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November 19, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Connections

“There has never been any agreement, as to the origin of this isolated island people, or the reasons why this type is only found scattered over all the solitary islands in the eastern part of the Pacific.” (Thor Heyerdahl)

Solomon Lehuanui Kalaniomaiheuila was the son of Peleioholani (uncle to the Kings Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V) and Piikeakaluaonalani (mother.) For many, Peleioholani was considered an important Hawaiian antiquarian and the final word in Hawaiian genealogy, especially of the chiefs and royal families.

He wrote of the Hawaiian history. One of Peleioholani’s theories notes, “The ancestors of the Hawaiian race came not from the islands the South Pacific – for the immigrants from that direction were late arrivals there – but from the northern direction (welau lani,) that is, from the land of Kalonakikeke, now known as Alaska.”

Others have noted connections between people in the Pacific and other parts of the world.

The idea of a trans-Pacific crossing has had its proponents within scholarly archaeology. Heyerdahl’s (1950) Kon-Tiki experiment demonstrated that such a crossing (from Peru to Raroia) was possible. But simply because such an experiment is possible does not mean that it happened. (Boulanger)

Meggers et al. reported on what they interpreted as similarities between ceramics of the Valdivia culture of coastal Ecuador and the middle Jomon culture of western Japan. Yet, concerted archaeological research over the past 200 years has failed to provide any substantial material evidence for a trans-Pacific origin for any Native American culture.

Some suggest the sweet potato is proof of connection … On his voyages across the Pacific, Captain James Cook encountered geographically disparate Polynesian societies, including those living on Easter Island, Hawai‘i and the north island of New Zealand. These far-flung communities cultivated a common crop, sweet potato. (Denham; NCBI)

Researchers later sampled specimens brought back by early explorers (including Cook.) They found that the DNA evidence indicated that the sweet potato had migrated to Polynesia long before European explorers had made their way to that part of the world. (Yirda; PHYS)

Peruvians first domesticated the sweet potato around 8,000-years ago. And though the crop spread from there, the means by which it traveled have always remained contentious.

One possibility was that Polynesian sailors first brought it home from across the ocean: The oldest carbonized sweet potato evidence in the Pacific hails back to about 1,000 AD – 500-years before Columbus sailed to the Americas.

The Polynesian word for sweet potato resembles the central Andes’ Quechua people’s word for the vegetable. (SmithsonianMag) Polynesian word for sweet potato ‘kuumala’ resembles ‘kumara,’ or ‘cumal,’ the words for the vegetable in Quechua, a language spoken by Andean natives. (NPS)

But did Polynesians land on South American beaches, or did Native Americans sail into the Pacific to reach Rapa Nui? (Lawler; ScienceMag) Or, did its seeds possibly hitch a ride on seaweed or natural raft, or gotten lodged in the wing of a bird? (NPR)

“Our studies strongly suggest that Native Americans most probably arrived (on Rapa Nui) shortly after the Polynesians (got there.)” (Erik Thorsby; ScienceMag)

But many scientists say that Pacific currents and Polynesian mastery of the waves make it more likely that the Polynesians were the voyagers. They may have sailed to South America, swapped goods for sweet potatoes and other novelties—and returned to their island with South American women. (Lawler; ScienceMag)

“There’s a lot of evidence accumulating … that the Polynesians made landfall in South America. We think they had sophisticated, double-hulled canoes – like very large catamarans – which could carry 80 or more people and be out to sea for months.” (Kirch; NPR)

The researchers found strong evidence that “supports the so-called tripartite hypothesis, which argues that the sweet potato was introduced to Polynesia three times: first through premodern contact between Polynesia and South America, then by Spanish traders sailing west from Mexico, and Portuguese traders coming east from the Caribbean.”

“The Spanish and Portuguese varieties ended up in the western Pacific, while the older South American variety dominated in the east”. (SmithsonianMag)

It is believed the sweet potato then made three independent trips to Southeast Asia. The Polynesians probably introduced it in 1100 AD. While the Spanish and Portuguese brought other varieties from the Americas around 1500. (NPR)

Peter Marsh makes several Canadian connections to Pacific Islands, noting, that archaeological and cultural evidence suggests that there is a strong connection between Coastal Canada and Polynesia. Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) is an archipelago off the coast of British Columbia, Canada.

Marsh notes that both the Polynesians and Haida people worked in stone in the same manner, designs of implements were almost identical. The use of pottery was completely absent in both cultures. The design and way of manufacture of the following artifacts bear a striking resemblance:

Tahitian and Haida stone pounders are almost identical.
Stone bowls found in Kauai and stone bowls found in the Bella Coola valley from a pre-existing culture are very similar.
Maori and NW Coastal Indian war clubs both have the gaping angry mouth motif on the handle.
Tattooing tool kit design indicates Polynesian kit derived from Haida tattooing implements.
Fish hook design is almost identical
Fish hook pendants are also identical
Petroglyphs are similar
Spiritual carvings such as the Tiki are amazingly similar in both cultures.
Large totem poles with figures stacked on top of one another with their tongues sticking out are common in both Maori and Haida cultures.
Haida and Marquesan carvings have similar shaped eyes and mouths.
Carvings around building entrances where the legs form an archway.
The practice of inlaying of Paua shell into the eyes of figures is a style used in both cultures.
Maori war canoes are similar in design to Kwakuitl canoes.
The use of calabashes instead of pottery for carrying water is common to both cultures.
The use of hot rocks to steam and widen canoes, is practiced by both Maori and Kwakuitl.
Earth ovens are used by both cultures
The unique practice of rubbing noses as a way of greeting is used in both Maori and some tribes in the Canadian NW. This suggests definite cultural and spiritual connection.
The use of the glottal stop in speech is similar e.g.; Hawai‘i and Haida Gwai‘i.

November 18, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Toilet Paper, Bottled Water …

Folks in Hawai‘i have developed a scarcity mentality – whenever the wind blows, it rains hard or someone gets a hint of a possible dock strike on the West Coast there is a run on toilet paper, bottled water and any number of ‘essentials.’

Maui Mento Braddah helps show this …

“Historically the first modern toilet paper was made in 1391, when it was created for the needs of the Chinese Emperor family. Each sheet of toilet paper was even perfumed. That was toilet paper as we have come to think of it.”

“In the late fifteenth century, paper became widely available. However, mass manufacturing of modern toilet paper began in the late 19th century.”

“Joseph C. Gayetty created the first commercially packaged toilet paper in 1857. His toilet papers were loose, flat, sheets of paper. Joseph founded The Gayetty Firm for toilet paper production in New Jersey and his first factory-made toilet paper was ‘The Therapeutic Paper.’”

“Thomas Seymour, Edward Irvin and Clarence Wood Scott began selling some kind of toilet paper in Philadelphia in 1867. In 1879, Scott brothers founded the Scott Paper Company. The Scott Paper Company’s toilet paper was the first toilet paper sold in rolls. In 1890 the Scott Paper Company made its Waldorf brand toilet paper in rolls.”

“In 1871, Zeth Wheeler patents rolled and perforated toilet paper. In 1877 he founded the Albany Perforated Wrapping Paper Company. In 1897, company began selling and marketing standard perforated toilet paper on a roll.” (Toilet Paper History)

The average person in the US uses about 100 rolls of toilet paper each year. The US has been mass producing toilet paper since the late 1800s. And while other industries like shoe manufacturing have fled the country, toilet paper manufacturing has not. Today there are almost 150 US companies making this product. (Zagorsky)

“In Honolulu the issue is tissue. And you don’t ask for the salt and pepper. You ask for salt and paper.”

“Toilet paper and salt have all but vanished from the shelves of Hawaii’s stores as a result of the 100‐day West Coast shipping strike that has largely cut off the fleet of ships that normally brings supplies to Hawaii from San Francisco, 2,400 miles east.” (NY Times Oct 19, 1971)

But we have not been alone; back in 1974, “Johnny Carson told his faithful late-night television audience. ‘But have you heard the latest? I’m not kidding. I saw it in the paper. There’s a shortage of toilet paper.’” (NY Times, Feb 3, 1974)

“The day after Carson read the clipping (and made a few jokes) about the ‘toilet paper shortage’ people didn’t realize the story had been about commercial toilet paper and there was a surge of panic buying of consumer-grade toilet paper.”

“This resulted in the stores selling out of the toilet paper they had on the shelves — which of course reinforced the rumor of a toilet paper shortage.” (Snopes)

Back then (1974) the New York Times was suggesting folks on the continent were getting what folks in Hawai‘i already had … a “‘shortage psychology,’ almost an eagerness among many Americans to anticipate the next shortage. Such an attitude, brought on by shortages of gasoline, electricity and, for a time, even onions, seems to assure no future shortage of shortage rumors.”

But, Hawai‘i is different … Hawai‘i is the most-isolated populated-place.

In 2022, Hawai‘i imported $2.52B, making it the 49th largest importer out of the 53 importers in United States. That year, Hawai‘i exported $703M, making it the 53rd largest exporter out of the 53 exporters in United States. (Observatory of Economic Complexity)

With respect to food, Hawai‘i’s local production is 9.3% of total market requirement, and the state is dependent on imports for the remaining 90.7%, mainly from the continental US. (Loke and Leung)

And, what comes into Hawai‘i is dependent on an efficiently operating import system. That invariably involves ships bringing these products to our shores. And, that is dependent on the functioning docks on the continent and in the Islands.

The longshore industry is the work of loading and unloading ships’ cargoes. In the old days of clipper ships, sailings were frequently unscheduled, and labor was often recruited at the last minute by shoreside criers calling: “Men along the shore!” – giving rise to the term “longshoremen.” (ILWU)

The first longshore unions on the West Coast were founded in the 19^th century. By 1902 the longshoremen were loosely affiliated with the American Federation of Labor’s International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA). But their ties to national headquarters were weak, and most returned or lost their charters within a few a years.

Initially, the longshore unions grew slowly. Each local was protective of its geographical jurisdiction and limited work opportunities, and none was eager to give up their autonomy to any federation.

“‘Almost all of our domestic cargo arrives via the West Coast ports,’ said Warren Sugimoto, administrative services officer with Hawaii’s harbors division.”

“‘If the [work stoppage] lasts awhile, it will have a major impact. If it’s very short term, the impact would be negligible.’” (Los Angeles Times)

As an example, “The International Longshore and Warehouse Union strike shut down every dock on the West Coast while bosses and union leaders fought over a new contract.”

“Hawaii residents were completely dependent on those shipments for a variety of goods – salt, rice – but none seems to have stuck in the memory like the lack of toilet paper.” (Wall Street Journal, March 29, 2020)

As indicated in the 1974 experience with the remark by Johnny Carson, shortages can develop overnight (for no apparent reason – other than someone (and a growing number of others) feels the need to have ‘enough’).

Think back to 2020, during the COVID days … businesses in Hawai‘i were rationing toilet paper and other commodities because of the ‘run’ on these items. It seems like anything can trigger the next, at any time.

November 17, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Roughing It

“Early in 1866, George Barnes invited [Mark Twain] to resign [his] reportership on his paper, the San Francisco Morning Call, and for some months thereafter, [he] was without money or work; then [he] had a pleasant turn of fortune.”

“The proprietors of the Sacramento Union, a great and influential daily journal, sent [Twain] to the Sandwich Islands to write four letters a month at twenty dollars a piece.”

He also wrote books about some of his travels (that included a visit to Hawai‘i) … one such, Roughing It. Here are some of his first impressions of Honolulu – from that series, as well as his other writing.

“This book is merely a personal narrative, and not a pretentious history or a philosophical dissertation. It is a record of several years of variegated vagabondizing, and its object is rather to help the resting reader while away an idle hour than afflict him with metaphysics, or goad him with science.”

“Still, there is information in the volume; information concerning an interesting episode in the history of the Far West, about which no books have been written by persons who were on the ground in person, and saw the happenings of the time with their own eyes.” …

“On the seventh day out we saw a dim vast bulk standing up out of the wastes of the Pacific and knew that that spectral promontory was Diamond Head”.

“So we were nearing Honolulu, the capital city of the Sandwich Islands – those islands which to me were Paradise; a Paradise which I had been longing all those years to see again. Not any other thing in the world could have stirred me as the sight of that great rock did.”

“On a certain bright morning the Islands hove in sight, lying low on the lonely sea, and everybody climbed to the upper deck to look. After two thousand miles of watery solitude the vision was a welcome one.”

“As we approached, the imposing promontory of Diamond Head rose up out of the ocean its rugged front softened by the hazy distance, and presently the details of the land began to make themselves manifest …”

“… first the line of beach; then the plumed coacoanut trees of the tropics; then cabins of the natives; then the white town of Honolulu, said to contain between twelve and fifteen thousand inhabitants spread over a dead level; with streets from twenty to thirty feet wide, solid and level as a floor, most of them straight as a line and few as crooked as a corkscrew.”

“The further I traveled through the town the better I liked it.”

“Every step revealed a new contrast–disclosed something I was unaccustomed to. In place of the grand mud-colored brown fronts of San Francisco, I saw dwellings built of straw, adobies, and cream-colored pebble-and-shell-conglomerated coral, cut into oblong blocks and laid in cement ….”

“… also a great number of neat white cottages, with green window-shutters; in place of front yards like billiard-tables with iron fences around them, I saw these homes surrounded by ample yards, thickly clad with green grass, and shaded by tall trees, through whose dense foliage the sun could scarcely penetrate …”

“… in place of the customary geranium, calla lily, etc., languishing in dust and general debility, I saw luxurious banks and thickets of flowers, fresh as a meadow after a rain, and glowing with the richest dyes …”

“… in place of the dingy horrors of San Francisco’s pleasure grove, the “Willows,” I saw huge-bodied, wide-spreading forest trees, with strange names and stranger appearance –trees that cast a shadow like a thunder-cloud, and were able to stand alone without being tied to green poles …”

“… in place of gold fish, wiggling around in glass globes, assuming countless shades and degrees of distortion through the magnifying and diminishing qualities of their transparent prison houses, I saw cats …

“… Tom-cats, Mary Ann cats, long-tailed cats, bob-tailed cats, blind cats, one-eyed cats, wall-eyed cats, cross-eyed cats, gray cats, black cats, white cats, yellow cats, striped cats, spotted cats, tame cats, wild cats, singed cats, individual cats, groups of cats, platoons of cats, companies of cats, regiments of cats, armies of cats, multitudes of cats, millions of cats, and all of them sleek, fat, lazy and sound asleep.”

“I looked on a multitude of people, some white, in white coats, vests, pantaloons, even white cloth shoes, made snowy with chalk duly laid on every morning …”

“… but the majority of the people were almost as dark as negroes–women with comely features, fine black eyes, rounded forms, inclining to the voluptuous, clad in a single bright red or white garment that fell free and unconfined from shoulder to heel …”

“… long black hair falling loose, gypsy hats, encircled with wreaths of natural flowers of a brilliant carmine tint; plenty of dark men in various costumes, and some with nothing on but a battered stove-pipe hat tilted on the nose, and a very scant breech-clout; –certain smoke-dried children were clothed in nothing but sunshine –a very neat fitting and picturesque apparel indeed.” (Twain)

Like they get to a lot of people, the Islands struck a chord with Clemens.

“I was there for four or five months, and returned to find myself about the best known man on the Pacific Coast.” (Twain) Popular pieces, some credit the series with turning Twain into a journalistic star.

November 15, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Inventions

On November 16, 1836, in High Chief ‘Aikanaka’s compound of many grass structures for cooking, eating, gathering, and retainers’ quarters was one larger hut in which lay Keohokalole, awaiting the birth of her second born. The first child had died at birth.

The great prophetess and High Chiefess Liliha had said it would be a man child, and he would live. “From this child, the bones of our ancestors will have life.” She also said that he would see the demise of the Kamehamehas.

The child about to be born was promised in hānai to Liliha. ʻAikanaka thought Liliha was the perfect hānai for his daughters’ child.

Liliha was particularly pleased with this hānai. She and her husband, Boki, had no sons. Liliha had two daughters; Abigail and Jane Louea. But she had seen great things in her prophesies for the child who was soon to be her hānai.

The chanters began their mele. The child’s ancestry was extolled: His mother was descended from Keawe-a-Heulu and his father was the grandson of Kame‘eiamoku. The two had been trusted warriors and close advisors to Kamehameha l.

The child was born – news traveled quickly, and suddenly the compound was crowded with people, rejoicing, singing, dancing. Kīna’u had come to name the child. It was her privilege.

Children were named by notable historical events, which would date their birth. Kīna’u decreed; Kalakaua, “Battle Day.” History and the ancients give the complete name as Laamea Kamanakapuu Mahinulani Nalolaekalani Lumia-Lani Kalakaua.

Liliha came to collect her hānai child. Then Kīna’u stepped between her and the child. “The child is to go to Ha‘aheo” she decreed. Liliha protested bitterly but knew she could not win, for Kīna’u’s word was law in this matter.

The tiny Kalakaua was wrapped in kapa and taken by his hānai mother, Ha‘aheo, to the royal grounds, followed by the entourage of Kïna‘u.

Kalakaua was given to a kahu [a wet nurse] to be fed and nurtured. His warm infancy was, however, short-lived, for Ha‘aheo died a year later and Kinimaka, her husband, took the baby to live in Lahaina.

However, he lived only a short time on the palace grounds there – as Kinimaka’s high chief linage was less than his late wife’s. Kinimaka moved to a frame house on the outskirts of Lahaina. Within the year he married a Tahitian woman, Pai, who welcomed Kalakaua with love and tenderness.

When Kalakaua was nearly four, his biological mother, who served on the King’s privy council with one of the most powerful woman in Hawaii, Konia, the granddaughter of Kamehameha l, appealed to her to have Kalakaua sent to the High Chiefs’ Children’s School in Honolulu.

Kalakaua was admitted to the school, but not before he was baptized and given the name “David.” Hence, David Kalakaua. In 1839, when Kalakaua entered the school, the three throne-aligned princes were also attending: Moses, twelve; Lot, ten; and Alexander Liholiho, nine.

After Kalakaua left the High Chiefs’ School, he attended the George Beckwith Royal School. At the age of fourteen, Kalakaua returned to his blood father, Kapa‘akea.

In 1853, at the age of seventeen, Kalakaua began his study of Law under Charles Coffin Harris. Enchanted by the young man, Harris took him into his home to live. It was Kalakaua’s years with Harris that formulated his legalistic oratory.

In 1855, life changed considerably for this young man. Kamehameha III died on December 15, 1854, and after a period of mourning, Alexander Liholiho became King as Kamehameha IV.

Kalakaua was attracted to Julia Kapiolani; she was educated in both English and Hawaiian and spoke only Hawaiian and was thoroughly Hawaiian oriented. She was described as lovely, shy and gracious.

Julia Kapiolani was of high chiefly background; she was born December 31, 1834, in Hilo, Hawaii, of High Chief Kūhiō and High Chiefess Kinoiki. She was named in honor of the first High Chiefess to defy the Goddess Pele.

From her early teens she was under the custody of Kamehameha III and had been a member of the court. In 1852, when she was eighteen, she married Benet Namakeha, thirty years her senior. They had both gone on a missionary expedition to Micronesia.

A year later they returned to the court of Kamehameha IV. Shortly after her arrival in Hawaii, Kapiolani become widowed, and her path constantly crossed Kalakaua’s.

On December 8, 1863, Kalakaua’s romance with Julia Kapiolani crystallized, and they were married in a quiet, secret ceremony by an Episcopal minister.

By the 1870s, Kalakaua was beginning to feel the pressure of poverty. The Kalakaua family did not have the riches of the Kamehamehas. Kalakaua’s government salaries were low and his talent for making money was negligible.

But as Queen Emma wrote that with Kalakaua’s “faults we must give him credit for great ambition — he has faltered but keeps on trying. He is not idle, he has stumbled and blundered before the public till actually he really has gained courage amongst the and speak out and write boldly.”

Emma’s reference to Kalakaua’s faults, faltering, stumbling, and blundering referred to Kalakaua’s disastrous tenure as postmaster and his engagement in newspaper work. Along with his political duties, Kalakaua’s dreams and interests were with the arts and in writing.

In the early-1870s, with a young wife to support, Kalakaua reached for a means to support himself beyond his salaries as chamberlain, attorney (he passed the bar in 1871), and as clerk in the Land Office.

He became an inventor. Remembering the wonderful ships he had visited years before, he turned his attention to naval defense. He wrote Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil on Sept 19, 1872 for funds to build a torpedo-proof vessel. (Kelley)

“‘I flatter myself,’ Kalakaua wrote, ‘among the inventors of instruments of naval warfare to have invented a submarine torpedo for the destruction of an enemy vessel advancing on a hostile coast …’ and went on to cite its versatility, practicality and effectiveness.”

“‘The important feature of the invention is the direct action of destruction and the sure annihilation of anything crossing its way . . . I may safely assert that there is nothing afloat (with) the thickness of iron armor and carrying a plate of three to four inches thick at the ships bottom, save the invention proposed by me, and submitted to the British Government …’”

“Kalakaua tried to cover all possibilities for funding, it seems, and submitted a request for patronage to Queen Victoria as well. ‘I have refrained from sending a model, as it would be liable to miscarriage.’ Kalakaua did, however, send detailed drawings of his proposed vessel …”

“‘I am, Sire, with the most profound respects,’ Kalakaua closed the letter, ‘your Imperial Majesty’s most obedient and humble Servant. David Kalakaua, chief of staff and aide camp to His Majesty the King of Hawaii. Knight Companion to the Order of Kamehameha I, Knight Commander of the Order of His Imperial Majesty Francis Joseph of Austria.”

“Either the emperor of Brazil was also suffering from a general flatness of the purse or his fancy was not captured by Kalakaua’s flowery descriptions and entreaty because Kalakaua’s Torpedo Proof Vessel and Torpedo apparently never did get off the drawing board.”

“Kalakaua also tried his hand at designing a sort of semi-submerged, steam-propelled ship battering ram, a ‘Fish Ram’ …. It was shaped like a fish with the steam emitting from the half of the tail which protruded above the water. The battering ram was the elongated snout of the fish, and a compass was inset just where the fish’s eye would be.”

“His most practical invention [was] a bottle cap, much like the plastic caps that you can pick up today …. The cap has a loop which fits around the neck of an opened bottle.”

“The cap is attached to the loop and fits snugly over the mouth of the bottle. Kalakaua designed his ‘improved bottle (stopper) cover’ Nov. 16. 1872, at Kaalaa.” (Brown, Star Bulletin)

Kalakaua reigned as King of the Islands from February 12, 1874 until his death in San Francisco, California, on January 20, 1891.

November 14, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kilauea Iki Eruption – 1959

Volcanologists knew something was coming.

Between November 1957 and February 1959 measurements from newly installed sensitive tiltmeter bases around the summit indicated that the whole caldera region was tilting outward, apparently because magma was welling up from the mantle and accumulating in the reservoir several miles beneath the caldera.

Between August 14 and 19, 1959, a swarm of deep earthquakes was recorded on the seismographs at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. The earthquakes were located about 35-miles below the volcano.

By October, tilt surveys of the caldera, using the new water-tube tiltmeter network, indicated that the summit reservoir of Kīlauea was beginning to inflate with new magma. Scientists later concluded that magma began its upward journey during the August swarm.

Another series of earthquakes – shallow tiny events beneath the caldera – began in mid-September near Halema‘uma‘u Crater. By November 1, more than 1,000 tiny earthquakes were being recorded per day.

Scientists conducted another caldera tilt survey during the second week of November and discovered it was swelling at least three times faster than during the previous months. Magma was moving into the summit reservoir at a high rate.

During the afternoon of November 14, earthquakes beneath the caldera suddenly increased about tenfold in both number and intensity. For five hours, the entire Kīlauea summit region shook as seismic tremor signaled magma was forcing its way from the summit reservoir toward the surface.

An erupting fissure of small lava fountains broke through the south wall of Kīlauea Iki Crater at 8:08 p.m. In the first 24 hours, activity decreased and then eventually ceased at the outermost fissure vents. By nightfall on November 15, only a single vent on the west side of the fissure remained active.

Over the next five days, lava fountain heights fluctuated between about 650 and 980-feet, with a maximum fountain height of 1,247-feet.

A brand new cinder cone called Puʻupuaʻi (translates to “gushing hill”) was formed. As cinder and spatter rapidly accumulated to form Puʻupua‘i, slabs of congealed spatter occasionally broke loose and slid down the cone into the churning lava lake.

The 1959 summit eruption occurred in Kilauea Iki, a collapse crater adjacent to the main summit caldera of Kilauea. There were 17 eruptive ‘episodes’ (or phase) of the eruption which ranged in duration from 1 week to 1¾-hours..

On December 17, episode 15 produced lava fountains that were approximately 1,900-feet high, the highest recorded in Hawaii during the 20th century.

That’s about three times the size of the Washington Monument. That’s also 124 feet higher than the tallest building in the US now: One World Trade Center. (CNN)

Downwind from high lava fountains, forests suffered tremendous damage. Trees were stripped of leaves and branches – or completely buried – by falling cinder. You can now walk through this area of the National Park; it’s called ‘Devastation Trail.’

A few ōhi‘a trees, dead and bleached, poke up through the pumice and very gradually some ōhi‘a, ōhelo and ferns are beginning to recolonize the dead zone (unfortunately, some blackberry, too.)

Here is a video of the eruption (unfortunately, there is no sound, the sound of an eruption is as impressive as the visual):

The lava lake attained its greatest depth (414 feet) and volume (58 million cubic yards) at the end of the eighth phase on December 11, 1959. The eruption ended December 20, 1959.

When we were kids, living on Kāne‘ohe Bay on O‘ahu, whenever the eruption happened we’d go to the Big Island to see it, including the 1959 eruption of Kīlauea Iki.