Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Fong Inn

Fong Inn (Yuen Kwock) was born in Chung Shan District, Kwantung Province, China in 1873. He came to Hawaii in 1898 and started a Chinese import company (that was devastated in the 1900 Chinatown fire.) Fong Inn and his son, Henry, visited the Orient often. In 1915, they brought back fine silk, Chinese antiques, pieces of art and jewelry.

Father and son became close friends with many kamaʻaina families and worked closely to supply the Honolulu Art Academy with Asian treasures and helped to acquire the famous scroll, The Hundred Geese, attributed to painter Ma Fen. While Fong Inn became one of Honolulu’s leading art importers, especially Chinese antiques … they were also Honolulu’s largest koa furniture manufacturer.

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Protecting a Forest, Preserving a Culture

It takes 125 years or more to grow a koa log large enough for a canoe, which generally needs to be 35 to 45 feet long with a diameter of 48 inches or more (voyaging canoes require larger logs.) That period may be shortened if specific koa logs are identified for canoes now, and forestry prescriptions (e.g. thinning, pruning) are applied to favor the growth of those trees for canoe logs.

In 2004, DLNR initiated the formal designation of the Kapapala Koa Canoe Forest Management Area on land set-aside in 1989, near the Volcano National Park, in Kaʻū, on the Big Island. Here, koa trees grow tall and straight – necessary traits for core material in canoe shaping. It was the first Forest Management Area specifically designated for nurturing and harvesting koa canoe logs.

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

The Three Princes

Three Hawaiian princes (and brothers,) David Kawānanakoa (Koa,) Edward Keliʻiahonui and Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole, nephews of Queen Kapiʻolani, were schooled at St Matthew’s Hall in San Mateo in 1885.

In Santa Cruz, “The young Hawaiian princes were in the water, enjoying it hugely and giving interesting exhibitions of surf-board swimming as practiced in their native islands.” This was the first recorded account of surfing on the continent.

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Transformation of Waimea, South Kohala, Hawaiʻi

Over the centuries, and even today, Waimea was an attractive draw with ideal climate and soils, and moderate distance from the ocean. Still holding remnants of a cowboy town, it looked very different in centuries past – with transformation of forest lands, to agricultural fields, to pasture lands. Now upper pasture land, archaeologists and others […]

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

ʻIolani Palace Trees

ʻIolani Palace Grounds make up eleven acres of land in the core of downtown Honolulu. After the arrival of American Protestant missionaries in 1820, high-ranking chiefs began to occupy the area.  In 1825, a small mausoleum was built on the grounds to house the remains of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu. In 1845, King […]