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May 29, 2026 by Peter T Young 4 Comments

Kona Coast

“Her name was Woman … Her other name was Excitement … She belonged to Hawaiʻi’s Kona Coast like the surf riders and the beach bums.”

Whoa, let’s look back …

Richard Allen Boone was born June 18, 1917 in Los Angeles County, California; his father was a descendant of Squire Boone who was the younger brother of frontiersman Daniel Boone. Like Daniel Boone, Richard Boone had a heroic side: was an aerial gunner in the Navy during World War II. (Bloom)

Following the war, he studied with the New York Actors Studio on the GI Bill. In 1947 he made his Broadway debut with Judith Anderson’s Medea, and made his motion picture debut in 1951 in The Halls of Montezuma.

His career in motion pictures, often cast as a western badman (City of Badmen, The Siege at Red River, Man Without a Star, Robber’s Roost, Ten Wanted Men, Star in the Dust, The Tall T, Big Jake, The Shootist and Hombre) or the good guy (Dragnet, The Alamo, The War Lord and The Raid.) (ancestry)

In 1957, Have Gun-Will Travel (with Boone as Paladin) made its TV debut, and soon became one of the most popular programs of the fifties. It ranked in the top five almost immediately and after that trailed only Gunsmoke and Wagon Train for the rest of its run. The theme song, co-written by star Boone, even became a hit single.

Boone moved to and became a permanent resident of Honolulu in 1965 and was a regular commuter between Honolulu and Hollywood. He “considers himself the world’s most satisfied actor – because he can afford the luxury of living in the Hawaiian Islands and working in Hollywood”. (Chicago Tribune, October 35, 1968)

While living on Oʻahu, it was Boone who helped persuade Leonard Freeman to film Hawaiʻi Five-O exclusively in Hawaiʻi. Prior to that, Freeman had planned to do “establishing” location shots in Hawaii but principal production in southern California.

Boone and others convinced Freeman that the islands could offer all necessary support for a major TV series and would provide an authenticity otherwise unobtainable. (Correa)

Then, in 1967, Boone (with Vera Miles, Joan Blondell, Kent Smith, Duane Eddy and a bunch of folks from Kona) filmed ‘Kona Coast,’ a pilot that he hoped CBS would adopt as a series. (Instead, CBS chose Hawaii Five-O.) (It was released in 1968 – with its premier in the Kona Theater.)

“Kona Coast” was an adventure story about a Honolulu charter-boat captain (‘Sam Moran,’ played by Boone) who leads fishing expeditions and later hunts down the man responsible for his daughter’s death.

It did not receive favorable reviews; “… most of Kona Coast utilizes actual locations and this is the film’s single greatest asset.” (Pfeiffer)

Kona Coast Movie Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCim30-EaMg

Kona Coast Movie Preview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x-8MoFLabY

The story often takes you to a bar, Akamai Barnes (run by a man of the same name – in real life it was later the Red Pants; today, it’s a vacant lot under the banyan tree on Aliʻi Drive in the middle of Kailua Bay.)

In 1971, Richard Boone moved to his wife’s hometown of St Augustine, Florida where he taught acting classes at Flagler College. Richard Boone died January 10, 1981 in St Augustine of throat cancer. At the time of his death, he was serving as cultural ambassador for the State of Florida.

May 28, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Jeopardy! Reminds Us of #SharingTheSpiritOfAmerica

A year ago, (May 28, 2025), the Jeopardy! television quiz program (where the host reads the answer and the contestants ask the questions) reminded us of an important historic event.

The Jeopardy! answer notes the first public readings of the Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776 to the people in Philadelphia, PA; Trenton, NJ; and Easton, PA.

Now, 250 years later, on July 8, 2026, Americans in all 50 States, each of the 5 Territories, DC, as well as Midway, Wake, and Palmyra will commemorate that historic event by reading the Declaration of Independence ‘together’ at the ‘same’ time.

To say it another way … Americans will read the Declaration of Independence “from sea to shining sea” (and that’s not just across the contiguous ‘lower 48’, from the Atlantic to the Pacific).

Sharing the Spirit of America will have Americans reading the Declaration of Independence from the Caribbean Sea (Territories of US Virgin Islands & Puerto Rico), across North America (including Alaska), to the Western edge of the Pacific and the Philippine Sea (Territories of Guam & Northern Mariana Islands).

To top (and bottom) it off, Americans will be reading the Declaration of Independence from above the Arctic Circle (Wiseman, Alaska) to below the Equator (Territory of American Samoa).

Sharing the Spirit of America is the simultaneous reading of the Declaration of Independence; everyone will start at their time zone’s local time corresponding with 6 pm (EDT); wherever you are, convert your reading based on 6 pm (EDT).

This is a nationwide program that is initiated/ sponsored by the Hawai‘i America250 Commission, but it is designed for all Americans to be able to participate, together.

When you think if it, it is waaay cool that Americans across the extent of the country (9,500 miles and 10 time zones) will be doing something positive together – all at the same moment in time.

Thank you for helping to expand the reach of Sharing the Spirit of America and helping get Americans across the country in a unified, positive, and significant experience.

www.hawaiiamerica250.org/sharing-the-spirit-of-america

We look forward to sharing the Declaration of Independence with Americans across the country, on July 8, 2026 – Your Local Time Commensurate with 6 pm (EDT).

#SharingTheSpiritOfAmerica

May 27, 2026 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Claims to the Crown Lands

Under King Kamehameha III, the most important event in the reformation of the land system in Hawai‘i was the separation of the rights of the King, the Chiefs, the Konohiki (land agents) and makaʻāinana (the native tenants.)

More than 240 of the highest ranking Chiefs and Konohiki in the Kingdom joined Kamehameha III in this task (generally referred to as the Great Māhele.) The first māhele, or division, of lands was signed on January 27, 1848; the last māhele was signed on March 7, 1848.

Each māhele was in effect a quitclaim agreement; in each māhele for lands for the King, the Chief or the Konohiki signed an agreement: “I hereby agree that this division is good. The lands above written are for the King. I have no more rights therein.”

The King retained all of his private lands as his individual property; one third of the remaining land was to be for the Hawaiian Government; one third for the Chiefs and Konohiki; and one third to be set aside for the tenants, the actual possessors and cultivators of the soil.

The high Chiefs and the lesser Konohiki were required to present their claims before the Land Commission to receive awards for the lands. Until an award for these lands was issued by the Land Commission, title to such lands remained with the government.

In the Māhele, of the approximate 10,000 awards, around 1,000,000-acres were reserved by King Kamehameha III as “Crown” lands, 1,500,000-acres were given by the King (as “Government” lands) to the ‘government and people’, approximately 1,500,000-acres were set aside for the Chiefs (as “Konohiki” lands) and less than 30,000-acres of land were awarded to the native tenants (Kuleana lands.)

Kamehameha III divided the lands he reserved for himself into two separate parts; the smaller portion he retained for his personal use (“Crown” lands); the larger portion he gave ‘to the Chiefs and people’ (“Government” lands.)

On June 7, 1848, Kamehameha III approved a Law, passed at the Council House, that listed respective ahupua‘a and ili that were “the private lands of His Majesty Kamehameha III … and said lands shall be regulated and disposed according to his royal will and pleasure subject to the rights of native tenants.”

Another long list of ahupua‘a and ili were noted as “the lands of the Hawaiian Government.” A shorter list of O‘ahu lands were “set apart for the use of the Fort in Honolulu, to be cultivated by soldiers and other tenants under the direction of the Governor of O‘ahu”. (An Act Relating to the Lands of His Majesty the King and the Government, 1848)

For a while, the ‘Crown’ lands were viewed and handled “to be the private lands of His Majesty Kamehameha III, to have and to hold to himself, his heirs and successors forever”. (An Act To Relieve The Royal Domain From Encumbrances, And To Render The Same Inalienable, 1865)

Kamehameha IV administered his land in much the same way as his uncle (as if it was his own private property.) In dispositions, Queen Emma joined him, waiving her right of dower in such lands.

Queen Emma was the first to make a claim to the Crown Lands as private property, with the death of Kamehameha IV.

She “claimed that all the property possessed by her late royal husband was his private property” and made claim of dower to one-half of the Crown Lands in the royal domain; the Attorney General opposed her claim, noting they constituted “a Royal Domain annexed to the Hawaiian Crown”.

Kamehameha V responded that he, as “hereditary successor to the throne, shall inherit the entire estate, both real and personal derived from his Majesty Kamehameha III, at his decease, and held by Kamehameha IV, the King lately deceased.”

The Hawai‘i Supreme Court, in deciding the Estate of Kamehameha IV noted, “In 1840 (Kamehameha III) granted the first Constitution by which he declared and established the equality before the law of all his subjects, chiefs, and people alike.”

“By that Constitution, he voluntarily divested himself of some of his powers and attributes as an absolute Ruler, and conferred certain political rights upon his subjects, admitting them to a share with himself in legislation and government. This was the beginning of a government as contradistinguished from the person of the King …”

“… who was thenceforth to be regarded rather as the executive chief and political head of the nation than its absolute governor. Certain kinds of public property began to be recognized as Government property, and not as the King’s.”

The Court noted, “These lands are to be in the perpetual keeping of the Legislative Council (Nobles and Representatives) or in that of the superintendents of said lands, appointed by them from time to time, and shall be regulated, leased, or sold, in accordance with the will of said Nobles and Representatives, for the good of the Hawaiian Government, and to promote the dignity of the Hawaiian Crown.”

The Court found, “while it was clearly the intention of Kamehameha III to protect the lands which he reserved to himself out of the domain which had been acquired by his family through the prowess and skill of his father, the conqueror, from the danger of being treated as public domain or Government property …”

“… it was also his intention to provide that those lands should descend to his heirs and successors, the future wearers of the crown which the conquerer had won; and we understand the act of 7th June, 1848, as having secured both those objects.” (Supreme Court Decision in the Matter of the Estate of Kamehameha IV, 1864)

The Crown Land stayed with the government and dower was acknowledged with Queen Emma, however there was a “settlement of a permanent annuity upon Queen Emma in lieu of her claim of dower in the royal domain.” (Alexander)

This litigation led to legislation which affirmed the decision of the court; on January 3, 1865, Kamehameha V approved an Act of the Legislative Assembly that initially noted …

“the history of said lands shows that they were vested in the King for the purpose of maintaining the Royal State and Dignity; and it is therefore disadvantageous to the public interest that the said lands should be alienated, or the said Royal Domain diminished.”

That 1865 law noted the Crown Lands “shall be henceforth inalienable, and shall descend to the heirs and successors of the Hawaiian Crown forever”.

The Act also noted that, “during the two late reigns, the said Royal Domain has been greatly diminished, and is now charged with mortgages to secure considerable sums of money” – the Law converted the mortgages to bonds. (An Act To Relieve The Royal Domain From Encumbrances, And To Render The Same Inalienable, 1865)

On the death of Kamehameha V, his half-sister, Ruth Keʻelikōlani, inherited his private lands, but the Crown Lands were held by the commissioners for the benefit of his successors.

Later (September 13, 1880,) Claus Spreckels purchased from Ruth Keʻelikōlani all her interest or claim in and to the Crown Lands. Rather than taking the issue to court, a compromise and an act was carried through the Legislature of 1882, where Spreckels received the ahupua‘a of Wailuku with ili and quitclaimed any interest in other Crown Lands. (Alexander)

Queen Lili‘uokalani made a claim to Crown Lands as her personal property. Noting, “Her cause of action is predicated upon an alleged ‘vested equitable life interest’ to certain lands described in the petition, known as ‘crown lands,’ of which interest she was divested by the defendants.”

However, the US Court of Claims noted, “It may not be unworthy of remark that it is very unusual, even in cases of conquest, for the conqueror to do more than to displace the sovereign and assume dominion over the country.”

The Court concluded, “The crown lands were the resourceful methods of income to sustain, in part at least, the dignity of the office to which they were inseparably attached. When the office ceased to exist they became as other lands of the Sovereignty and passed to the defendants as part and parcel of the public domain.”

“Since 1865, so far as the record before us discloses, the character of the crown lands has not been changed; they have passed to the succeeding monarch. The income, less expense of management, has been used to support the royal office and treated as belonging to the Crown. All other property of the King has uniformly passed to his heirs regardless of his royal successor.”

The Court further noted, “The constitution of the Republic of Hawai‘i, as respects the crown lands, provided as follows: ‘That portion of the public domain heretofore known as crown land is hereby declared to have been heretofore, and now to be, the property of the Hawaiian Government …” (Lili‘uokalani v The United States, 1910)

Today, abstracting (researching title) government lands is fundamentally different from abstracting private lands. For private lands, owners have a deed that evidences ownership and a title company can trace the ‘chain of title’ at the Bureau of Conveyances by researching the transfers of the land from owner to owner via legal documents.

Instead of a deed or other legal document, the State owns the majority of former crown and government land through passage of laws. Public land title is passed by ‘operation of law.’

Today, there is no paper title for the majority of public lands, i.e., there is no deed showing the State owns it. There is no ‘chain of title’ for the majority of former Crown and Government Lands, since the lands were never conveyed out of the government.

We now generally refer to the Crown and Government Lands as ‘ceded’ lands. Under the Admission Act, about 1.2-million acres are to “be held by (the) State as a public trust” to promote one or more of five purposes:
1. support of the public schools and other public educational institutions
2. betterment of the conditions of native Hawaiians (per the Hawaiian Homes Act, 1920)
3. development of farm and home ownership on as widespread a basis as possible
4. making of public improvements
5. provision of lands for public use

As noted in the earlier discussion of Crown and Government Lands above, these lands, though under the control of changing sovereigns and governments (Kingdom to Provisional Government to Republic to Territory to State,) were in and continue to remain in the ‘public domain’ for the public good.

May 26, 2026 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Pulu

Hāpuʻu is an endemic tree fern found in wet forests in association with mature ʻōhiʻa at elevations from about 1,000-feet to 6,000-feet.

The tree can range from heights to about 7-35 feet. The fronds rise up high to about thirty feet or more and are 3-9 feet in diameter. The long green fronds of the tree grow to be about 12 feet long.

Young stems were formerly used to make hats; the starchy core has been used for cooking and laundry, the outer fibrous part to line or form baskets for plants. (Pukui) The edible starch in the core of the trunk and the young leaves were eaten during the time of famine. (KSBE)

The young unfurled fronds are densely covered with soft golden colored, wool-like fibers called pulu; Hawaiians stuffed bodies of their dead with pulu after removing vital organs. (Pukui)

Later, pulu became a commodity, “Pulu, or fern down, is also an important and staple article of export. This soft, yellow, silken down, gathered from the exhaustless fern fields of Hilo and Puna, is much used in California for upholstery as a substitute for feathers, wool and hair.” (Titus Coan, March 5, 1858)

“The pulu of commerce is obtained from this fern, and is extensively used … in the making of beds and mattresses, and stuffing of sofas and chairs.” (Baxley, 1865)

“More than two hundred thousand pounds of this article has been shipped from Hilo during the past year. Men, women, and children engage in collecting it, and many of our usual villages are deserted for months at a time while the people are collecting pulu in the jungle.” (Titus Coan, March 5, 1858)

“(O)nly a small quantity, a few ounces, is found on each plant, the growth of about four years. The labor of gathering pulu was slow and tedious. When picked it was wet and had to be brought down to the lowlands to be dried. The natives were employed in gathering it, men, women and children, living for weeks at a time in the mountains, in crude shelter huts.” (Thrum, 1929)

“In the early sixties (1860s) the business of picking and packing pulu had become so important that trails cut by the many natives thus employed opened the crater country far more than ever before.” (Bingham; Holmes)

“In the natural state the pulu forms a snuff-colored silken envelope for the young and tender branches of the fern, which grow from the top of the stalk or trunk, forming beautiful scrolls until of sufficient strength to supersede the older branches and leaves that droop on all sides like graceful plumes.”

“In gathering pulu the natives cut from the top of the fern trunk the tender scrolls in mass, then strip off the soft fibrous wrapper that protects them, which they loosen by picking, and expose for several weeks on platforms to the rain and sun.”

“From two to four pounds are gathered from a full-sized tree. When perfectly cleansed and dry, it is bagged and sometimes baled for shipping, and is much sought after for the California market.” (Baxley, 1865)

“I have ridden through vast fields of this species of fern in the vicinity of the volcano Kilauea, that extended as far as the eye could see.”

“On the edges of these fields nearest the volcanoes the lava has flowed and covered large tracks, forming plateaus upon which the natives have built pleasant hamlets, and are carrying on a lucrative business in gathering and drying the pulu for shipment to San Francisco, where it is extensively used for filling mattresses.”

“From a single fern they gather a tuft about the size of a man’s hand and spread it on the grass and lava banks, where it is thoroughly dried, then bagged and transferred on the backs of mules to the sea coasts. There it is pressed in bales for shipment like cotton.” (The Pulu for Mattresses, Scientific American, August 23, 1862; Uyeoka)

“The most remarkable of the gigantic ferns of this belt are the great tree-ferns, with branches four or five feet long. At the foot of these trees is found a soft, feather-like substance, called pulu which forms an article of considerable trade. It is used extensively in California for bedding …” (The Merchants’ Magazine and Commercial Review, October 1, 1864; Uyeoka)

“(P)ulu gatherers, who are scattered through the forests in all directions, from one to three miles from the volcano;” making “the wilderness of Kilauea”” one of his “stations in pastoral tours.”

“From Kilauea I went about ten miles, into the highland forests of Hawaii, where there was another camp of about sixty pulu gatherers. This camp is a romantic one. It is a little opening of field lava and sand, one-fourth of a mile in diameter, nearly circular, and surrounded by tall forests and jungle.” (Coan, Missionary Herald, 1864-1865)

Pulu picking could be dangerous, “As I followed a path made by the pulu-pickers through the dense forest, I came upon a large hole on the edge of the path which proved to be the entrance to a cave of great depth.”

“The path had been turned to one side to avoid it, and in the dark it would be exceedingly dangerous. Such holes are common in this part of Puna, and natives occasionally disappear mysteriously. Brushing through the bushes I came to a precipice forming the edge of a crater nearly three quarters of a mile in diameter and seven hundred feet deep.” (Brigham, 1868)

Likewise the market for pulu changed, “Those who have used it, however, are substituting hair or straw on account of the unhealthiness of the pulu, which, from its heat, has the same ill effects as feathers, and it popularly thought to increase rheumatism.”

“It has been recently exported to China in considerable quantities, and it is not improbable that as the demand from California decreases that from China will increase. The natives are largely engaged in gathering it, and are employed more or less by the Chinese merchants of Honolulu …” (The Merchants’ Magazine and Commercial Review, October 1, 1864; Uyeoka)

“According to the customs tables, the last year of pulu exports was 1884, with but 465 pounds, the two years previous being without any, so that practically the life of the industry had an existence of but thirty-one years (with exports) ranging generally from 200,000 to 649,000 pounds.” (Thrum, 1929)

May 25, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Memorial Day

On May 5, 1866, the village of Waterloo, New York was decorated with flags at half mast, draped with evergreens and mourning black, and flowers were placed on the graves of those killed in the Civil War. In the following years, the ceremonies were repeated.

Later, Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, declared that “Decoration Day” should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.

“The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land.” (General Order 11)

The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, DC.

By the end of the 19th century, Decoration Day ceremonies were being held on May 30 throughout the nation. State legislatures passed proclamations designating the day, and the Army and Navy adopted regulations for proper observance at their facilities.

In May 1966, Congress unanimously passed a resolution and President Lyndon B Johnson signed a Presidential Proclamation recognizing Waterloo as the Birthplace of Decoration Day / Memorial Day.

It was not until after World War I, however, that the day was expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars.

In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress, though it is still often called Decoration Day. It was then also placed on the last Monday in May.

The story of America’s quest for freedom is inscribed on her history in the blood of her patriots. (Randy Vader)

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. (John F. Kennedy)

On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation! (Thomas William Parsons)

Let us not forget.