Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

John M Kaukaliu

The lighthouse has no special friends,
No special foes when night descends,
In all the earth the only place,
Though statesmen talk and kings embrace,
Where man becomes one common race.
(“The Lighthouse;” Douglas Malloch, 1934)

The earliest lighthouse in Hawaiʻi was one built at Keawaiki, Lāhainā, and put into operation on November 4, 1840. It was described as a “tall looking box-like structure, about nine feet high and one foot wide … facing the landing.”

Other early lighthouses were constructed at Kawaihae in 1859, at Keawaiki in 1866, and on Kaholaloa Reef at the entrance to Honolulu Harbor in 1869.

Then, the Diamond Head Lighthouse was built.

A 40-foot open frame tower was constructed at Honolulu Iron Works (due to concerns about the stability of the structure, the open framework was enclosed with walls constructed of coral.)

Its light was first lit on July 1, 1899.  The light had a red sector to mark dangerous shoals and reefs.

John M Kaukaliu was the first keeper of the Diamond Head Lighthouse.

“(N)o keeper’s dwelling was provided, he lived at a private residence about a quarter of a mile from the lighthouse (about where the Lēʻahi Beach Park is now situated.)”  He was paid $75 per month. (US Lighthouse Board)

When the Lighthouse Board took control of all aids to navigation in the Hawaiian Islands in 1904, it reported that the Diamond Head Lighthouse was the only first-class lighthouse in the territory.

In 1904, a floor was added to the tower, 14’ above ground level.  Windows were placed in 2 existing openings in the tower walls and telephone lines were installed in the tower.

Then tragedy struck …

“Lighthouse Keeper is Found Stricken at Top of Tower – John Kaukaliu, the aged and well known lighthouse keeper at the Diamond Head lighthouse, was found Friday morning in a helpless paralyzed condition by his assistant and was removed to his home in Waikiki Friday afternoon in the emergency hospital ambulance.”

“Frank Stevenson, emergency hospital assistant, says that to carry Kaukaliu from the top of the lighthouse where he had probably lain for hours it was necessary to strap him to the stretcher and carry him almost perpendicularly down the circular stairs.”  (Honolulu Star-bulletin, October 7, 1916)

“Kaukaliu was born here 62-years ago and was one of the best known and most popular Hawaiians in Honolulu. He is survived by his wife and a daughter, Mrs William Meyers, by his first wife.”  (Honolulu Star-bulletin, October 16, 1916)

In 1917, funds were allocated for constructing a fifty-five-foot tower of reinforced concrete on the original foundation.  The old tower was replaced with the modern concrete structure, which strongly resembles the original tower.

It wasn’t until 5-years later (1921) that a home for the lighthouse keeper was constructed at the Diamond Head Lighthouse.  A keeper occupied the dwelling for just three years, as the station was automated in 1924.

Subsequently, the dwelling became home to Frederick Edgecomb, superintendent of the Nineteenth Lighthouse District (my great uncle.) He lived at the lighthouse until 1939, when the Coast Guard assumed control of all lighthouses.

During World War II, a Coast Guard radio station was housed in the keeper’s dwelling, and a small structure was built on the seaward side of the tower. Following the war, the dwelling was remodeled and has since been home to the Commanders of the Fourteenth Coast Guard District.

The image shows the route John Kaukaliu walked from his home to the Diamond Head Lighthouse.

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Hauʻula

Koʻolauloa moku (district) is one of six district divisions of the Island of Oʻahu (Koʻolauloa, Koʻolaupoko, Kona, ʻEwa, Waiʻanae and Waialua.)

Koʻolauloa or “long Koʻolau,” along with Koʻolaupoko or “short Koʻolau” make up the koʻolau (windward) side of Oʻahu – encompassing the lands on, and reefs offshore of, the north and northeast-facing slopes of Koʻolau (one of two shield volcanos that formed the island.)

Historical documentation indicates that as early as the Voyaging Period (1000-1180 AD) during the reign of Laʻamaikahiki, Koʻolauloa, with its vast natural resources, was a preferred location for royal residence, second only to that of the Waikīkī-Nuʻuanu-Mānoa region

Numerous native oral traditions and foreign accounts from the late 1700s suggest that the various ahupuaʻa within the district were part of a larger and significant political and population center primarily sustained by a variety of wetland agricultural practices and aquaculture activity.  (DWS)

Between 1812 and 1830, the increased demand for sandalwood created a new trade that influenced and changed previous land tenure practices in Koʻolau Loa. The timber, cut from the upland slopes of the Koʻolau Mountains, was hauled down to Waialua Bay for transport and trade.  (DWS)

“The district of Koʻolauloa is of considerable extent along the sea coast, but the arable land is generally embraced in a narrow strip between the mountains and the sea, varying in width from one half to two or three miles.”

“Several of the vallies are very fertile, and many tracts of considerable extent are watered by springs which burst out from the banks at a sufficient elevation to be conducted over large fields, and in a sufficient quantity to fill many fish ponds and taro patches.”  (Hall, 1838; Maly)

Koʻolauloa moku is further divided into a number of ahupuaʻa – (north to south) Waimea, Pūpūkea, Paumalū, Kaunala, Waialeʻe, Pahipahiʻālua, Nāʻopana 1, Nāʻopana 2, Kawela, Hanakaoe, ʻŌʻio 1, ʻŌʻio 2, Ulupehupehu, Kahuku, Keana, Malaekahana, Lāʻie 1, Lāʻie 2, Kaipapaʻu, Hauʻula, Mākao, Kapaka, Kaluanui, Papaʻakoko, Haleʻaha, Kapano, Pūheʻemiki, Waiʻono, Punaluʻu, Kahana, Makaua and Kaʻaʻawa.

Hauʻula is the subject of this summary; it lies approximately midway in the extent of the Koʻolauloa moku.

Its name refers to a native hibiscus, the hau; it blossoms during the summer months. Its flowers are bright yellow when they open in the morning, but turn red by the time they fall to the ground. (Lit., red hau (flower.)) (Pukui)  By sunset in July and August, Hauʻula is ablaze with the deep red color of hau flowers.

“Hauula, twenty-eight and one-half miles from Honolulu, has some rice fields, and stock raising is carried on. There is a considerable native population.”  (Whitney, 1890; Maly)

“… we passed on to Hauula and examined two schools one of which consisted of sandal wood cutters from the mountains and exhibited on the slate. The scholars wrote down the alphabet both the capital and small letters; the letters were not very accurately formed; but the disposition to learn was commendable, and with a view of encouraging them to persevere, I gave each of them a spelling book.”  (Chamberlain, 1828)

In 1890, two prominent businessmen, James Campbell and Benjamin Dillingham, worked together to establish and expand lands for sugarcane production under the Kahuku Plantation Company and the development of the Oʻahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L.)  By 1903, the railroad between Lāʻie and Kahuku Sugar Mill was laid out. (DWS)

As early as 1904, the Territorial Government enacted legislation setting aside lands in Koʻolauloa as a part of the newly developing Forest Reserve program of the Territory.

The primary function of early forestry programs in the Hawaiian Islands was the protection of forest watersheds to ensure a viable water supply. The Kaipapaʻu Forest Reserve was one of the first established in the Territory. Public interest in the lands continued through 1918, when the larger Hauʻula Forest Reserve was established.  (Maly)

James Castle moved to connect the OR&L rail line in Kahuku with the proposed street railway system in Honolulu by way of the Windward Coast.

His plan was to extend his Koʻolau Railroad Co south of Kahana Bay through Kāneʻohe and Kailua, and on to Waimanalo where it would go through a tunnel and into Manoa Valley and connect with the Rapid Transit & Land Co.

By 1908 the Koʻolau Railway Company was running an eleven-mile rail circuit between Kahuku and Kahana.  (McElroy)  (Castle died in 1918, before the project into Koʻolaupoko could be completed.)

“At Hauʻula the train makes a short stay. This appears to be a station of growing importance. As at Kahuku, this depot embraces also the post office. The former agent made it also serve as the village inn, but the present incumbent has constructed a neat cottage directly opposite the station for the comfort and convenience of wayfarers. It stands a little distance off the road, its green sward giving it a cool and attractive appearance.”

“Near here is the noted valley of the celebrated Kamapuaʻa’s exploits, and residents of Hauʻula seldom fail to remind visitors of the fact and point with pride to Kaliuwaʻa gorge, where the demi-god escaped from his pursuers.”  (Thrum, 1911)

“For this a guide will have to be obtained. Almost any of the natives around will be willing to undertake the task. The valley is really a cleft in the mountains, with almost precipitous sides. The vegetation is very dense, showing varieties of almost every tree and plant found on Oʻahu.” (Whitney, 1890; Maly)

Two curious formations called by the Hawaiians waʻa, or canoes (hence the name, Kaliuwaʻa, the valley of the canoe,) are quite striking. They are semicircular cuts in the cliff, extending from the base to the top, like the half of a well.

In no other part of the islands is a similar formation found. The valley is sacred to Kamapuaʻa, a native demigod, half pig, half man.  (Whitney, 1890; Maly)

Kamapuaʻa was accused of eating ʻOlopana’s chickens.  ʻOlopana, chief of O`ahu, decided that he must apprehend the hog-thief, so he called to all of Oʻahu to wage war against Kamapuaʻa.  Kamapuaʻa heard of ʻOlopana’s plans and took his people to Kaliuwaʻa, where they climbed up his body to the safety of the cliff top.

In doing so, Kamapuaʻa’s back gouged out indentations on the cliff-side that can still be seen today.

Once his people were safe, Kamapuaʻa dammed the water of Kaliuwaʻa. ʻOlopana and his men arrived, and a battle ensued. Kamapuaʻa was nearly killed, but he released the dammed water, killing ʻOlopana and all but one of his men; Makaliʻi knew that Kamapuaʻa could not be killed and escaped to Kaua`i.  (McElroy)

Kaliuwaʻa (often called Sacred Falls) is regarded as sacred for its association with the deity Kamapuaʻa, but the name Sacred Falls is a relatively recent phenomenon. Forms of the name first appear in historical documents in the 1890s, where the valley is called Sacred Ravine.

Over the years, this name evolved into Sacred Valley, and it wasn’t until the 1950s that the name Sacred Falls appeared in the literature.  A fatal landslide on May 9, 1999 (Mother’s Day) forced closure of the park due to safety concerns. (McElroy)

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Mun Lun School

Shortly after the arrival of Captain James Cook and his crews in 1778, the Chinese found their way to Hawaiʻi.  Some suggest Cook’s crew gave information about the “Sandwich Islands” when they stopped in Macao in December 1779, near the end of the third voyage. 

In 1788, British Captain John Meares commanded two vessels, the Iphigenia and the Felice, with crews of Europeans and 50-Chinese.  Shortly thereafter, in 1790, the American schooner Eleanora, with Simon Metcalf as master, reached Maui from Macao using a crew of 10-Americans and 45-Chinese.  (Nordyke & Lee)

Crewmen from China were employed as cooks, carpenters and artisans, and Chinese businessmen sailed as passengers to America. Some of these men disembarked in Hawai’i and remained as new settlers.

The growth of the Sandalwood trade with the Chinese market (where mainland merchants brought cotton, cloth and other goods for trade with the Hawaiians for their sandalwood – who would then trade the sandalwood in China) opened the eyes and doors to Hawaiʻi.

Although ancient Hawaiians brought sugar with them to the Islands centuries before (it was a canoe crop,) in 1802, Wong Tze-Chun brought a sugar mill and boilers to Hawaiʻi and is credited with the first production of sugar.  Later, Ahung and Atai built a sugar mill on Maui.

Sugar gradually replaced sandalwood and whaling in the mid-19th century and became the principal industry in the islands.

However, a shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge.  The only answer was imported labor.

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.  The first to arrive were the Chinese (1852.)

The sugar industry grew, so did the Chinese population in Hawaiʻi.  Between 1852 and 1884, the population of Chinese in Hawai’i increased from 364 to 18,254, to become almost a quarter of the population of the Kingdom (almost 30% of them were living in Honolulu.)  (Young – Nordyke & Lee)

Most Chinese plantation workers did not renew their five-year contracts, opting instead to return home or to work on smaller private farms or for other Chinese as clerks, as domestics in haole households, or they started their own businesses.

Chinatown reached its peak in the 1930s. In the days before air travel, visitors arrived here by cruise ship. Just a block up the street was the pier where they disembarked — and they often headed straight for the shops and restaurants of Chinatown, which mainlanders considered an exotic treat.

Because of excellent employment opportunities in Hawai‘i, as well as the high value placed by Chinese on education (even though most immigrants had little formal schooling), Chinese parents encouraged their sons to get as much education as possible.  (Glick)

When Chinese immigrants established communities and began raising families in America, many still maintained ties, personal and otherwise, with individuals and groups in their former homeland.

They also tended to continue to speak the language and to practice Chinese traditions and customs.

As they raised families, they were concerned that their progeny retain this heritage. Chinese schools came into being to fulfill at least part of this need, especially with respect to the language. (Lai)

In 1904 a group of activists concerned with China’s weakness in the international community and sympathetic to the political ideals of the Chinese Empire Reform Association formed the Qingnian Quluobu (Ching Nin Ke Lok Bo, or Youth Club).

Convinced that an educated citizenry was a prerequisite to a strong China, the club started classes in the Chinese language and military drills.

The same year it merged with the Qingnian Wuxuehui (Ching Nin Mo Hock Wui, or Youth Engaged in Study Association), a group with similar objectives-and some members who also belonged to the Youth Club-that had formed in 1901 to study Chinese and Confucianism.

The reorganized Ching Nin Mo Hock Ke Lok Bo (Youth Engaged in Study Club) began thrice-weekly Chinese classes. In 1907, club members combined their resources to purchase the site for a school, and by 1908 the group had received a permit from the territorial government to operate such an institution.

In 1909 Chen Yi’an (Yee Um Chun), chief editor of the Reform Association organ Sun Chung Kwack (New China), persuaded the group to open a school for children from the Chinese community. The club voted to tum over all its funds to the project.

The Chinese consul general also signified his intention to appropriate part of a proposed registration fee from each Chinese to support the school. Mun Lun School officially opened on February 4, 1911 with two teachers and 104 students, using the Ching Nin Mo Hock Ke Lok Bo clubhouse. (Lai)

Mun Lun is composed of two words, meaning “illuminating and enlightening” and “human relationships.”

It was the first school in Honolulu supported by Chinese; the building being finished in 1908, but the school has waited funds for maintenance.  (Thrum 1911)

Mun Lun School had begun with four teachers and an enrollment of 147.  It became an outstanding school with high standards.

The school began by offering only the elementary grades, but by 1931 it had added junior-middle-school-level classes, and by 1936 offered first-year senior-middle-school-level classes. (Lai)

By 1936 the school had expanded greatly, with 28 teachers and 1,348 students, the largest enrollment of any Chinese school in North America up to that time.

Then came WWII, and the school was closed. Re-opening ceremonies didn’t occur until March 1, 1948, when 289 students answered roll call.

Mun Lun School continues in Chinatown in Honolulu as an after-school school. It holds weekday classes Monday through Friday from 3 to 5 pm. There are Saturday classes as well.

Today (in year 2020), student enrollment stands at 267 (weekday and weekend classes combined), with twelve teachers, plus the principal who also teaches.  Mun Lun is the oldest Chinese language school in Hawaii, offering a Mandarin language national standards-based curriculum & a variety of cultural classes.

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Mokuʻaikaua Church

This stone and mortar building, completed in 1837, is the oldest surviving Christian church in the state of Hawaiʻi, started by the first Protestant missionaries to land in Hawaiʻi.

With the permission of Liholiho (Kamehameha II), the missionaries built a grass house for worship in 1823 and, later, a large thatched meeting house.

Missionary Asa Thurston directed the construction of the present Mokuʻaikaua Church, then the largest building in Kailua-Kona. Its massive size indicates the large Hawaiian population living in or near Kailua at that time.

Mokuʻaikaua, with its 112-foot-tall steeple, is a reminder of the enthusiasm and energy of the first American missionaries and their Hawaiian converts.

Built of stones taken from a nearby heiau and lime made of burned coral, it represents the new western architecture of early 19th-century Hawaiʻi and became an example that other missionaries would imitate.

The original thatch church which was built in 1823 but was destroyed by fire in 1835, the present structure was completed in 1837. Mokuʻaikaua takes its name from a forest area above Kailua from which timbers were cut and dragged by hand to construct the ceiling and interior.

Mokuʻaikaua Church is centered in a small level lot near the center of Kailua. Its high steeple stands out conspicuously and has become a landmark from both land and sea.

Huge corner stones, said to have been hewn by order of King ʻUmi in the 16th century for a heiau, were set in place and offers evidence of the heavy labor which contributed to the Church’s construction.

The central core of the steeple is polygonal with alternating sections of wide and narrow clapboard.  The wider sections are articulated with louvered arches. The 48 by 120 feet lava rock and coral mortared church is capped with a gable roof.

Construction beams are made from ʻōhiʻa wood. Pieces of the wooden structure were joined with ʻōhiʻa pins.  The spanning beams are fifty feet long and are made from ʻōhiʻa timbers. Corner stones were set in place 20 to 30 feet above the ground.

Mokuʻaikaua Church is the first and one of the largest stone churches in Hawaiʻi, outstanding for its simple, well-proportioned mass and construction.

The interior open timber structure with high galleries is a fine architectural and engineering design. The architectural interest is further enhanced by the church’s historical significance (it is on the Register of Historic Places.)

In 1910, a memorial arch was erected at the entrance to the church grounds to commemorate the arrival of the first missionaries.

Congregationalist missionaries from Boston crossed the Atlantic Ocean, rounded Cape Horn, aboard the Brig Thaddeus.   A replica of the Thaddeus is in Mokuʻaikaua Church.

On the morning of April 4, 1820, 163 days from Boston, the Congregational Protestant missionaries, led by Hiram Bingham, aboard the Thaddeus, came to anchor off the village of Kailua.

They came ashore at the “Plymouth Rock” of Hawaiʻi, where Kailua Pier now stands.  Christian worship has taken place near this site since 1820.  Mokuʻaikaua is known as the “First Christian Church of Hawaiʻi.”

Inspired by the dream of Hawaiian Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia, seven couples were sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity.

Two Ordained Preachers Hiram Bingham and his wife Sybil and Asa Thurston and his wife Lucy; Two Teachers, Mr. Samuel Whitney and his wife Mercy and Samuel Ruggles and his wife Mary; A Doctor, Thomas Holman and his wife Lucia; A Printer, Elisha Loomis and his wife Maria; A Farmer, Daniel Chamberlain, his wife and five children.

The Thurstons remained in Kailua, while their fellow missionaries went to establish stations on other Hawaiian islands.

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Sugar/Forestry Connection

The early Polynesian settlers to Hawaiʻi brought sugar cane with them and demonstrated that it could be grown successfully in the islands.

As a later economic entity, sugar gradually replaced sandalwood and whaling in the mid‐19th century and became the principal industry in the islands, until it was succeeded by the visitor industry in 1960.

Hawaiʻi had the basic natural resources needed to grow sugar: land, sun and water. Hawai‘i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880; these twenty years were pivotal in building the plantation system.

Sugar‐cane farming gained this prestige without great difficulty because sugar cane soon proved to be the only available crop that could be grown profitably under the severe conditions imposed upon plants grown on the lands which were available for cultivation. (HSPA 1947)

A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape. However, a shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge. The only answer was imported labor.

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.

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 on the globe. Sugar changed the social fabric of Hawai‘i.

That is not the only influence that sugar production had in the Islands.

Interestingly, it was the sugar growers, significant users of Hawai‘i’s water resources, who led the forest reserve protection movement.

We are fortunate that a little over 100-years ago some forward thinkers had the good sense to set aside Hawai‘i’s forested lands and protected our forest watersheds under the State’s Forest Reserve system. While I was at DLNR, we oversaw these nearly 1-million acres of mauka lands.

The link between tree-planting and the sugar planters can be seen particularly clearly in the career of Harold Lyon, who arrived in Hawai‘i in 1907 as a plant pathologist in the employ of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association (HSPA).

Diseases of sugar cane occupied Lyon’s efforts for several years, but his purview gradually broadened to include a variety of problems relating to Hawaiian agriculture, including deforestation. (Woodcock)

Lyon was a strong voice for forests. In an early report, he discussed the water situation on O‘ahu, the insufficient supplies of water available for agriculture, and the role of the forested high-elevation areas of the windward Ko‘olau in recharging the island’s aquifer.

He described the water budget and the action of forested watersheds in slowing the rate of runoff and increasing infiltration and flow of water to groundwater. (Woodcock)

It was evident to Lyon and others that deforestation was increasing runoff – water that was essentially lost to agriculture, since the topography of the islands, with their many short streams, makes impoundment, and in many cases diversion, impractical.

As evidence for the water-conserving role of vegetation, Lyon noted the drying out of many streams that had previously been more continuously flowing, an observation that by this time had been made repeatedly.

Lyon emphasized that the problem was not just increased demand for water but also the conditions determining supply – ‘‘The candle is burning at both ends and we only fan the flames’’ – and argued that resources should be committed to reforest the watersheds with ‘‘healthy, water-conserving forest’’. (Woodcock)

Neglect of the islands’ forests would be ‘‘suicidal,’’ for ‘‘everything fails with the failure of our water supply’’. (Lyon; Woodcock)

After more than a century of massive forest loss and destruction, the Territory of Hawai‘i acknowledged that preservation of the forest was vital to the future economic prosperity of the Islands.

Urged by sugarcane growers and government foresters concerned about the vanishing woodlands, the forest reserve system became the basis for the largest public-private partnership in the history of the Islands. (Last Stand)

On May 13, 1903, the Territory of Hawaiʻi, with the backing of the Hawaiʻi Sugar Planters’ Association, established the Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry. (HDOA) The next year, Ralph Sheldon Hosmer became the first Superintendent of Forestry in the Islands.

The forest reserves were useful for two primary purposes: water production for the Territory’s agricultural industries, and timber production to meet the growing demand for wood products. The forest reserve system should not lead to “the locking up from economic use of a certain forest area.” (Hosmer)

Even in critical watersheds the harvesting of old trees “is a positive advantage, in that it gives the young trees a chance to grow, while at the same time producing a profit from the forests”. (LRB)

A main concern was finding an alternative to importing redwood and Douglas-fir from California for construction timbers. In 1904 the government nursery was asked to grow timber tree species instead of its usual ornamental, flowering trees (pines, cypress, cedar and Douglas fir.) (Anderson)

“As an influential board member on the Agriculture and Forestry Commission, Harold Lyon succeeded in persuading the Territorial Commission to import seed of a vast number of alien tree species. … nearly 1,000 alien species were outplanted in Hawaiʻi forest reserves.” (Mueller-Dombois)

Various trees and plants were imported from diverse areas of the world including Madagascar, Australia, India, Brazil, the Malay states, China, the Philippines, southern Europe, the East Indies, the West Indies, New Zealand, Central America and South Africa.

Trees that successfully survived the Mānoa Valley soil conditions and promoted water conservation were then widely planted throughout the arboretum

Eucalyptus species, silk oak, paperbark and ironwood were the most frequently planted trees due to their fast growth and their resistance to adverse environmental conditions. However, these very qualities, as well as their ability to seed profusely, would lead to some species such as tropical ash and albizia. (Iwashita)

The number of trees planted rose to many millions by the 1930s, when the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was available for planting. From 1935 to 1941, with the help of the CCC, an average of close to two-million trees were planted per year in the forest reserves.

Lyon envisioned the plantations as a buffer zone that would be established between the remaining native forests and the lower-elevation agricultural lands to protect the native forests and perform the functions (maintaining input of water to aquifers.)

In his 1949 annual report to the HSPA entitled, ‘What is to be the fate of the arboretum?,’ Lyon declared the Mānoa Arboretum’s mission to test new plant introductions to be essentially complete; he believed that the HSPA should not remain the arboretum’s custodian.

On July 1, 1953, HSPA conveyed the Mānoa Arboretum to the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaiʻi. The regents were individually entrusted with the fiduciary duty of maintaining the arboretum. In 1962, the Board of Regents transferred the arboretum to the University of Hawaiʻi.

Dr. Lyon remained with the arboretum as its first director under the regents’ and university’s stewardship. After Dr. Lyon’s death in 1957, an advisory committee directed the arboretum until 1961, when Dr. George Gillette assumed the directorship on a part-time basis.

When Dr. Lyon died, the Board of Regents renamed the facility the Harold L Lyon Arboretum (Lyon Arboretum) in honor of the man so closely associated with its growth and fruition.

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