Peter T Young

October 3, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kawaihae

Kamehameha had granted Kawaihae Komohana ahupua‘a (present Kawaihae 1) to Kalanimōku, his “prime minister;” Kawaihae Hikina (present Kawaihae 2) was one of several ahupuaʻa on Hawai‘i and other islands allocated to John Young by Kamehameha.

Kamehameha had a house here. Following his death and the succession of Liholiho to rule as Kamehameha II, Kawaihae served as the initial Royal Center for Liholiho, who sought consolidation of his forces and consecration of his leadership role, there. (Kelly)

Then, as now, the area was relatively barren and people typically lived near the shore, not up the hill. As noted in 1832, by missionary Lorenzo Lyons in his journal, “about as desolate a place as I have ever seen, nothing but barrenness, with here and there a native hut”.

The area is also generally referenced as Pelekane, which means ‘British,’ possibly named after the Young and Isaac Davis families that lived there (when Davis died in 1810, his friend and co-advisor to Kamehameha, John Young, looked after Davis’ children.)

These were not the only high-ranking people associated with Kawaihae during the first decades of the 19th century. Kamāmalu, daughter of Kamehameha and Kaheiheimālie was born at Pelekane (ca 1802.)

She would later become the wife of her half-brother Liholiho (Kamehameha II,) the son of Kamehameha and the high chiefess Keōpūolani (Kamāmalu died of measles in London with Liholiho in 1825.) Some suggest Queen Emma (granddaughter of John Young) was also born here.

Over time, Kawaihae and Waimea (up the hill) developed a synergistic relationship. The area was a canoe landing area, whether for commerce or combat. (This is where Maui’s chief Kamalālāwalu landed in his assault against Lonoikamakahiki’s Hawaiʻi forces (Lono won.) But Kawaihae’s presence was really focused on commerce as a landing site.

Archibald Menzies, reporting on Vancouver’s third layover at Kawaihae Bay in March 1793 after leaving Kealakekua Bay, recorded that Young and Davis had accompanied “us thither (i.e. to Kawaihae) on purpose to make presents of hogs and vegetables…from their plantations, which lay near this part of the island…” (Menzies, Cultural Surveys)

Young built a storehouse in his family compound. During the sandalwood trade, Young supervised royal warehouses that were the central depository for the wood brought in from the surrounding district.

William Ellis, in 1831 wrote, “Before daylight on the 22d, we were roused by vast multitudes of people passing through the district from Waimea with sandalwood, which had been cut in the adjacent mountains for Karaimoku (Kalanimōku,) by the people of Waimea, and which the people of Kohala, as far as the north point …”

“… had been ordered to bring down to his storehouse on the beach, for the purpose of its being shipped to Oahu. There were between two and three thousand men, carrying each from one to six pieces of sandalwood, according to their size and weight.”

Another early foreign visitor to Kawaihae was Frenchman, Louis Claude Desaulses de Freycinet, in 1819; he met Liholiho here. Following closely in the wake of Freycinet’s visit of 1819 were the American missionaries, who stopped first at Kawaihae on April 1, 1820 (before heading down to Kailua-Kona.) They were met by Kalanimōku and his wives and two of Kamehameha’s widows (Kalākua and Namahana.)

During subsequent decades, other missionaries visiting Hawai‘i Island would record their impressions of the life and landscape of the 19th-century Kawaihae region. According to Rev. William Ellis, who, along with other missionaries, stopped at Kawaihae in 1823, the village in the early 1820s contained one hundred houses.

Ellis noted the same salt pans mentioned by Archibald Menzies in 1793 and described the salt-making operations he witnessed: “The natives of this district manufacture large quantities of salt, by evaporating the sea water. We saw a number of their pans, in the disposition of which they display great ingenuity.”

“(T)he Sandwich Islanders eat (salt) very freely with their food, and use much in preserving their fish. … The surplus … they dispose of to vessels touching at the islands, or export to the Russian settlements on the north-west coast of America, where it is in great demand for curing fish, &c.” (Ellis)

The salt also came in handy with the region’s supplying whalers with fresh and salt beef that called to the Islands, as well as the later Gold Rushers of America. Here is where Samuel Parker (of the later Parker Ranch fame) started out as a cattle hunter to fill those needs.

Increasing demand for meat, hides and tallow prompted Kuakini, governor of Hawai‘i Island, to establish a residence (and corrals) at Waimea in 1830. After having difficulty traversing the rocky trail from Waimea to Kawaihae, he “wisely sentenced forty persons guilty of violating the seventh commandment (committing adultery”) to construct a road connecting the two.

About this time, 2-wheeled Mexican ox carts started to appear; they were used to transport the meat and other goods between Waimea and Kawaihae (lots of white and sweet potatoes were grown in Waimea for export to California during the Gold Rush.)

As the area continued to grow and develop, most of the residential and commercial buildings that comprised Kawaihae Town continued to be located close to the shoreline of the bay; the uplands of the Kawaihae region remained undeveloped pasture land. (Cultural Surveys)

The WWII years brought dramatic change. The vast isolated plains of Waimea were viewed as an ideal location for a troop training center and in the spring of 1942 an army recruit camp was built there. The recruits were followed by the Second and Fifth Marine Divisions that recuperated and trained at Waimea. At its height, the Waimea camp (later dubbed Camp Tarawa,) consisting of tents and Quonset huts set on thousands of acres, housed up to 40,000 men.

Troops were shipped in and out through Kawaihae. At the southern end of the bay, in Kawaihae 2, amphibious landing exercises were conducted and military emplacements were set up in the area of Puʻukohola Heiau.

The war in the Pacific had been over less than a year when on April 1, 1946, an earthquake off the Aleutian Islands caused a tsunami that devastated the Hawaiian Islands. Although no lives were lost at Kawaihae, its effects wiped out commercial fishing activity there and it was reported that the tsunami “…was the beginning of the end for the Kawaihae Fishing Village. People left.” (Cultural Surveys)

By the 1950s, the need for improved harbor facilities at Kawaihae was apparent. The old landing had been destroyed in the 1946 tsunami and the one built in 1937 had proven unsafe in high seas. The Kawaihae Deep-Draft Harbor project was authorized by the US Congress in 1950 and finally dedicated on October 5, 1959.

The harbor’s construction was hailed as an “economic shot in the arm,” for sugar planters in the Kohala region of the island would no longer have to ship their crops overland to Hilo or to Kailua-Kona. The harbor would serve military needs as well. The Army was about to acquire a 100,000-acre training site nearby and could unload supplies at Kawaihae Harbor. (Cultural Surveys)

On August 17, 1972, the US Congress authorized the designation of Puʻukohola Heiau as a National Historic Site. This site also encompasses Mailekini Heiau; Hale O Kapuni Heiau (a submerged “shark” heiau;) Pōhaku o Alapaʻi ku palupalu mano (a stone on the beach where chief Alapaʻi leaned against while watching sharks circling around offerings placed at the submerged heiau;) Pelekane (Kamehameha’s Kawaihae residence) and the site of John Young’s house.

October 2, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hawaiʻi Loa College

Usually you like to start at the beginning of a story – however, as you will see, there are lots of beginnings here – so we’ll start at the end … this is a little about Hawaiʻi Pacific University (HPU), particularly its “Hawaiʻi Loa” campus.

HPU is the state’s largest private university; it is the third-largest tenant of the Downtown area, after Bank of Hawaii and First Hawaiian Bank … since it’s beginning, it has continued to expand.

Let’s step back a bit.

In the early 1960s, a survey was done concerning the possible need for a high-quality four-year liberal arts college. The idea originated with Rev. Harry S. Komuro, then superintendent of the Methodist Mission in Hawaii.

The survey was completed in April 1962. Once it was determined that there was such a need, several churches joined in to help accomplish this goal.

Then, on August 8, 1963, trustees signed a charter and bylaws for a four-denominational (United Church of Christ (Congregational), Methodist, Episcopal and Presbyterian) Protestant college, tentatively named the Christian College of the Pacific. (SB, Aug 10, 1963)

The founding trustees were Dr. Joseph Bevilacqua, general secretary of the United Church of Christ; Rev. Frank E. Butterworth, pastor of First United Methodist Church of Honolulu; Bishop Harry S. Kennedy of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii; and Dr. William E. Phifer, Jr., pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu.

About a year later, “A new and permanent name for the Christian College of the Pacific was adopted by the Board of Trustees. Hawaii Loa College is the first college in the US to be organized by four Protestant denominations.

“Island History has it that Hawaii Loa was a great Polynesian navigator who sailed across the Pacific from the south, discovered the Hawaiian Islands, and settled here”.

“[T]he name was adopted because in ‘conveys to the people of Hawaii, the Mainland, and the entire Pacific Basin the true meaning of our multi-cultural and multi-racial background.” (Rev. Joseph J Bevilacqua, board chairman, SB, Sep 29, 1964)

Hawaii Loa College will be a four-year, residential, co-educational liberal arts school. It will be built in Windward Oahu directly across from the Pali Golf Course on 100 acres of land donated by Harold KL Castle. (SB, Sep 29, 1964)

In 1965, Dr Chandler W Rowe. Former dean of academic affairs at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, was named the school president. “Dr Rowe said the new school will not try to become a university. ‘We don’t intend to compete with the University of Hawaii; rather, we want to cooperate fully with all of Hawaii’s institution of higher learning.’” SB, May 5, 1965)

Hawaii Loa College buildings were designed by Gin Wong from William Perriera & Associates. Wong is best known for his work on the Los Angeles Airport modernization (the spaceship), a Union 76 station in Beverly Hills and the Transamerica Tower (Pyramid) building in San Francisco. (Docomomo)

In September 1967, the first Hawaii Loa College students met in temporary classroom buildings at Chaminade College. The forty-three students who completed applications, 32 men and 11 women, were from Oahu (35), California, Massachusetts and Japan (2-each) and Tennessee and Illinois (1-each). (SB, Sep 4, 1967)

At that time, school trustees were contemplating selling the Windward site. Castle’s will gave the land in fee simple with no striction on its use. In addition, site development costs for the Windward campus were “so heavy that it is unable to proceed with construction.” (SB, Aug 31, 1967)

About 100 people met and organized a Citizens Committee for Hawaii Loa College to help the school turstees in efforts to build on the land donated by Castle at the foot of Nuuanu Pali. Windward Jaycees presented petitions signed by 1,300 people asking that the school be built on the Pali site. (SB, Dec 1, 1967)

The Windward campus construction moved forward, and Hawaii’s newest four-year liberal arts college moved into its new campus in January 1971. Prior to that classes were held at Chaminade and Community Church in Honolulu. One hundred and five students began their 2^nd semester classes in the new library-classroom building.

Hawaii Loa and Hawaii Pacific University had discussed merging as far back as 1977. (Adv, Apr 24, 1992) Then, in 1992, Hawaiʻi Loa College, with about 500 students, merged into HPU, with nearly 6,700 students – the Windward campus was then referred to as the Hawaii Loa campus of HPU. (Adv, April 22, 1992)

Hawaii Loa was in danger of losing accreditation, pressed to meet payrolls and $3 million in debt. HPU centered its nursing and marine science programs at Hawaii Loa. (Smyser)

Then, in 2016, it was announced that Castle Medical Center planned to buy the HPU Hawaii Loa campus to expand its health care offerings. Adventist Health Castle had been serving Windward Oʻahu since Castle Memorial Hospital first opened its doors in 1963.

They plan a modern healthcare campus with inpatient facilities that meet an emerging standard of care, medical offices with adaptable spaces to accommodate changing care models and a cancer treatment center.

The hospital will provide emergency services and rooms for inpatient services. Outpatient support will be provided in the medical office buildings and the Cancer Center.

October 1, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Smith and Jones Myth

The US has a legal immigration system; you do not have to sneak across the border illegally to enter the US. Being a permanent resident is a “privilege” and not a “right.” (US Citizenship and Immigration Services – uscis-gov)

Permanent immigrant residents are expected to respect and be loyal to the United States and to obey our country’s laws. Being a permanent resident also means that there are new rights and responsibilities. (US Citizenship and Immigration Services – uscis-gov)

In the 1800s, rising political instability, economic distress, and religious persecution plagued Europe, fueling the largest mass human migration in the history of the world.

Prior to 1890, individual states, rather than the Federal Government, regulated immigration into the United States. Castle Garden (now Castle Clinton), located in the Battery of Manhattan, served as the New York State immigration station from 1855 to 1890.

Around 1890, it became apparent that Castle Garden was ill-equipped and unprepared to handle the mass influx, leading the Federal government to construct a new immigration station on Ellis Island. During construction, the Barge Office in the Battery was used for immigrant processing.

The new structure on Ellis Island began receiving arriving immigrants on January 1, 1892. Annie Moore, a teenage girl from Ireland, accompanied by her two younger brothers, made history as the very first immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island.

If an immigrant’s papers were in order and they were in reasonably good health, the Ellis Island inspection process lasted 3 to 5 hours. The inspections took place in the Registry Room (Great Hall) where doctors would briefly scan every individual for obvious physical ailments.

Doctors at Ellis Island soon became very adept at conducting these “six second physicals.” By 1916, it was said that a doctor could identify numerous medical conditions (ranging from anemia to trachoma) by simply glancing at a person.

Most immigrants entered the United States through New York Harbor, although there were other ports of entry in cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco, and New Orleans. (Ellis Island Foundation)

Between 1892 and 1954, over twelve million people entered the United States through the immigration inspection station at Ellis Island, a small island located in the upper bay off the New Jersey coast.

There is a myth that persists in the field of genealogy, or more accurately, in family lore, that family names were changed there.

The legend goes that officials at Ellis Island, unfamiliar with the many languages and nationalities of the people arriving at Ellis Island, would change the names of those immigrants that sounded foreign, or unusual.

No one’s family name was changed, altered, shortened, butchered, or “written down wrong” at Ellis Island or any American port. That idea is an urban legend. (American Library Association)

“Nearly all … name change stories are false. Names were not changed at Ellis Island. The proof is found when one considers that inspectors never wrote down the names of incoming immigrants.”

“The only list of names came from the manifests of steamships, filled out by ship officials in Europe. In the era before visas, there was no official record of entering immigrants except those manifests.”

“When immigrants reached the end of the line in the Great Hall, they stood before an immigration clerk with the huge manifest opened in front of him. The clerk then proceeded, usually through interpreters, to ask questions based on those found in the manifests. Their goal was to make sure that the answers matched.” (Vincent J Cannato, NY Public Library)

Inspectors did not create records of immigration; rather they checked the names of the people moving through Ellis Island against those recorded in the ship’s passenger list, or manifest.

The ship’s manifest was created by employees of the steamship companies that brought the immigrants to the US, before the voyage took place, when the passenger bought their ticket. The manifest was presented to the officials at Ellis Island when the ship arrived. If anything, Ellis Island officials were known to correct mistakes in passenger lists. (NY Public Library)

Many names did get changed as immigrants settled into their new American lives, but those changes were made several years after arrival and were done by choice of someone in the family. (American Library Association)

Surnames, then, become one measure of immigration to the US, though you sometimes have to look beneath the surface for what they’re saying. For example, many German immigrants changed Schmidt to Smith or Müller to Miller upon arrival on American soil – or in response to anti-German sentiment surrounding World War I. (Ancestry)

As mass migration began growing, immigration laws started changing. Contract laborers were allowed admittance in 1864, but barred in 1885, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

In 1875, prostitutes and convicts were barred entry, and in 1882, those convicted of political offenses, lunatics, idiots, and persons likely to become public charges were prohibited. Polygamists and political radicals were added to the no-go list in 1903. (Smithsonian)

In the Islands, by the middle of the 19th century the Hawaiian population had declined drastically through the impacts of disease and epidemics and the dispersal of the young men of the Kingdom on whaling ships and seeking their fortunes in the California gold fields.

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

There were three big waves of workforce immigration: Chinese 1852; Japanese 1885 and Filipinos 1905; several smaller, but substantial, migrations also occurred: Portuguese 1877; Norwegians 1880; Germans 1881; Puerto Ricans 1900; Koreans 1902 and Spanish 1907.

“Hawai‘i is America in a microcosm – a melting pot of many racial and national origins, from which has been produced a common nationality, a common patriotism, a common faith in freedom and in the institutions of America.” (Senator Herbert

Lehman; GPO)

For nearly one hundred years immigrants arriving in Hawaiʻi had their initial processing in the area of the present immigration building at the entrance to Honolulu Harbor.

In the 19th century they came over the channel wharf to be processed at the pavilion and quarters of the Kingdom’s Quarantine and Immigration Depot built in 1879 on what was popularly called Fisherman’s Point.

King Kalākaua, who personally initiated Japanese immigration in a visit to the Emperor, visited the station to greet the initial group of Japanese laborers arriving in 1886. After a hospitable welcome which included entertainment of hula dancers, he invited some of the group to the Palace to display their skill at fencing. (NPS)

The United States government took over immigration matters after annexation and built new structures out over the mud flats (which opened July 4, 1905.)

September 30, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kapaʻakea Spring

It was once a perched water-table pond and spring.

It was originally known as Kumulae Spring (Pond – also Kapaʻakea and later Hausten Spring/Pond) and was reportedly the property of Kamāmalu (sister of Kamehameha IV and V.) She and her brothers loved swimming in the pond; they and others shared food and drinks there.

The spring is the subject of an old legend that tells of a wondrous princess upon whom men’s eyes were forbidden to gaze. The princess loved the waters of the spring and from time to time she would go there at night and bathe. In time, the waters of the spring became known for its healing powers. (Kanahele)

As in much of Oʻahu, geologically, the bedrock is actually reef limestone. Lava from the upslope Sugarloaf covered the limestone and cooled (with a thickness of about 40-feet.) After cooling of the Sugarloaf lava, alluvium and marshy lagoon sediments accumulated atop much of the limestone. A few inches of soil covered the top. (Halliday)

Groundwater flow cut through the limestone forming a karstic drainage system (Karst being a geological formation shaped by the dissolution of a layer or layers of soluble bedrock, such as limestone.) This region, in and around the lower portions of the University of Hawaiʻi, became part of the Mōʻiliʻili Karst. Caverns and perched water-table springs and ponds were exposed at the surface.

The best-known of theses ponds was Kumulae. By the early-1920s, Mr. Hausten purchased and cleared the land, and stocked the pond with koi which interbred with existing fish. The large clear fishpond quickly became a noted attraction.

It was the family’s garden home with beautiful tropical gardens of flora and fauna. Emma McGuire “Ma” Hausten was an avid gardener and planted white ginger, water lilies, plumeria from the South Seas, willow trees, kukui trees, breadfruit and fruit trees as well as Hawaiian herbs and medical plants.

The gardens thrived and people asked if they might use the tropical setting for weddings, luaus and parties. Finally, in the mid-1930s limited private parties were held. (Willows)

Then, ‘tragedy’ happened. In the autumn of 1934, the Hausten pond disappeared without warning, draining in less than 24 hours.

It turns out, construction activities downslope from the King-University intersection struck a master conduit in the underground watered cave system. Water drained out. Upslope, the results of this dewatering were dramatic.

The master conduit was eventually resealed, the cave’s water table temporarily recharged, but the karst was never the same again. There have been several instances of collapses since the dewatering. One instance in 1952 involves the Standard Trading store falling through the ground into the karst below it. Another instance involves the emergence of a large cavern downslope from the King-University intersection.

During World War II, times were tough. An offer was made for the property; but instead of selling, the family decided to serve light lunches and drinks. In 1944, the Willows Restaurant opened as a club by Emma’s daughter, Kathleen Perry, along with husband Al (30-year musical director of Hawaii Calls,) her brothers Allan and Walter McGuire and other family members. Together, they presided over a gracious era of Hawaiian music and hospitality during the late-1940s and 1950s. (Willows)

But after the dewatering, the historic pond was never the same, the continuing drop in the water table especially impacted the Willows Restaurant. The willow trees wilted and the restaurant lost its attractiveness and its customers.

New sinkholes developed. “People living in the vicinity made their way into the caves through holes in their yards and speared fish by the hundreds.” Several houses “lurched” and settled. Sidewalks cracked and water and gas mains ruptured. Some trees sank almost 3-feet. (Halliday)

The spring dried up and a remnant of the pond had to be lined with concrete. A manmade water feature surrounded by rock and plants has been built to recreate the ambience of the old days.

In 1998, the site was sold and restored. The Willows re-opened its doors on the threshold of a new millennium in 1999, after six years of being closed. It closed again in 2018 and is now operated as a venue and event space with catering.

September 29, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Maui No Ka Oi

Several have asked about historical information on Lahaina and West Maui. Here is a repeat of something I posted a while ago – its focus is on West Maui.

West Maui was considered a ‘window to the world’ because this area has seen the comings and goings of rival chiefs, kings, missionaries, whalers, government officials, the military, sugar and pineapple plantation owners, early labor immigrants, celebrities and travelers for centuries.

This ‘window’ is a metaphor. As a ‘window to the world,’ the stories of West Maui give a bigger perspective of the world, than we would otherwise have, and helps us to expand our view and broaden our understanding of the world.

History tells us much about a community – what it is and where it has come from. West Maui has a rich history dating back to the times of: Pre-contact Hawaiʻi; Hawaiian Monarchy; American Protestant Missionaries; Whaling industry; Sugar and Pineapple Plantations; and Evolution of the West Maui Community.

Each successive passage of an era has added to the cultural richness of the community. And through the tireless efforts of numerous organizations and individuals in the community, much has been done to preserve the historic character of West Maui town and to restore historic sites.

The island of Maui is divided into twelve moku; Kāʻanapali, Lāhainā, Wailuku, Hāmākuapoko, Hāmākualoa, Koʻolau, Hāna, Kīpahulu, Kaupō, Kahikinui, Honuaʻula and Kula. Two of these, Kāʻanapali and Lāhainā make up West Maui.

Probably there is no portion of our Valley Isle, around which gathers so much historic value as West Maui. It was the former capital and favorite residence of kings and chiefs.

After serving for centuries as Royal Center to ruling chiefs, West Maui was selected by Kamehameha III and his chiefs to be the seat of government; here the first Hawaiian constitution was drafted and the first legislature was convened.

Hawai‘i’s whaling era began in 1819 when two New England ships became the first whaling ships to arrive in the Hawaiian Islands. Over the next two decades, the Pacific whaling fleet nearly quadrupled in size and in the record year of 1846, 736-whaling ships arrived in Hawai’i.

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.

Lāhainā Roads, also called the Lāhainā Roadstead is a channel between the islands of Maui and Lānai (and to a lesser extent, Molokai and Kahoʻolawe) making it a sheltered anchorage.

The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between the continent and Japan whaling grounds brought many whaling ships to the Islands. Whalers needed food and the islands supplied this need from its fertile lands.

Between the 1820s and the 1860s, the Lāhainā Roadstead was the principal anchorage of the American Pacific whaling fleet. One reason why so many whalers preferred West Maui to other ports was that by anchoring in a roadstead from half a mile to a mile from shore they could control their crews better than when in a harbor.

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.

The great event of 1823 was the death of Keōpūolani at Lāhainā. Within an hour before “joining the Great Majority” she had been baptized as a Christian, an occurrence which proved a great stimulus to increasing the influence of the missionaries. King Kaumuali’i of Kauai, at his special request, was buried beside Keōpūolani in 1824. (NPS)

In 1831, classes at the new Mission Seminary at Lahainaluna (later known as Lahainaluna (Upper Lahaina)) began. The school was established by the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions “to instruct young men of piety and promising talents” (training preachers and teachers.) It is the oldest high school west of the Mississippi River.

Per the requests of the chiefs, the American Protestant missionaries began teaching the makaʻāinana (commoners.) Literacy levels exploded.

From 1820 to 1832, in which Hawaiian literacy grew by 91 percent, the literacy rate on the US continent grew by only 6 percent and did not exceed the 90 percent level until 1902 – three hundred years after the first settlers landed in Jamestown – overall European literacy rates in 1850 had not been much above 50 percent.

Centuries ago, the early Polynesian settlers to Hawaiʻi brought sugar cane with them and demonstrated that it could be grown successfully.

It was not until 1823 that several members of the West Maui Mission Station began to process sugar from native sugarcanes for their tables. By the 1840s, efforts were underway in West Maui to develop a means for making sugar as a commodity.

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for a contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

It is not likely anyone then foresaw the impact this would have on the cultural and social structure of the islands. The sugar industry is at the center of Hawaiʻi’s modern diversity of races and ethnic cultures. Of the nearly 385,000-workers that came, many thousands stayed to become a part of Hawai‘i’s unique ethnic mix. Hawai‘i continues to be one of the most culturally-diverse and racially-integrated places.

Pioneer Mill Company was one of the earliest plantations to use a steam tramway for transporting harvested cane from the fields to the mill. Cane from about 1000‐acres was flumed directly to the mill cane carrier with the rest coming to the mill by rail. (The Sugar Cane Train is a remnant of that system.)

In 1859, an oil well was discovered and developed in Titusville, Pennsylvania; within a few years this new type of oil replaced whale oil for lamps and many other uses – spelling the end of the whaling industry.

By 1862, the whaling industry was in a definite and permanent decline. The effect of West Maui was striking. Prosperity ended, prices fell, cattle and crops were a drag on the market, and ship chandleries and retail stores began to wither.

Historically Maui’s second largest industry, pineapple cultivation has 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.

One of the first hotels in West Maui was the Pioneer Hotel – founded in 1901. George Freeland arrived in the Lāhainā roadstead on a ship that had just come from a long voyage through the south seas; he noted a need for a hotel.

It remained the only place for visitors to stay on Maui’s west side until the early-1960s. Tourism exploded; West Maui is a full-fledged tourist destination second only to Waikīkī.

Lāhainā’s Front Street, offering an incredible oceanfront setting, people of diverse cultures, architecture and incredible stories of Hawaiʻi’s past, was recognized as one of the American Planning Association’s 2011 “Great Streets in America.”

The following link is to a larger discussion on West Maui – it was prepared a few years ago, before the fires.

Click HERE to view/download for more information on West Maui’s place in the Islands and world.

To see and read about the many structures that were lost in the Lahaina fire, I encourage you to download an App developed by the Lahaina Restoration Foundation that was put together as a ‘Walking Tour’ through Lahaina (you will see images and information on the pre-fire structures):

https://lahainarestoration.org/lahaina-historic-trail/

The tragic fire in Lahaina destroyed many of the physical structures of the community. Some of the historic buildings may be rebuilt; something else will take the place of others.

But the fires did not take away the memory we share of this area. Do what you can to help those that have been impacted and share your memories of West Maui and Lahaina. Maui No Ka Oi (Maui is the best).