Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kapalua

The traditional district (moku) of Kāʻanapali consisted of five major stream valleys (Honokōwai, Kahana, Honokahua, Honolua and Honokōhau), all of which were extensively terraced for wet taro (loʻi) in early historic and later times.

Honokahua Valley has been described as having wet taro (loʻi) lands, although not in great abundance; sweet potatoes were reportedly grown between Honokōhau and Kahakuloa Ahupuaʻa, presumably on lower kula lands.  The Kahana Ahupuaʻa was known as a place of salt gathering for the people of Lāhainā.

The Kāʻanapali District is noted for an alaloa (a path or trail) that reportedly encircled the entire island. Walker wrote: “The north end of Maui also is traversed by a paved trail. Sections of it can be seen from Honolua to Honokōhau to Kahakuloa. It is paved with beach rocks and has a width of four to six feet.”  (PBR)

There are six bays located on Maui’s west shore whose names begin with the word Hono. These bays and coves are collectively known as Hono a Piʻilani.  From South to North, six of the identified bays are Honokōwai (bay drawing fresh water), Honokeana (cave bay), Honokahua (sites bay,) Honolua (two bays), Honokōhau (bay drawing dew) and Hononana (animated bay).

Kapalua Resort is situated along this coast between Honokeana and Honolua.  (Kapalua loosely translates as “arms embracing the sea”.)

After seventeen years of service, Dr Dwight Baldwin was granted 2,675-acres, the lands of the Mahinahina and Kahana ahupuaʻa, for farming and grazing. From that base, new lands were acquired until the holdings, known as Honolua Ranch, reached 24,500 acres in 1902.

First starting as Honolua Ranch (1912,) then Baldwin Packers (1914,) this area was home to the largest producer of private label pineapple and pineapple juice in the nation.

After mergers and other name changes, in 1969, Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc (ML&P) was created; then, the largest employer on the island of Maui.

In 1974, ML&P carved out 1,650-acres of its nearly 22,000-acres to form a wholly-owned subsidiary, Kapalua Land Company.  That year, the master-planned community that makes up the Kapalua Resort (with five white sand beaches) was approved by Maui County.

In 1978, the Kapalua Bay Hotel opened, beginning the change of the former ranch and pineapple lands at Honokahua into a world-class destination resort complex.

In 1987, during the excavation and construction of the Ritz Carlton hotel within the Kapalua Resort, hundreds of native Hawaiian burials were discovered on the planned hotel site.

The scope of the burial site, combined with growing Native Hawaiian consciousness, mobilized protesters.  Native Hawaiians and supporters rallied at Honokahua, and in late-1988 at the state Capitol, finally halting the burial disturbance. The hotel was built farther inland.  (Honolulu Advertiser)

The Hui Alanui O Makena filed for a contested case hearing; eventually a plan was devised in September 1989 for the proper reburial of more than 900-native Hawaiian bodies disinterred.  (Aoude)

Associated with that, the state paid $6-million for a perpetual preservation easement and restoration of the burial site.  A 14-acre site is now a historical and cultural landmark.

In addition, as a result of this, Hawaiʻi’s burial treatment law, passed in 1990, gives unmarked burials, most of which are Native Hawaiian, the same protection as modern cemeteries.

In 1988, Kapalua began management programs, under a management agreement with The Nature Conservancy of Hawaiʻi, for the protection of the Pu‘u Kukui Preserve in the West Maui Mountains.  (Access to the Preserve is restricted by ML&P.)

Now, Kapalua includes The Ritz-Carlton, the Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences at Kapalua Bay, the Kapalua Spa, eight residential subdivisions, two championship golf courses (The Bay and The Plantation,) ten-court tennis facilities, several restaurants, and over 800 condominiums, single-family homes and residential lots.  (In 2006, the Kapalua Bay Hotel was taken down.)

Kapalua serves as the home of two of Maui’s longest running signature events, the Kapalua Wine & Food Festival and the PGA Tour’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

The intent of the Kapalua Resort was to provide a luxurious resort atmosphere removed from the Lāhainā-Kāʻanapali area.  With that, it serves as an example of a low-key, low-density destination resort community.

A public coastal trail was incorporated into the Resort; eventually, the trail will be approximately 3.5-miles in length, running from Lower Honoapiʻilani Road through the Kapalua Resort to Honolua Bay.

Future components of the Kapalua Land Company in and around Kapalua Resort include Kapalua Mauka (640- residential units, commercial space and up to 27 holes of golf on a total of 800 acres;) the Village at Kapalua (a central commercial component;) and Pulelehua (a new traditional community for working families in West Maui.)

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Baptism of Kalanimōku

Three months after Kamehameha’s death, Captain Louis de Freycinet aboard the French ship Uranie, arrived at Kailua. After a stay of only four days, the vessel proceeded to Kawaihae, where Liholiho had gone to consecrate a heiau.

The day after their arrival, several chiefs came on board, among whom were Kalanimōku. Kalanimōku was a grandson of Kekaulike, the king of Maui – he was of the same rank as Kaʻahumanu, Kamehameha’s favorite wife, and Kuakini, the governor of Hawaiʻi (his first cousins.)

In his youth, he had fought in the army of Kiwalaʻo against Kamehameha, but afterwards served under Kamehameha, finally becoming his trusted advisor. And, although at the death of Kamehameha, his widowed wife Kaʻahumanu shared the government with Liholiho, Kalanimōku remained a powerful person. (Yzendoorn)

Kalanimōku had been Kamehameha’s prime minister and treasurer, the adviser on whom the king leaned most heavily. He was a man of great natural ability, both in purely governmental and in business matters. He was liked and respected by foreigners, who learned from experience that they could rely on his word. (Kuykendall)

In 1819, when Captain de Freycinet sailed in, Mde Rose de Saulces de Freycinet, the captain’s wife, described Kalanimōku as “going on board dressed in loin cloth and a European shirt, more dirty than clean.” (Del Piano)

“In a visit which Karaimoku had made the evening before on board of the “Uranie”, the costume of our chaplain attracted his attention; on being informed of the functions of this ecclesiastic …”

“… he told him that for a long time he had desired to be a Christian, and that he prayed him therefore to be pleased to baptize him; that his mother on her death-bed had received this sacrament, and had recommended him to submit himself to this ceremony as soon as he should find opportunity.” (Freycinet; The Friend)

“As the ceremony of his baptism took place on board, with considerable pomp (August 14, 1819,) I must give you some account of it. The King wished to be present, and was accompanied by the Queen (Kaahumanu.) Mr. Jeanneret was ordered to convey their Majesties and the rest of the Royal family on board, in the Captain’s own boat.”

“The King was saluted by eleven guns; his Majesty went below to see them fired. The altar had already been prepared. Mr. Pitt (Kalanimōku) had been above two hours on board;”

“(T)he Abbe de Quelen, our excellent chaplain, not being able to make himself understood by his audience, officiated with the utmost simplicity. Our commander was the godfather, while M Gabert, his secretary, represented the godmother”. (Arago; The Friend)

Chairs were offered to the Princesses, most of whom sat on the deck. The drawing by Arago of the baptism ceremony shows the gathering on the quarter deck.

The quarter deck had been decorated with flags from several countries, and some had been placed over the deck in order that the princesses might find themselves comfortably seated; Kaʻahumanu (and apparently Keōpūolani) was seated on chairs in front of the altar. (There is no apparent symbolism to the flags used or their placement.)

Following the baptism there was a celebration party, “It was truly wonderful to see with what rapidity the bottles of wine and brandy disappeared, so that I had reason to fear that his Majesty would render himself unable to go ashore.”

“Fortunately night was approaching, and Rihoriho expressed a desire to return; but before leaving I had to make him a present of two bottles of brandy, to drink to my health and prosperous voyage; the queen dowager also received some; and each of the assistants following their master’s example, believed himself obliged to ask for some also.” (Freycinet; The Friend)

The following year the American Protestant missionaries arrived, he showed them favor from the very beginning. On December 5, 1826, Kalanimōku with seven others, was admitted by the American missionaries to the full communion of the Christian church.

The American missionaries did not rebaptize him, as they regarded the baptism imparted by the French chaplain a valid one. However, Kalanimōku brought his son to be baptized.

Kalanimōku developed an immediate and sincere liking for the New Englanders. Throughout his life, they turned to him for assistance and their requests invariably met with positive results.

He helped them acquire land, build homes and establish schools; he worked to smooth relations between the missionaries and foreigners. (Del Piano)

Kalanimōku became an ardent student of the missionaries, expressing a strong interest in learning to read and write, as well as acquiring more knowledge of the Protestant religion. Both he and Kaʻahumanu attended the mission school regularly.

“We honored the king, but we loved the cultivated manhood of Kalanimōku. He was the only individual Hawaiian that appeared before us with a full civilized dress.” (Lucy Thurston)

“Kalanimōku was prime minister of the king, and the most powerful executive man in the nation. … Now the great warrior was among us, learning the English alphabet with the docility of a child.”

“He often turned to it, and as often his favorite teacher, Daniel Chamberlain, a son five years of age.” Six years after this Kalanimōku was called into the spirit land. He lived to receive and to love the ‘glad tidings of great joy.’” (Lucy Thurston) (Kalanimōku died February 7, 1827 at Kamakahonu, at Kailua-Kona.)

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ala Moana Center

In ancient times, the area was known as Kālia – an ʻili in the ahupuaʻa of Waikīkī – that runs from the present Halekūlani Hotel to Piʻikoi Street (generally, makai of Kalākaua Avenue.)  Pi‘inaio Stream was the dominant feature of this eastern area of Waikīkī.

The ten fishponds at Kālia were loko puʻuone (isolated shore fishponds formed by a barrier sand berm) with salt-water lens intrusion and fresh water entering from upland ʻauwai (canals.)

Kālia was once renowned for the fragrant limu līpoa, as well as several other varieties of seaweed such as manauea, wāwaeʻiole, ʻeleʻele, kala and some kohu.

At the turn of the 20th century, portions of this marshy wetland were determined to be “deleterious to the public health in consequence of being low, and at times covered or partly covered by water, or of being situated between high and low water mark, or of being improperly drained, or incapable by reasonable expenditure of effectual drainage”.

A portion of this was owned by the Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate who reportedly sold 50-acres of this “unproductive” “swamp land” for $25,000 to Walter F Dillingham in 1912.   At the time this was real money and people questioned his decision.

However, shortly thereafter, Dillingham used the site to dispose of excess coral and other fill that was generated from land reclamation projects from Kewalo to Waikīkī (including the dredging of the Ala Wai Canal.)

In 1948, Lowell Dillingham, Walter’s son, announced plans for a new shopping complex on the coral-covered parcel.  Nearly 10-years later, construction on Hawaiʻi’s first regional shopping center commenced.

(Lowell is also credited the formation of Dillingham Corporation, a merger of the Oahu Railway & Land Company and the Hawaiian Dredging and Construction Company, in 1961.)

Dillingham’s Don Graham was the force behind the design and development of the center.  It proved a success after its opening, and relocated retail away from downtown Honolulu.

On August 13, 1959, over a thousand people gathered near the Sears’ end for the grand opening of Ala Moana Center.  They say the first purchase in the center was made by Ben Dillingham and his wife, a tube of Colgate toothpaste at Sears

At the time of its opening, Ala Moana Center had 680,000-square feet of leasable area, with 87 stores on two levels and 4,000 parking spaces; and was considered the largest shopping mall in the world.  Original stores included anchors Sears and Shirokiya, plus locally-owned The Slipper House.

The center doubled in size in 1966 to 1,351,000-square feet of leasable area, with 155 stores and 7,800 parking spaces. New stores included anchor tenants JC Penney and Liberty House.

1987 saw the 2-year phase three renovation, relocation of certain tenants and creation of the Makai Market food court (the largest food court in Hawai‘i and one of the largest food courts in the nation.)

Changes continue at Ala Moana, with redevelopment of the former Sears site to accommodate Bloomingdales and other shops – this added another 340,000-SF of retail space and another 1,000-parking stalls. In 2017 Target took the former Nordstrom space.

Other phases of expansion and renovation occurred over the years so that today, with 2.4-million square feet of retail space, Ala Moana Center has over 350 stores, including 160 dining options, nearly 11,000 parking spaces and is the world’s largest open-air mall – with shopping for the basics to the elite brand name.

In March 2026, Saks Global, which filed for bankruptcy, said it was moving forward with its “strategic optimization” plan by closing three more Neiman Marcus outlets, including the Ala Moana anchor tenant. No closing date was announced. Nieman Marcus opened as an anchor tenant as p[art of the Ala Moana expansion in September 1998. (Star Adv)

Oh, about Dillingham’s questioned $25,000 land buy back in 1912 … the City and County of Honolulu 2026 assessed value (for just the land) is $553,880,200..

(Dillingham Corporation was sold to a private investment group in 1983 for $347-million; in 2003, with base facilities relocated to California, Dillingham Corporation filed for bankruptcy.)

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Canuck

Canuck. A Canadian, specifically, a French Canadian.

One of the earliest uses of the word ‘Canuck’ in print (although there it was spelled as ‘Kanuk’) appears in ‘From Notes Upon Canada and the United States’ by Henry Cook Todd and published around 1835:

“Canadians are somewhat jealous of the Americans; that they are secretly manoeuvering, not exactly with the inoffensive good humor of a much respected yeoman of England, in whose sequestered dwelling I some time resided, who was fond of pozing the learned with …”

“Can you spell bullock in two letters (or) but rather after the inordinate example of Ahab of old, so pithily recorded by the sacred historian. Jonathan distinguishes a Dutch or French Canadian, by the term Kanuk. ‘Jonathan distinguishes a Dutch or French Canadian, by the term Kanuk.’”

Later (1855), Walt Whitman wrote the poem ‘Leaves of Grass’ and referenced the Kanuck – again, with a ‘K’ …

“A child said What is the grass? …
How could I answer the child?
I do not know what it is any more than he.
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition
out of hopeful green stuff woven. …
Or I guess the grass is itself a child …
Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike
in broad zones and narrow zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff
I give them the same, I receive them the same.

“The origin of Canuck is curiously uncertain. On the face of it, the word would appear to derive from the first syllable of Canada. Other guesses have been made, however …”

“… e.g., that it comes from Johnny Canuck, a cartoon character of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, similar to John Bull and Uncle Sam, that it comes from Connaught, originally used by French Canadians to refer to Irish immigrants …”

“… and that it is a variant of the Hawaiian kanaka, man, brought by whalers back to New England, whose residents then applied the term to their neighbors to the North.”

“The last theory, as farfetched as it might seem, is reinforced by the earliest known spelling of the word: Kanuk (noted in 1835 above, and in Walt Whitman’s poem (referring to all Canadians, not just those of French extraction)).” (Rawson)

Hawaiians in the northwest and reference to ‘kanaka’ outside the islands started shortly after ‘contact.’ Within ten years after Captain Cook’s 1778 contact with Hawai‘i, the islands became a favorite port of call in the trade with China. The fur traders and merchant ships crossing the Pacific needed to replenish food supplies and water.

The maritime fur trade focused on acquiring furs of sea otters, seals and other animals from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the United States.

Needing supplies in their journey, the traders soon realized they could economically barter for provisions in Hawai‘i; a triangular trade network emerged linking the Pacific Northwest coast, China and the Hawaiian Islands to Britain and the United States (especially New England).

As early as 1811, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) had already hired twelve Hawaiians on three year contracts to work for them in the Pacific Northwest. By 1824, HBC employed thirty-five Hawaiians west of the Rocky Mountains.

The number of Hawaiians working as contract laborers for the Hudson’s Bay Company steadily grew. The large number of Hawaiian workers in the village at Fort Vancouver led to the name “Kanaka Town” in the early 1850s.

Again, it is not clear if Canuck is any form of derivation of Kanaka (man), but the Hawaiians were there, and the Kanaka name was used in other references.

Canuck

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

About 250 Years Ago … Battles of the South

The Revolutionary War began in the northeastern colonies and traveled southward to the homes of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison.

The British Southern Strategy was a plan to win the war by concentrating their efforts in the south, where they anticipated more support from Loyalists, slaves, and Indian allies.

The strategy initially seemed to work, with Archibald Campbell’s capture of Savannah, Georgia in December 1778, followed by another British victory at Henry Clinton’s siege of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1780.

British troops continued their tour through the south and gradually moved northward, with Charles Cornwallis’s victory at the Battle of Camden in northern South Carolina in August of 1780.

But the tide began to turn when William Campbell’s American troops pushed back the British at the Battle of Kings Mountain in what is now Cherokee County, South Carolina, in October 1780.

Another American victory followed with Daniel Morgan’s defeat of the British at the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781, only to be followed by a victory by Cornwallis’s men at the Battle of Guilford Court House in Greensboro, North Carolina.

“I never saw such fighting since God made me. The Americans fought like demons.” – Lt. General Charles, Earl Cornwallis

On March 15, 1781, six years into the American Revolution, General Greene and Lord Cornwallis’ troops faced off at a small courthouse community. The battle would change the course of the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution.

Though Patriots and the British traded victories throughout a series of southern battles in the last three years of the war, the Patriots ultimately held their own and Britain’s Southern Strategy failed to secure the victory they had planned.