Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Territorial Penitentiary

The history of Hawai‘i’s Euro-American criminal justice system can be traced back to the first constitution of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i promulgated on October 8, 1840, by Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) at the advice of foreign political advisors.  (ASM)

The Preamble of the Kingdom of Hawai`i Constitution of 1840 (the Declaration of Rights, Both of the People and Chiefs) stated, “Protection For The People Declared.”

“‘God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the earth,’ in unity and blessedness. God has also bestowed certain rights alike on all men and all chiefs, and all people of all lands.”

“These are some of the rights which He has given alike to every man and every chief of correct deportment; life, limb, liberty, freedom from oppression; the earnings of his hands and the productions of his mind, not however to those who act in violation of the laws.”

“God has also established government, and rule for the purpose of peace; but in making laws for the nation it is by no means proper to enact laws for the protection of the rulers only, without also providing protection for their subjects;”

“neither is it proper to enact laws to enrich the chiefs only, without regard to enriching their subjects also, and hereafter there shall by no means be any laws enacted which are at variance with what is above expressed, neither shall any tax be assessed, nor any service or labor required of any man, in a manner which is at variance with the above sentiments.”

“The above sentiments are hereby published for the purpose of protecting alike, both the people and the chiefs of all these islands, while they maintain a correct deportment; that no chief may be able to oppress any subject, but that chiefs and people may enjoy the same protection, under one and the same law.”

“Protection is hereby secured to the persons of all the people, together with their lands, their building lots, and all their property, while they conform to the laws of the kingdom, and nothing whatever shall be taken from any individual except by express provision of the laws.”

“Whatever chief shall act perseveringly in violation of this constitution, shall no longer remain a chief of the Hawaiian Islands, and the same shall be true of the Governors, officers, and all land agents.” (Preamble of the First Constitution of Hawaii, October 8, 1840)

The First Act of Kamehameha III, An Act to Organize the Executive Ministry, signed by the King on October 29, 1845, established the position of Minister of the Interior and made him responsible “for the faithful and lawful execution of the duties comprised in the first part of”.

The Second Act of Kamehameha III, An Act to Organize the Executive Departments of the Hawaiian Islands, signed on April 27, 1846. Among the duties assigned to the Minister of the Interior were those in Chapter III “Of Internal Improvements,” Article IV “Of Prisons and Houses of Correction” to manage the prisons of the Kingdom.

In Part V, Chapter I “Of the Executive Judicial Officers,” of the same act, the post of Marshal of the Kingdom was established. The Marshal was made responsible for the safekeeping of all prisoners. (HSA)

In the mid-1850s, Honolulu had approximately 10,000-residents.  Foreigners made up about 6% of that (excluding visiting sailors.)  Laws at the time allowed naturalization of foreigners to become subjects of the King (by about that time, about 440 foreigners exercised that right.)

The majority of houses were made of grass (hale pili,) there were about 875 of them; there were also 345 adobe houses, 49 stone houses, 49 wooden houses and 29 combination (adobe below, wood above.)

The city was regularly laid out with major streets typically crossing at right angles – they were dirt (Fort Street had to wait until 1881 for pavement, the first to be paved.)

Sidewalks were constructed, usually of wood (as early as 1838;) by 1857, the first sidewalk made of brick was laid down on Merchant Street.

At the time, “Broadway” was the main street (we now call it King Street;) it was the widest and longest – about 2-3 miles long from the river (Nuʻuanu River on the west) out to the “plains” (to Mānoa.)  What is now known as Queen Street was actually the water’s edge.

To get around people walked, or rode horses or used personal carts/buggies.  It wasn’t until 1868, that horse-drawn carts became the first public transit service in the Hawaiian Islands.

Honolulu Harbor was bustling at that time.  Over the prior twenty years, the Pacific whaling fleet nearly quadrupled in size and in the record year of 1846; 736-whaling ships arrived in Hawai‘i.

At the time, Honolulu Harbor was not as it is today and many of the visiting ships would anchor two to three miles off-shore – cargo and people were ferried to the land.

To accommodate the growing commerce, from 1856 to 1860, the work of filling in the fringe reef to create an area known as the “Esplanade” (where Aloha Tower is now situated) and building up a water-front and dredging the harbor was underway.

The legislature adopted a resolution directing the minister of the interior to remove Fort Kekuanohu (Fort Honolulu – then serving as a prison) and use the material obtained thereby “in the construction of prisons, and the filling up of the reef.”  (Kuykendall)

Fort Street is named after this fort; it is one of the oldest streets in Honolulu.  Today, the site of the old fort is the open space called Walker Park, a small park at the corner of Queen and Fort streets (also fronting Ala Moana/Nimitz.)

However, the prison could not be removed until a new prison was built; construction for the new prison began in 1855, but not entirely completed until more than two years later.  The Fort was then removed in 1857. (Kuykendall)

Prisoners from Molokai (“nearly every man in the village”) who were implicated in a cattle-stealing program; they were tried and sentenced to jail.  These, along with other prisoners, cut the coral blocks and constructed the prison.  (Cooke)

On the opposite side (ʻEwa) of Nuʻuanu stream was a fishpond, identified as “Kawa” or the “King’s fish pond.” Iwilei at that time was a small, narrow peninsula, less populated than the Honolulu-side of Nuʻuanu stream.

The new prison was on a marshy no-man’s land almost completely cut off from the main island by two immense fishponds.  The causeway road (initially called “Prison Road,” later “Iwilei Street”) split Kawa Pond into Kawa and Kūwili fishponds.

Sometimes called the  “Oʻahu Prison,” “King’s Prison,” “Kawa Prison” or, simply, “The Reef,” it was a coral block fortress built upon coral fill at the end of a coral built road over the coral reefs and mudflats of Iwilei.

“As one enters the heavy front gates one stands in a long, but narrow, inclosure that forms the front yard of the prison proper.   Here a few of the prisoners are sometimes allowed to take their exercise.”

“The only difference in the cells occupied by the women is that they have a mattress on the floor instead of a hammock to sleep on.  They wear blue denim dresses, while the men wear a combination of brown and blue.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 15, 1894)

In 1886, Mark Twain visited the prison and wrote:  “… we presently arrived at a massive coral edifice which I took for a fortress at first, but found out directly that it was the government prison.”

“A soldier at the great gate admitted us without further authority than my countenance, and I supposed he thought he was paying me a handsome compliment when he did so; and so did I until I reflected that the place was a penitentiary”. (Twain)

“When I was at Honolulu, I had occasion to visit the reef. That is, the island prison of Oahu, where all classes of offenders, murderers, felons, and misdemeanants are confined at hard labor.”

“While I was there my attention was drawn to thirty-seven Galicians, subjects of Austria, who were confined because they had refused to fulfil their contracts to labor for the Oʻahu plantation. They were dressed in stripes like the other prisoners.”

“They were made to do the same labor in the quarries and on the roads. They were conveyed about the islands in a public vehicle, accompanied by armed guards.”  (Dr Levy; Atkinson, 1899)

The overall responsibility for prisons remained with the Minister of the Interior until 1890, when it was transferred by Act 3 to the Attorney General, along with authority over the Marshal. (The Marshall was later renamed High Sheriff.)

Meanwhile, an intervening supervisory level, the Board of Prison Inspectors, also under the Minister of the Interior, had been created in 1888 to “supervise the discipline and government” of the prisons.

In 1914 under the Territory of Hawai‘i, a 9.8-acre site in Kalihi-Kai was identified as the new location for Oahu Prison. Construction for the new prison was underway the following year, and by 1918, the prison was completed and renamed the Territorial Penitentiary.

The Territorial Penitentiary served as the main detainment center for convicted felons, misdemeanants, and inmates awaiting trial. By the mid-1970s, the former Territorial Penitentiary came under the control of the City and County of Honolulu and subsequently renamed to the present Oahu Community Correctional Center (OCCC).

By the late 1970s, most of the buildings constructed for the Territorial Penitentiary were demolished.  The redesign was dramatically different from the previous penitentiary as it replaced the large single structure with multiple wings design, to one with multiple interdependent structures.

Since its establishment, OCCC has expanded to the current 16-acres and is the largest jail facility in Hawai‘i with a capacity of 628 beds and an operational capacity of 954 beds, however OCCC consistently operates above these capacities.

The existing main OCCC jail building opened in 1980 and was fully occupied by 1982. From 1978 to 1987, OCCC served as both local jail and State prison. In 1987, the Halawa Correctional Facility was completed, after which OCCC assumed its current primary function as a detention facility.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ka Wailele ʻO Waiānuenue

The Wailuku is the longest river in Hilo (twenty-six miles.) Its course runs from the mountains to the ocean along the divide between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. The Wailuku is the boundary between Hilo Palikū in the north and Hilo One on the south.

The earliest recorded bridge in Hawai‘i was a crude footbridge across the Wailuku River in Hilo and was reported by missionary C. S. Stewart in 1825. (The first major bridge on O‘ahu appears to have been one extending North Beretania Street across Nuʻuanu Stream, erected in 1840.) (ksbe)

“About a hundred yards above the beach, it (the stream) opens into a still deep basin, encircled by high cliffs. Into this basin the whole stream is projected by two cascades … A rude bridge crosses the stream just above the falls; and it is a favorite amusement of the natives to plunge from it, or from the adjoining rocks, into the rapids, and pass head foremost over both falls, into the lower basin.” (Stewart, Schmitt)

The Wailuku River bridge must have existed for only a short time, and it was quickly forgotten. Sereno Bishop, born on the Big Island in 1827, later recalled, “There were no bridges in these islands until after 1840.” Titus Coan, the pioneer missionary who settled in Hilo in 1835, wrote, “For many years after our arrival there were no roads, no bridges, and no horses in Hilo”. (Schmitt)

Hilo’s Wailuku River was finally spanned again in September 1859, this time by a 196-foot-long suspension bridge. Less than seven weeks after it was opened, this bridge collapsed while a party of eight or ten persons and their horses were attempting to cross. The group narrowly averted drowning and death by falling timbers.

This was not the first disaster or near-disaster at the site of the Wailuku Bridge. Weakened by earthquakes and a tsunami, the railroad bridge over the Wailuku River collapsed on March 31, 1923 – immediately after a loaded passenger train had crossed and another was approaching.

Two of the largest bridges on the Hawai‘i Consolidated Railway were destroyed by the 1946 tsunami, a disaster which effectively put that railroad out of business. (ksbe)

Waiānuenue Avenue (rainbow (seen in) water) in Hilo town is named for the most famous waterfall in Hilo, Ka Wailele ʻO Waiānuenue, Rainbow Falls. There is a legend about this falls, the goddess Hina, her son Māui and the lizard-man Kuna.

Hina once lived in the cave beneath and behind the waterfall. Kuna would throw logs and boulders over the edge of the falls to try to cause harm to Hina. She called to her son Māui and he came quickly to her aid. He chased Kuna upland along the river, where they engaged in many battles.

Finally, Māui emerged the victor, though only because he was aided by the volcano goddess Pele. Hina was now safe. Many places along the Wailuku were named to commemorate different parts of the story so that the legend would not be forgotten. (Zane)

The local utility Hawaii Electric Light Co (HELCO) owns and operates two hydroelectric facilities arranged in tandem along the lower reach of the Wailuku River near Hilo. The Waiau plant was constructed in 1920 and upgraded in 1947. The Puʻueo plant downstream was built in 1910 and upgraded in 1941. The Wailuku River Hydroelectric Power Company plant began commercial operation in 1993. It is located at the junction of the Wailuku River and the Kaloheahewa Stream.

A 6-foot-diameter intake pipe for HELCO is located about 100 feet above Ka Wailele ʻO Waiānuenue. The intake feeds the utility’s Puʻueo Hydroelectric Plant located down on Wainaku Street, several blocks from the ocean.

About a mile upstream is a section of river called Boiling Pots, as well as the Peʻepeʻe Falls.

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David Kamehameha

Mataio Kekūanāoʻa (1793–1868) and Kīnaʻu (1805-1839) each served as Kuhina Nui, a position generally described as “Prime Minister,” “Premier” and “Regent.”  They were each born of chiefs; Kekūanāoʻa was son of an Oʻahu chief; Kīnaʻu was the daughter of Kamehameha I.

They were also husband and wife.

They had five children: four boys, David Kamehameha (1828–1835), Moses Kekūāiwa (1829-1848,) Lot Kapuāiwa (1830–1872,) Alexander Liholiho (1834–1863,) and a girl, Victoria Kamāmalu (1838–1866.)

Consistent with custom, each of the sons were hānai (adopted) to other families – David by Kaʻahumanu, Moses by Kaikioʻewa, Lot by Nahiʻenaʻena, and Alexander by Kauikeaouli.  (Luomala)

When Kīna‘u’s last child, Victoria Kamāmalu, was born she refused her maternal uncle Kuakini’s request to take the child to the island of Hawaiʻi to rear. Defying custom, she herself nursed her and her adopted daughter Pauahi (but made John Papa ʻĪ‘ī and his wife Sarai her child’s kahu.)  (Luomala)

We hear a lot about two of Kekūanāo’a and Kīnaʻu’s sons – Alexander Liholiho became Kamehameha IV and Lot Kapuāiwa became Kamehameha V (daughter Victoria Kamāmalu became Kuhina Nui, like her parents.)

We do not often hear about David Kamehameha.

Some suggest David’s birth had helped reconcile differences between Ka‘ahumanu and Kīnaʻu.

It was the wish of Kamehameha the Great that Kīnaʻu and Kamāmalu, his daughters by Kaheiheimalie, marry his sons by Keōpūolani, the highest ranking chief of the ruling family in the kingdom during her lifetime, to continue his line.

Kamāmalu became the wife of Liholiho (Kamehameha II.)  Kīnaʻu had refused to marry Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III.)  (Luomala)

When Kīnaʻu and Kekūanāoʻa were married, Kaʻahumanu was furious; “she ground her teeth and spit fire. … It was not until Kīnaʻu became pregnant with her first child that Kaʻahumanu became reconciled to what had taken place.” (Kamakau)

As was the custom, the child was hānai (adopted) by others.  Pukui, emphasizing the permanency of the hānai relationship, has stated that a child “is the hānai of his permanent, adoptive parents” and the relationship is as permanent as that in modern legal adoption.  (Luomala)

At his birth (May 20, 1828,) Kīnaʻu presented her first-born, Prince David Kamehameha, to Kaʻahumanu, “a boy fine enough for any mother not of the seed royal to glory in.”  (Judd)

A second grandchild whom Kaʻahumanu had charge of at this time was Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani. (Kamakau)

Kaʻahumanu clashed with Boki (Governor of Oʻahu.)

“He (Boki) accused Kaʻahumanu of appropriating to herself the private estate of the young king (Kauikeaouli – Kamehameha III) so that he could have no land, and of reviling him by calling him a servant of David Kamehameha and of Ruth, the daughter of Kekūanāoʻa and Pauahi, who had been one of the wives of Liholiho. But these slanders recoiled on the governor, whose folly and wickedness contrasted strongly with the prudence and inoffensiveness of the queen regent.”  (Bingham)

When Kaʻahumanu received word that Boki may try to kill her, Kaʻahumanu said, “I do not fear death planned by this son of ours, but he will have to (come) himself to kill me and these grandchildren of mine who will stay by me.” (These were David Kamehameha and Ruth Keʻelikōlani.)  (Boki later gave up the idea of killing Kaʻahumanu.) (Kamakau)

When David was four, in 1832, Kaʻahumanu died at her house in Mānoa Valley, and afterwards, David was raised by Kekāuluohi (Kīnaʻu’s half sister, who became Kuhina Nui of Hawaiʻi on April, 5, 1839 and took the name Kaʻahumanu III.)

Hiram Bingham noted David Kamehameha was “the favorite little son of Kekāuluohi;” although it is likely Kīnaʻu still had a hand in his upbringing.

Kekāuluohi joined Kawaiahaʻo Church on March 2, 1828 the third occasion in the history of the church on which members were received into it, and Kīnaʻu on March 7, 1830. These chiefesses were of the same firmness of character as Kaʻahumanu, and their husbands took a similar stand. They too were like parents to the people.  (Kamakau)

Prince David Kamehameha died of unknown causes at the age of seven, December 15, 1835.  He was buried at Pohukaina on what is now the ʻIolani Palace grounds and was later transported and buried at the Mauna ʻAla Royal Mausoleum.

On November 16, 1836, High Chief Kahana Kapaʻahea and the High Chiefess Analeʻa Keohokālole had their third son, David Kalākaua; it has been suggested that he was named in honor of David Kamehameha.

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Hawaii Geologic Setting

Tiny dots upon a map of the Pacific, the Hawaiian Islands are in reality the tops of a range of mighty mountains, perhaps the greatest mountain range on earth, built up from the sea floor by thousands upon thousands of volcanic eruptions. The average depth of the floor of the ocean on the two sides of the island chain is about 15,000 feet.

Thus the lowest of the islands are mountains more than 15,000 feet high; and Mauna Kea, on the island of Hawaii, rises some 30,000 feet above its base. It is certainly the highest island peak in the world, and quite probably is the world’s highest mountain in terms of elevation above the ocean floor.

Fifteen hundred miles across the central Pacific stretches the line of islands that we call the Hawaiian Archipelago. From Ocean (Kure) Island at the northwest, we pass southeastward by Midway and Gardner Islands, French Frigates Shoal, Necker, Nihoa, and Kaula Islands, all of which are small low islands, until at Niihau we reach the first of the large islands of the Hawaiian group.

There are eight of these major islands. In order southeastward they are: Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Maui, and Hawaii. Most of the larger islands are well watered and clothed in tropical vegetation—green jewels set in a hand of sparkling white surf, and laid in the blue plush of the ocean.

The small islands northwest of Niihau—the so-called Leeward Islands—are too small to collect a toll of moisture from the passing winds. They are barren and waterless. Lanai and Kahoolawe also are dry, because the high islands to windward of them extract the water from the wind before it reaches them.

The Hawaiian mountains were born when a fissure opened in a northwest-southeast direction across the floor of the Pacific Ocean. How long ago this happened we have no way of knowing.

We believe the oldest rocks of the major islands now visible above sea level may date from the late Tertiary period of geologic time, some 30 or 40 million years ago. Obviously the oldest rocks, at the base of the heap on the ocean floor, must be very much older, perhaps 60 million years old, or even more.

Through most of the period of the islands’ growth upward through the ocean water the building force of volcanism met little opposition.

But as the top of the mountain reached into shallower water near the surface of the sea first currents and then waves began to attack the growing mass, knocking fragments of lava rock loose and washing them away into deeper water.  When eventually the volcanoes thrust their heads above the sea their struggle for existence became still more intense.

Then began the great battle between the constructive forces of volcanism, ever striving to build the island upward and outward with flow upon flow of new lava, and the destructive forces of wave, stream, wind, and even ice erosion, carving away the land and carting away the debris to dump it into the ever-hungry abysses of the ocean.

So long as volcanism continued fully active the islands continued to grow, but when volcanic activity weakened and finally died out the powers of erosion seized control. Great canyons were carved into the slopes by streams, waves battered away at the shores, cutting them back into high cliffs with broad shallowly submerged platforms at their bases, and the whole land mass was gradually worn away.

The ultimate end of this process is a broad, nearly flat platform cutting across the volcanic cone a few tens of fathoms below sea level. All that is left of the former islands is a shoal.

Before this final stage of erosion is reached, however, a new agent of construction appears. On the shallowly submerged platforms, organisms such as corals start to grow in abundance, and secrete their limy skeletons to form reefs. In early stages these reefs surround a central volcanic island, and are known as fringing reefs.

In later stages the volcanic island may disappear entirely leaving only a limestone reef, slightly submerged to form a shoal, or projecting slightly above the water to form an island. Such “coral” islands are ring-shaped and are known as atolls.

Volcanism appears to have progressed southeastward along the great fissure in the ocean floor. At least, the volcanoes at the northwestern end of the Hawaiian chain ceased activity long before those at the southeastern end.

The northwesternmost volcanic mountains have been eroded away until no more volcanic rock can be seen. The visible parts of Ocean (Kure) and Midway Islands are formed entirely of organic limestone and calcareous sand, the remains of lime-secreting sea animals and plants.

We feel quite certain, however, that at some comparatively small depth the limestone rests on the truncated summits of great volcanic mountains.

At French Frigates Shoal, La Perouse Rock is a tiny remaining pinnacle of volcanic rock projecting through the limy reefs. Necker and Nihoa Islands are remains of once much larger volcanic islands, and Niihau has lost a great slice of its eastern slope through marine erosion.

Kauai and Oahu Islands were deeply eroded by streams and waves before a renewal of volcanic activity buried much of their lowlands beneath floods of late lavas. On Maui, the volcanic mountain comprising the western part of the island has been deeply dissected by streams, with the formation of huge valleys such as Iao.

Haleakala Volcano, forming the eastern part of Maui, also had great valleys cut into it by stream erosion before renewed volcanism partly buried the work of the streams.

Hawaii is the southernmost and largest of the islands and also the youngest. Of the five great volcanoes  that built this largest of deep-sea islands, Kohala Volcano at the northern end of the island is the oldest.

Streams have cut huge spectacular canyons into its rainy northeastern slope, and waves driven by the nearly constant trade winds have cut high cliffs along its northeastern shore.

Next to the south, Mauna Kea has not been active since the arrival of the Hawaiian people, but has erupted since its summit was covered by a small glacier during the last great period of glaciation, perhaps within the last 15,000 years.

Hualalai, on the western part of the island, has erupted once in historic time, in 1801. The two southernmost volcanoes, Mauna Loa and Kilauea, are still in their full vigor of activity and for the most part are almost unmarred by erosion.  (All here is copied from Hawaii Nature Notes, Hawaii National Park, May 1951)

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Kalauao

At the time of Cook’s arrival (1778,) the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and at (4) Kauaʻi and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

“At that time Kahekili was plotting for the downfall of Kahahana and the seizure of Oahu and Molokai, and the queen of Kauai was disposed to assist him in these enterprises.”  (Kalākaua)  Kamakahelei was married to Kāʻeokūlani (Kāʻeo – younger brother of Kahekili.)  Kamakahelei and Kāʻeo had a son Kaumualiʻi (born in 1778 at Holoholokū.)

Kahekili and his eldest son and heir-apparent, Kalanikūpule, conquered Kahahana, adding Oʻahu under his control.  And, in the late-1780s into 1790, Kamehameha conquered the Island of Hawai‘i and was pursuing conquest of Maui and eventually sought to conquer the rest of the archipelago.

The rich resources of the region, the shoreline fishponds, the numerous springs, and the fertile lands along the streams made ‘Ewa a prize for competing chiefs. Battles were fought for and on ‘Ewa lands, sometimes from competing O‘ahu chiefs, and sometimes by invading chiefs from other islands.  (Cultural Surveys)

At the death of Kahekili in 1793, Kāʻeo became ruling chief of Maui, Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi.  Kalanikūpule was ruler of Oʻahu.  Homesick for his friends, Kāʻeo set out to return to Kauaʻi by way of Waialua and then to Waimea.  He learned of a conspiracy to kill him and by November, 1794, Kāʻeo and Kalanikūpule were ready to fight.  (Kamakau)

Kāʻeo was successful after some initial skirmishes.  On December 12, 1794, a great battle was fought in the area between Kalauao and ‘Aiea in ‘Ewa.  Kalanikūpule’s forces surrounded Kāʻeo.  (Cultural Surveys)

Kāʻeo with six of his men escaped into a ravine below ‘Aiea and might have disappeared there had not the red of his feather cloak been seen from the boats at sea and there shots drawn the attention of those on land. Hemmed in from above, he was killed fighting bravely.  (Kamakau)

This war, called Kukiʻiahu, was fought from November 16 to December 12, 1794 at Kalauao in ‘Ewa.  (Kamakau)  (It wasn’t long after that Kalanikūpule battled Kamehameha, again; and lost to Kamehameha at the Battle of Nuʻuanu.)

Kalauao Ahupua‘a (the multitude of clouds) extends from the East Loch of Pearl Harbor to the crest of the Koʻolau Range, generally following Kalauao Stream. Kalauao Spring is located near the Pearl Harbor coast.

The Kalauao Spring included two natural springs of percolating water.  In ancient times, the springs irrigated taro loʻi.  Later, the ancient taro lo‘i and ʻauwai (irrigation ditches) were modified and expanded to support rice cultivation.

In 1904, the area was described as, “On the morning of June 2nd, for instance, our destination was Aiea. At ten minutes past seven we boarded the first passenger train going towards Honolulu.”

“For a distance of eight miles the road skirts the shore and then turns landwards or mauka through rice and sugar plantations, Ewa Mill, Waipahu, Pearl City. …”

“Like all rice fields in Hawaii, this one is worked entirely by Chinamen, they alone being able to endure the conditions of location and climate necessary for the cultivation of this cereal.”

“On one side of the railroad track was the broad, muddy inland lake or bay of salt water, Pearl Harbor; on the other side were the terraced plots or fields, flooded to a depth of several inches with water and separated by narrow raised earthen ridges on which the careful Chinaman doubtless succeeded in walking, but which many times proved treacherous to our unsteady feet.”

“A rice plantation, laid out as it generally is on the low flats at the foot of a valley, where mountain streams empty into the sea, is an ideal collecting ground for certain kinds of algae.”  (Thrum 1904)

In 1928, Moriichi and Makiyo Sumida began farming assorted wetland produce on a two-acre plot of land at the springs.  Back then, the area of the springs contained many small farms growing similar produce — bananas, taro, rice, and watercress. Through the ensuing years, the Sumida property grew as they acquired neighboring leases and, by 1950, watercress became the sole crop.  (NPS)

A small waterfall along Kalauao Stream, named Kahuawai (or Kahuewai), was located along the coastal trail connecting Honolulu to Waiʻanae.  Kahuawai (water gourd container) was indicated to have been “a favorite resting place exclusively for chiefs”.  (Cultural Surveys)

Kahuawai was a noted bathing place since ancient times and was guarded so that any one did not bathe in it except the chiefs. Later it was used by all. Kākuhihewa’s daughters and the hero Kalelealuaka (their husband) bathed in this pool. Kāʻeokūlani, the chief of Kauaʻi also bathed here when he came to war here on Oʻahu.  (Cultural Surveys)

Loko Opu, a large fishpond (approximately 10.5-acres in size) located in Kalauao along the Pearl Harbor coast, is said to have been built by the chiefess Kalamanuʻia.  (Cultural Surveys)

During the Māhele, much of the lands in the ahupua‘a of ‘Ewa, as in other districts, were awarded to Ali‘i Nui (high chiefs), who were either the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of Kamehameha I.

Half of the ahupua‘a of Kalauao was awarded to Laura Konia (either granddaughter or grandniece of Kamehameha I;) the other half of Kalauao Ahupua‘a was awarded to John Meek, an important merchant in the sandalwood trade.

Today, the Pearl Country Club covers much of the lower section of Kalauao.   Pearlridge Shopping Center is on the lowest side of Kalauao (Pearlridge Uptown was opened in 1972, with an expansion in 1976 to include Pearlridge Downtown.)  Pearlridge surrounds the evidence of the water resources of old, Kalauao Spring that benefits the Sumida watercress farm.

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