May 1857) to AhSing (also known as Apakana,) a Chinese merchant. (LRB)

These lands later passed through the hands of a few other Chinese merchants before being bought by a land hui composed of Hawaiian members of the Church of Jesus Chris Latter Day Saints, called the Ka Hui Kuʻai i ka ʻĀina ʻo Kahana in 1874. The hui had 95 members; most members getting one share, and a few receiving multiple shares. (LRB)

The hui movement was not isolated to Kahana, it was throughout the Islands. They were formed as an attempt to retain or reestablish part of the old system that predated private ownership granted through the Māhele. (Stauffer)

Here, each shareholder had his or her own house lot and taro loʻi, but all had an undivided interest in the pasture and uplands, and in the freshwater rights, ocean fishing rights and Huilua fishpond.

Each member was allowed an equal share in the akule that were caught, and could have up to six animals running freely on the land (additional animals would be paid at a quarter per year.) (LRB)

When the call came in the late-1880s for Mormons to gather at Salt Lake City, many from Kahana wanted to leave for Utah with other Hawaiian Mormons; at least a third of the founders of the Hawaiian Mormon Iosepa (Joseph) Colony in Utah were from Kahana. (Stauffer)

Then, Mary Foster (daughter of James Robinson and wife of Thomas Foster – an initial organizer of the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, that later became Hawaiian Airlines) became involved in purchasing interests in land in Kahana.

This was the beginning a “bitter economic and legal struggle” with Kāneʻohe Ranch for control of the valley. An out of court settlement was reached in 1901 in which Mary Foster bought out the Ranch’s interest, giving her a controlling interest in Kahana.

With added acquisitions, by 1920, she eventually owned 97% of the valley. Mrs. Foster died in 1930, and Kahana passed to her estate and was held in trust for her heirs.

When World War II broke out, the military moved the Japanese families out, and in 1942 the US Army Corps of Engineers erected a jungle warfare training center in the valley.

In 1955, the Robinson Agency, acting as the agent for the Foster Estate, contracted with a planner for feasibility studies on Kahana. The report recommended making an authentic South Sea island resort village – an inn with 20 rooms, creating a small lake in the valley, and a nine-hole golf course. Nothing happened as a result of this plan.

A study on usage of the valley as a public park was done, but no action was taken. Also in 1962, a private foundation presented a plan to create a scientific botanical garden.

A 1987 law authorized DLNR to issue long term residential leases to individuals who had been living on the lands and provided authorization for a residential subdivision in Kahana Valley. In 1993, the Department entered into 65 year leases covering 31 residential properties – in lieu of rent payments, the lessees are required to contribute at least twenty-five hours of service each month.

A later law (2008) created the Living Park Planning Council, placed within the DLNR for administrative purposes. The purpose of the Council was to create a master plan and advise the Department of matters pertaining to the park.

Kahana Valley State Park was renamed the Ahupuaʻa ʻo Kahana State Park in November 2000. Kahana is the second-largest state park in the state park system (Na Pali Coast State Park is larger, at 6,175 acres.)

The image shows some of the kalo I saw in 2003, while inspecting Kahana while I was at DLNR. In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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